- Photo:
- Sei Yeu Fakoo
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 4.0
14 Bizarre Pop Culture Facts We Can't Believe We're Just Learning
Copy link
Vote up the pop culture factoids you're learning at “today years old.”
Pop culture has played a huge role in shaping what we know - or what we think we know. Hardly a day goes by without some random - often bizarre or funny - piece of trivia popping up in the news or on social media. It could be a fun fact of entirely new information, or it could be something that challenges a previous opinion about a character, person, food, or company.
The list below includes some pop culture trivia that's strange but true. Vote up the facts you're learning about for the first time.
Mr. T rose to fame from co-starring on the hit 1980s series The A-Team. He was known for his distinctive hairstyle, boisterous charisma, catchphrase “I pity the fool," and the numerous gold chains he wore.
However, after the actor witnessed the widespread destruction and death Hurricane Katrina caused in the southeastern US in August 2005, he decided to stop wearing the jewelry. As he explained to the New York Daily News in 2009:
As a Christian I said I would never wear my own gold again because of what happened with Hurricane Katrina. It would be a sin against God for me to wear my gold [when so many] people lost everything. Sure, it's my trademark; I am the same person whether I'm wearing the gold or not. My moral values are the same. The gold don't make me, I make the gold.
Brand new info?In 2000, MTV debuted a reality show called MTV Cribs, where viewers purportedly watched tours of celebrities' actual homes. The original series ran from 2000 to 2010.
One “crib” featured on the fifth episode of Season 2 was that of rapper Redman. The episode quickly became notorious, because while the majority of homes on the series were lavish mansions, Redman's was a small, grimy duplex on New York's Staten Island.
In an appearance on the Fresh Pair podcast, Redman stated that when he was originally approached to do MTV Cribs, the production crew had picked out several houses to possibly film his episode in, so it would look like the rapper lived a more lavish lifestyle than he actually did. But he insisted on filming in his actual home.
Nina L. Diaz, the creator and executive producer of the show, revealed to Thrillist in 2015:
Redman had the chops, the originality to want to really show how he lived. Other people would wait until they got this ballerific place to let us in because they had watched all these other ones like Master P, who was living in a gold Louisiana mansion. People saw that and they would say, “I’m not ready... You have to give me another year. I have to make some more bank…" What was so genius about Redman was that he was like, “Let them come.” He wanted to show us where he lives. He wasn’t afraid of it.
The rapper added:
While everybody was trying to show a lavish house, the lavish life of living, that’s not always the case. Not every entertainer’s living lavish. They may have a more lavish set on the street, but it’s still real for a lot of cats out here in the entertainment game. We’re okay, but we’re not rich, and that’s what I wanted to display to my fans...
So Redman proudly showed the film crew around the cramped space. The camera people even had to maneuver around his cousin, who was sleeping on the floor. As the rapper later admitted to Thrillist:
When they were in there filming, I did have a moment of thinking, “I don’t want to show that my city can’t live the good and lavish life too.” But then I was like, “F*ck it, this isn’t about nobody else but me. I invited these guys to my house and now I got to go with it.” This is just something that we do. Everything you see was real. It’s just everyday life for us.
Although some people made fun of Redman for the way his home looked, others appreciated his transparency.
Brand new info?Barbara Bush was the First Lady of the US from January 1989 to January 1993. The Simpsons, meanwhile, debuted as a full TV series in December 1989 (after three years as part of The Tracey Ullman Show).
The show has gone on to become one of the longest-running series in TV history. But the First Lady was not impressed, admitting in a 1990 interview with People magazine that it was “the dumbest thing I've ever seen.”
That didn't sit well with the matriarch of the Simpson family. So, in September 1990, “Marge Simpson” wrote to Bush to express her dismay. The letter's opening paragraph read:
I recently read your criticism of my family. I was deeply hurt. Heaven knows we're far from perfect and, if truth be known, maybe just a wee bit short of normal; but as Dr. Seuss says, “a person is a person.”
After going on to talk about how she tried to teach her children to give others the benefit of the doubt and to not speak badly of others, the cartoon character's letter suggests:
…if we're the dumbest thing you ever saw, Washington must be a good deal different than what they teach me at the current events group at the church.
