Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Why Captain Kirk sometimes needed hidden cue cards
Exploring strange new worlds is a lot easier when someone is literally holding up the script off-camera. William Shatner, famous for his iconic, staggered…
Discover moreDoug Jones encaged in a rubber fish man suit
Winning an Oscar for Best Picture sometimes requires encasing a grown man in foam latex for fourteen hours a day. Actor Doug Jones couldn't sit, see clearly,…
Discover more
Why comics once banned zombies
Because the undead were apparently causing juvenile delinquency. During a massive moral panic, the newly formed Comics Code Authority aggressively outright…
Discover moreEmma Thompson transformed into a hideous nanny
Usually, Hollywood actively tries to make actors look flawlessly beautiful. Emma Thompson demanded the exact opposite for 'Nanny McPhee'. She spent hours in…
Discover more
The question that won Game of Thrones its adaptation
Nothing screams fantasy author quite like turning a business negotiation into a riddle. When David Benioff and D.B. Weiss pitched HBO's adaptation, Martin…
Discover more
Straitjackets were asylum gear before escape acts
Before magicians made them a staple of weekend entertainment, straitjackets were brutal medical restraints used exclusively in psychiatric wards. Escape…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
From Barney to tantric healing
Going from singing 'I Love You, You Love Me' to offering unblocking spiritual massages is quite the career pivot. Joyner spent ten sweaty years trapped inside…
Discover more
Cher waited 24 years between number-one hits
Longevity in pop music is rare, but Cher operates on a completely different timeline. She holds the record for the longest gap between number one hits on the…
Discover more
E.T. was almost a cosmic houseplant
Because the line between cinematic masterpiece and a bizarre botanical nightmare is incredibly thin. During the early development of ET, Spielberg played with…
Discover more
Top forty radio formats were inspired by a jukebox
A radio executive in the fifties noticed people in diners kept paying to hear the exact same few songs on a jukebox, completely ignoring the rest. He realized…
Discover more
Why an Antiques Roadshow valuation isn't your payday
Telling someone their dusty attic vase is worth fifty grand is fantastic television, but it doesn't mean they'll ever see that money. Appraisers often give…
Discover more
How canceled TV shows found new life in syndication
Just because a show was violently ripped off the prime-time schedule doesn't mean it actually died. Through the magic of daytime syndication, heavily…
Discover more
True crime podcasts frequently omit boring legal closures
Nothing ruins a spooky, unsolved aesthetic quite like a totally mundane plea deal. Podcasts routinely skip over the months of boring appellate court filings…
Discover more
RuPaul's Drag Race films fake winner coronations
Live finale audiences cannot be trusted with secrets. To prevent the winner's name from leaking online before the broadcast, producers force all finalists to…
Discover more
Movie castles could be painted on glass
Building a towering gothic fortress is incredibly expensive, so classical studios just painted one on a window. By placing a highly detailed glass painting…
Discover more
How writers hide plot holes by mocking them
If a writer realizes a plot twist is incredibly stupid, they will literally have a character point out how stupid it is. By acknowledging the absurdity within…
Discover moreFor the Flash, one sentence can feel like years
Being the fastest man alive comes with the horrific burden of sheer boredom. Because he processes information so quickly, listening to a regular person speak…
Discover more
The Smurfs started as side characters
The little blue forest dwellers were never the main event; they debuted as minor woodland extras in a completely different storyline before aggressively…
Discover more
Why backstage passes change color so often
Wandering behind the massive curtains requires knowing exactly which bright neon shade is valid for that specific hour. Organizers change the color of the…
Discover more
Continuity teams track massive soap opera histories
Decades of convoluted plotlines require an actual historian. Shows employ dedicated continuity staff solely to ensure that a character isn't accidentally…
Discover more
Printing the wrong presidential winner
Being first to print is meaningless if you are completely wrong. The Chicago Tribune aggressively distributed papers with a massive headline declaring the…
Discover more
Nielsen ratings relied on manual paper diaries for decades
The system that decided the fate of billion-dollar networks used to depend on sheer human honesty. Viewers were literally mailed physical paper logs and asked…
Discover more
Guitars utilize metal frets to divide the fingerboard
Why trust human precision when you can literally hard-wire the math into the instrument? Frets act as physical stops that cut the vibrating length of the…
Discover more
The newspaper that dismissed flight—just before it happened
Predicting the future is incredibly difficult for print media. The New York Times boldly published an article claiming flying machines would take a million…
Discover more