Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Why newspapers started printing on Sundays
The relaxing weekend paper you browse with your morning coffee is a byproduct of mass panic. Publications traditionally took Sundays off until the Civil War,…
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Below Deck guests pay to be mocked on TV
You might assume people acting like total disasters on luxury yachts are getting a free trip in exchange for ratings. Wrong. These wealthy guests pay hundreds…
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Stephen King's wife rescued Carrie from the trash
The undisputed master of horror almost threw his entire career into the literal garbage can over a bad case of imposter syndrome. Stephen King got frustrated…
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James Cameron rejected O.J. Simpson as the Terminator
Let us all just take a long, deep breath and appreciate the sheer irony of this historical footnote. Cameron rejected Simpson because he thought the beloved…
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Why restorers use saliva on priceless paintings
You might assume preserving a priceless canvas involves complex chemical solvents. In reality, experts frequently use their own spit on cotton swabs to gently…
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Those Eurovision guitar solos aren't played live
If you thought the wild guitar solos at Eurovision were a display of raw talent, prepare to be completely disillusioned. The legendary song contest strictly…
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Captain America's to-do list changes by country
Catching up on seventy years of history requires localized pandering. When Captain America wakes up in the modern era, he keeps a checklist of cultural…
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Naruto's creator waited 10 years for his honeymoon
Weekly serialization is a grueling grind that destroys personal lives. Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, was so swamped with drawing ninja clones…
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Gotham got its name from a phone directory
You would assume a legendary, brooding metropolis required months of architectural brainstorming. Instead, a hurried writer simply flipped open a physical…
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Why movie best friends give terrible dating advice
The protagonist's platonic best friend has no hobbies, career ambitions, or personal life of their own. They exist strictly to sit on the edge of a bed, eat…
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Why funhouse mirrors make you look distorted
There's no magical curvature at play here. These mirrors simply vary the thickness of the glass in unpredictable waves to distort the reflection of light.…
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What Jeopardy’s blank screens are really for
Those dramatic blank blue screens on the podiums are lying to you. They are not waiting for text to appear; they are just hiding simple tracking lights that…
Discover moreHow Max Payne slows time during a firefight
The legendary dive mechanic literally alters the master clock of the game engine. While your character's aiming reticle remains completely responsive, every…
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Trivia tie-breakers rely on completely impossible guesses
Tying for first place means your vast knowledge of world capitals is completely useless. Hosts resolve ties with entirely absurd numerical questions, like the…
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The advice columns that mocked their readers
If you thought modern internet trolls were vicious, seventeenth-century advice columnists were significantly worse. The very first publications to take reader…
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Web servers primarily run on open-source operating systems
The entire glossy facade of modern internet entertainment is held together by free code. Underneath every polished app and expensive subscription service lies…
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Charlie Sheen once reported a horror film as a real murder
Just when you thought Charlie Sheen's life couldn't get any weirder, he watched a Japanese horror movie called Guinea Pig and genuinely believed he had…
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Why nacho cheese isn't legally cheese
You thought you were eating actual dairy while watching the event, didn't you? It turns out that neon-orange sludge legally fails to meet the strict…
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Why film crews call the lighting chief a gaffer
The most important electrical mind on a film set sounds like a guy working on a pirate ship. The term 'gaffer' originated from the heavy metal gaff hooks that…
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Why Die Hard is a Christmas movie
Nothing captures the true holiday spirit quite like throwing a European terrorist off the roof of Nakatomi Plaza. Despite being a violent, blood-soaked action…
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Play-Doh is basically salty baking ingredients
A beloved creative material possessing an aggressively iconic scent, which is ultimately just a mildly toxic, heavily salted clump of baking ingredients. It…
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When actors performed without rehearsing together
The idea of a cast spending weeks harmoniously rehearsing a play is a relatively modern luxury. In older theatrical traditions, lead actors would often arrive…
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Which infamous 1980 movie was so realistic that the director was arrested and charged with murdering his cast?
Which infamous 1980 movie was so realistic that the director was arrested and charged with murdering his cast?
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He's the most famous plumber in the world today, but what was Mario's actual profession when he first debuted?
He's the most famous plumber in the world today, but what was Mario's actual profession when he first debuted?
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