Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
How actors once stole an entire scene by walking upstage
On a raked stage, the floor rose toward the back; when one actor moved upstage, others had to turn away from the audience to address them.
Discover more
DiCaprio ate real raw bison liver for The Revenant
He described the bite as one of the punishing experiences of the shoot, alongside work in freezing conditions. The detail matters on screen because the…
Discover more
Voice actors sometimes play both hero and villain
Budget constraints can lead one actor to voice both the hero and the villain, recording both sides of a confrontation in the same booth.
Discover more
Before jazz named music, it appeared in baseball slang
Early twentieth-century sports writing used the word for pep, energy, or fighting spirit. Its route into the musical vocabulary was not simply a description…
Discover more
Buster Keaton filmed for years with a broken neck
During the filming of Sherlock Jr. in 1924, a deluge of water from a water tower slammed Keaton onto a steel rail. He had a headache, brushed it off, and kept…
Discover more
ABBA's early hits began in Swedish
Many of ABBA’s early hits were first written and recorded in Swedish, then translated into English.
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.
BBC News once put Halo's space military on screen as the UN
During a 2012 report about Syria, the BBC displayed the logo of Halo's United Nations Space Command instead of the United Nations Security Council. Both…
Discover more
The Simpsons was nearly canceled over bad animation
The first animation pass from a Korean studio looked so rough that Matt Groening protested and Fox threatened to scrap the show. The pilot was reanimated by…
Discover more
A TV pilot is a test drive with actors
It demonstrates the characters, tone and premise so a network or studio can decide whether to order a series. What succeeds in the test need not survive…
Discover more
Carrie Fisher slapped Oscar Isaac over 40 times
The scene was filmed from multiple angles, so Fisher repeated the slap more than 40 times.
Discover more
Cirque du Soleil built a circus around people instead of animals
Acrobatics, music, costumes, and theatrical stories became the center of its shows. Removing animal acts did not simply subtract a traditional attraction; it…
Discover more
Why movie characters stare into mirrors during crises
A mirror gives filmmakers a visual way to show a character confronting themselves. The scene often ends with them gripping the sink and questioning their…
Discover more
Sesame Street makes its characters recognizable before they speak
Big Bird's yellow silhouette, Elmo's red fur, and Cookie Monster's blue body separate the characters at a glance. Shape and color do some of the…
Discover more
A news presenter turned an upside-down mug into a deliberate gag
Barry Burbank appeared on a 2014 Boston broadcast holding his coffee cup upside down. He later explained that he was joking about nobody ever putting anything…
Discover more
The theory that the internet is mostly bots
The theory claims that bots, AI systems chatting with one another, and fake engagement make online life look busier than it is.
Discover more
Creed Bratton’s real life was stranger than The Office
The writers drew on Bratton’s real past as a member of the rock band The Grass Roots, deciding his life was stranger than anything they could invent.
Discover more
Tetris shapes are mathematically identical blocks
Every piece is a tetromino made of four equal squares, arranged in a different shape. The challenge is fitting them together, not dealing with uneven pieces.
Discover more
Star Trek was pitched as a western in space
Roddenberry pitched it to executives as “Wagon Train to the stars,” promising a familiar frontier adventure. That framing gave him room to build in a diverse…
Discover more
Kepler wrote a science-fiction story about the Moon
Kepler’s lunar tale, often considered an early work of science fiction, imagined a journey to the Moon to help readers grasp the mechanics of celestial motion.
Discover more
Stardew Valley crops grow based on invisible timers
The game checks crops overnight: watered plants advance a growth stage, while unwatered ones don’t.
Discover more
Cartoon characters wear one outfit eternally
Keeping a character in the same outfit helps animators avoid continuity errors, like a sleeve changing color between frames.
Discover more
Even cooking-show contestants go back to knife class
Spain's MasterChef Junior documented lessons in knife technique, vegetable preparation, and breaking down a chicken. The teaching also covered using the…
Discover more
Jurassic Park was almost written from a child's view
The early concept followed a frightened adolescent, but the final story included adult characters, including a cynical chaos theorist, to explain what was…
Discover more
Why podcast music suddenly wakes you up
Some podcast producers mix the closing theme louder than the episode, so listeners who have drifted off may wake when the music starts.
Discover more