Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
The Star Wars asteroids made from a shoe and a potato
During postproduction, ILM artists frustrated with modeling asteroids put a tennis shoe and a potato in the background of the Millennium Falcon chase scene.…
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GoldenEye’s designers considered putting Bond on rails
Early design material explored a guided shooter in the style of Virtua Cop as well as free movement through a level. Letting players choose their own route…
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Why “we need to talk” sounds so ominous
The phrase sounds ominous because it often introduces news people dread, from infidelity to serious illness. It rarely sounds like the start of a casual lunch…
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Baking tents on television lack standard air conditioning
Without standard air conditioning, heat and humidity in the tent can make frosting melt and sugar structures collapse.
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Fanzines thrived way before internet forums existed
Fans cut and pasted articles, fan art, and essays into homemade magazines, then mailed them to readers across the country.
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Violin bows rely on sticky rosin to generate friction
Without rosin, the bow would slide silently over the strings. Rosin makes it grip and release them hundreds of times per second, producing sound.
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File hosting sites bury downloads under misleading buttons
The real link can be buried among prominent ads, some designed to install unwanted browser toolbars.
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Shirley Temple left Hollywood at 22
After child stardom and a brief attempt at adult roles, she retired from films at 22 and later became a U.S. ambassador.
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Shonen Jump asks readers to help decide what survives
Reader surveys feed into editorial decisions about the magazine's manga lineup. A series competes for attention issue after issue, so audience response can…
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Film platters let one projectionist run an entire screening
Before platters, projectionists switched between two projectors about every 20 minutes as the film reels ran out. The platter let them splice the reels into…
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Trapped in confined spaces guarantees romantic feelings
It’s a familiar rom-com fantasy: trap two enemies in a broken elevator or closet for three hours, and they’ll emerge having solved their problems and fallen…
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Why Lord of the Rings almost became one movie
Miramax wanted one movie, so Jackson took the project to New Line, which agreed to make a film for each book.
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Dramatic speakers remove their glasses for emphasis
Removing glasses before delivering bad news is a familiar visual cue for seriousness; pointing with the folded earpiece only heightens the drama.
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Before Star Wars, John Williams wrote Gilligan’s Island music
He wrote upbeat incidental music for the sitcom’s pilot and was credited as “Johnny Williams.”
Discover moreBruce Springsteen recorded Nebraska on a cheap cassette deck
The rough demos’ distorted tape hiss matched the album’s bleak lyrics, so the lo-fi recordings became Nebraska.
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Zelda's rupees were named for their sound, Miyamoto said
Asked about the connection to India's currency, Shigeru Miyamoto said he had not been thinking of India and liked the sound of the word. He also connected it…
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The Joker's messy makeup took deliberate work to look neglected
Makeup artist John Caglione Jr. worked with Heath Ledger to crease and distort the paint, aiming for a face that looked slept in rather than freshly finished.…
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The movie that tried to make audiences smell the story
In 1960, Scent of Mystery piped 30 scents into theater seats in sync with the action. The odors often arrived late and lingered, blending into a nauseating mix.
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Tubas were strictly invented to replace unstable instruments
The tuba was developed as an easier-to-play replacement for the ophicleide, an earlier brass instrument known for being difficult to play.
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Teller took a copied illusion to court—and won
His Shadows routine makes a real rose appear to lose parts as the magician cuts its projected shadow. A court protected the routine's dramatic expression in a…
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Why bears roar for marshmallows
A towering grizzly standing on its hind legs to roar may just be reaching for marshmallows. Wranglers sometimes dangle a stick covered in the soft sweets just…
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Crowd surfing ends in a piece of event logistics
At the front barrier, security staff can help a surfer down into the working area and direct them along an exit route. The route depends on the venue, rather…
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Why Yo Gabba Gabba's monsters look child-drawn
The monsters' lumpy, asymmetrical shapes were designed to look like a young child had drawn them in crayon. That deliberately imperfect style was meant to…
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Gamers grind for hours simply because they started
After investing dozens of hours in a game, players may keep going even when it stops being fun because quitting makes that time feel wasted.
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