Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Boston recorded its hit album in a basement
While most huge seventies bands were throwing away millions in lavish studios, the band Boston went entirely DIY. Mastermind Tom Scholz recorded almost all of…
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How Finding Nemo hurt wild clownfish populations
The entire point of the movie is that wild fish belong in the ocean and keeping them in tiny glass tanks is cruel. Naturally, audiences entirely missed this…
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The first feature documentary was not as real as it looked
Before true crime dominated the genre, documentaries started in the freezing Arctic. 'Nanook of the North,' released in 1922, is considered the first…
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Movie rats are cleaner than they look
The filthy, disease-ridden vermin scurrying across a dungeon floor are actually living better than most of the crew. Animal trainers bathe these rodent actors…
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A comedy got an NC-17 rating for swearing
Violence is fine, but vocabulary will get you banned. A famous 90s independent black-and-white comedy was initially slapped with the most restrictive rating…
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Hugh Jackman didn't know wolverines were real
You'd think a guy playing a mutant superhero named Wolverine would do a ten-second encyclopedia check. Nope. Jackman assumed the character was basically…
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Movie characters reach the doorbell in seconds
Spatial reality bends completely when a doorbell rings. It does not matter if a character is deeply asleep in a third-story bedroom of a massive mansion; they…
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Shattered picture frames symbolize ruined emotional bonds
Glass is structurally compromised by emotional discord. The moment a couple decides to split up, or a friendship is tragically betrayed, a framed photograph…
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Hollywood's roaring lion was actually three lions
That iconic, majestic big cat roaring before your favorite classic films was highly replaceable. The studio utilized three completely different lions over…
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Classical musicians use rubato to manipulate song tempo
It is the fancy musical equivalent of ignoring the speed limit for emotional effect. 'Rubato' is a technique where a performer intentionally deviates from the…
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How reality shows control when contestants sleep
Personal autonomy is a joke when you live on a soundstage. Producers control the waking hours of reality cast members entirely by manipulating the harsh…
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Batman was almost a Bill Murray comedy
Decades before Christopher Nolan made the Caped Crusader a brooding, humorless ninja, the studio was convinced Batman had to be a slapstick farce. They…
Discover moreHow an ice-cream driver beat a game show
Game show producers always think they are smarter than the public until they get robbed blind. In the 1980s, an unemployed ice cream truck driver realized the…
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Halo energy swords kill enemies in a single dramatic lunge
A futuristic military simulation boasting an array of highly advanced firearms, where the undisputed most effective tactic is completely ignoring ballistics…
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Why the cloud is full of duplicate memes
Massive, energy-guzzling data centers exist globally just so you don't have to delete your screenshots. Terabytes of server space are dedicated to hosting the…
Discover moreKryptonite gave Superman's voice actor a break
Kryptonite isn't a brilliant narrative device; it's a vacation disguised as a glowing rock. The iconic radioactive weakness was specifically introduced in the…
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Concert setlists are securely taped to the stage floor
Spontaneity in rock and roll is mostly just well-rehearsed theater. The lead singer furiously calling out the next track is entirely fake, as the entire…
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The whistle that really runs the circus
The booming voice welcoming you to the grand spectacular is mostly just flair. The actual control of the massive, chaotic arena comes from the ringmaster's…
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Timbuktu manuscripts preserved desert wisdom
Because preserving immense knowledge is best done surrounded by an ocean of sand. Hundreds of thousands of texts were stockpiled in Mali over centuries,…
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Fans once bought vials of their idols' sweat
Obsession knows no bounds when teenagers eagerly acquire tiny glass vials allegedly containing the perspiration of their favorite harmonizing heartthrobs to…
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Why square dancing is an official state dance
A massive testament to incredibly successful lobbyist efforts. Thanks completely to aggressive lobbying campaigns in the twentieth century, over twenty…
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Woody Harrelson's father claimed he killed JFK
Usually, when an actor has a dark past, it involves a minor shoplifting charge or a messy divorce. Woody's dad, Charles Harrelson, was literally a convicted…
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A fireplace bellows can fake a tired horse’s breath
Convincing a horse to aggressively exhale into a highly sensitive microphone on command is basically impossible. To get the heavy, strained breathing of a…
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Universal copyrighted Frankenstein's green makeup
Intellectual property laws really cover absolutely everything, don't they? When Universal made their iconic 1931 horror film, they slapped a copyright on the…
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