Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Why comment sections fill with copied phrases
Original thought is immediately punished in the digital trenches. When a video gains traction, the discussion area swiftly transforms into an endless wall of…
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Why museum guards watch your hands
Wandering through a quiet gallery feeling deeply judged by the staff is a common experience. Guards completely ignore your face and strictly monitor your…
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Woody Harrelson once made The Hunger Games wait for soccer
Dystopian rebellion can apparently wait until after the final whistle. While hundreds of extras, expensive cameras, and massive crews waited for him on set to…
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The student project that became Katamari Damacy
Rolling a sticky ball around to absorb paperclips, cows, and eventually entire continents was not conceived in a corporate boardroom. It started as a…
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The Taylor Swift album written entirely alone
When critics started whispering that Taylor Swift only had hits because of her famous co-writers, she took it incredibly personally. She responded by writing…
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Transformers began as repackaged Japanese toys
There was no grand lore about Autobots and Decepticons initially. Hasbro simply found two completely unrelated toy lines in Japan that happened to transform…
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Why Tamagotchi means egg watch
The naming convention for the pocket-sized digital pets that demanded you clean up their virtual feces is intensely literal. Combining the Japanese word for…
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J.K. Rowling was told not to quit her day job
Some career advice ages exactly like milk left on a radiator during a summer heatwave. When J.K. Rowling finally found a publisher for the very first Harry…
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Why TV once showed a fireplace for hours
In one of the most absurd victories in television history, millions of people completely abandoned standard programming simply to watch a loop of a fire…
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Why McDonald's canceled its Batman Returns toys
Who would have thought that a movie featuring a guy biting off a nose and a latex-clad dominatrix wouldn't be great for selling nuggets? McDonald's pushed…
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Why Devo wore red energy domes
If you ever wondered why Devo wore those ridiculous plastic red flower pots on their heads, it was purely for spiritual survival. The band unironically…
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Elvis won his Grammys for gospel, not rock
The man who supposedly corrupted the youth of America with his gyrating hips couldn't get a critical nod for his rock music to save his life. Despite having…
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The amnesia trick that resets a TV plot
Writers have a foolproof reset button. Whenever a character's web of lies becomes too complex to unravel naturally, they simply slip on a staircase, forget…
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Why roller derby tracks are taped onto the floor
Because permanent athletic paint is a massive commitment for an aggressive roller-skating match. Referees literally map out the entire oval track using…
Discover moreBilly Joel turned a hit song into a history lesson
Tired of young people complaining that the world was currently ending, Billy Joel wrote 'We Didn't Start the Fire' essentially as a fast-paced history…
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Why reality-show islanders get only two drinks a night
Stranding hot singles on a beach with an open bar sounds like a recipe for great television, but liability concerns ruin the fun. Cast members are strictly…
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The first drive-in cinema began in a backyard
The peak of outdoor cinema started as a messy experiment in a driveway. In 1933, Richard Hollingshead nailed a screen to some trees in his backyard, put a…
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Snake oil began with traveling medicine shows
Before late-night infomercials, swindlers rolled into towns with guitars and magic tricks. Medicine shows provided free, top-tier entertainment solely to…
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Handel premiered Water Music on a barge
King George I wanted a concert on the River Thames, so George Frideric Handel delivered the ultimate aquatic soundtrack. His 'Water Music' was debuted by…
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Why government documents are usually public domain
Stop worrying about stealing from the government, because you literally already own it. Every single report, memo, and unclassified file produced by federal…
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Why standing ovations have an ancient Roman name
Next time you feel peer-pressured to stand up for a mediocre high school play, blame the Romans. The 'ovatio' was a lesser triumph granted to generals, where…
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Gunther served 1,154 cups of coffee on Friends
Proof that you can be held captive by a group of narcissistic twenty-somethings for a decade and still remain tragically underpaid. Fans with way too much…
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How one contestant broke split-or-steal
Prisoner's dilemma theory met its match on a British game show. When faced with the choice to split or steal the prize money, one contestant promised to steal…
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Bootleg concert recordings began with unauthorized fans
The entire subculture of live music trading exists because some people simply refused to stop bringing bulky tape recorders into venues. In the late 1960s,…
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