The letter concludes with Marge stating that she had thought she and Bush had a lot in common, and hoping for a way out of the controversy. Bush replied with a letter of apology, commending Marge for speaking her mind and asking her to forgive the First Lady's “loose tongue.”
Brand new info?Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, according to Fortune, with a revenue of $611 billion in 2022.
However the company hasn't found success in every market. In 2008, Walmart sold its 85 stores in Germany to German company Metro at a loss of approximately $1 billion. In announcing the sale, Walmart's vice chairman Michael Duke stated:
It has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire. This sale positions us to increase our focus on the markets where we can achieve our objectives.
The sale came approximately nine years after Walmart first entered the German market. It struggled from the start, quickly facing accusations of attempting to put small shops out of business through short-term predatory pricing. German regulators even ordered the company to raise its prices on basic foods like milk and bread.
Walmart also struggled with cultural differences. Reportedly, many German customers found the company's standard customer service policies to be overly friendly and helpful. While it might be typical for Americans to smile at and greet strangers, that isn't necessarily the case in Germany (or certain other countries), where people tend to be more reserved.
Brand new info?TLC is one of the best-selling girl groups in music history. However, the trio (comprising Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes) struggled with financial problems throughout much of their career. In fact, after winning multiple awards at the 1996 Grammys, they stunned reporters at their press conference by stating they were basically broke.
The group's frustration over not being fairly compensated for the success of their album CrazySexyCool (it reportedly made $75 million, but the three women received just $50,000 each) resulted in them storming the office of Clive Davis, then-president of Arista Records, and demanding payment. They also removed plaques and other items related to the group from Arista's offices. This scene was recreated in the 2013 VH-1 film CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story.
As Thomas explained to Yahoo Music in 2013, the three members of TLC got tired of receiving conflicting information about their money, so after recruiting some women Lopes had met while serving time in a halfway house (after burning down her boyfriend's home) to back them up, they decided to take matters into their own hands:
Cause we got tired of it. It's like, “OK, is it Arista? Is it La Face [Records]? Who is it?” So we go to the top, right on up there to Clive and we really did. We told [the girls] if you see anything that says TLC, I don't care if it's a picture, it's ours…
When we filed bankruptcy, we were in court; Arista wanted their plaques back, and we said, “Well, go to the hood. Get it. Good luck with that.”
Watkins added:
We gave them away to everybody in the projects. They were so excited.
Brand new info?
- Photo:
One of Sesame Street's most beloved characters is its fuzzy blue Muppet with a deep love for one specific tasty snack. In fact, he even sings about his favorite treat in “C is for Cookie.”
However, it turns out Cookie Monster has not actually been gobbling down cookies on the TV show. Instead, he munches on rice cakes painted to look like cookies. In 2018, the Muppet tweeted his less-than-positive opinion of the healthy snack:
Today me tried new food: rice cakes. Dis must be cruel joke. Dey taste NOTHING like cake!
And let's been honest: “R is for Rice Cake” probably wouldn't resonate with young viewers learning their A-B-Cs like “C is for Cookie" has.
But very practical reasons exist for why the production uses rice cakes instead of real cookies: (1) the chocolate and oils in cookies would make Cookie Monster's fur very messy, which would be difficult to clean; and (2) the “cookie” goes through the Muppet's mouth and lands on the head of the puppeteer, and apparently lightweight rice cake crumbs were preferable to cookie crumbs.
Brand new info?
- Photo:
7'Baby One More Time' Actually Contains A Mistranslation
Britney Spears was just 17 when her single “Baby One More Time” hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1999. The song's chorus ends with the lyric, “When I'm not with you, I lose my mind. Give me a sign… Hit me baby one more time.”
The lyric was controversial, as some people wondered if it was about an S&M relationship or domestic violence. Spears's label, Jive Records, even shortened the original title of “Hit Me Baby (One More Time)” because of the connotation.
In 2015, the mystery of the lyrics was finally cleared up when John Seabrook published The Song Machine, a history of pop music. In the book, he explained that the men responsible for writing the song, Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin and Swedish-Moroccan songwriter Rami Yacoub, thought that “hit” was American slang for “call" (on the phone).
So in the last line of the chorus, the song - about a girl who wants to get back together with the boy she's just broken up with - is simply asking him to call her one more time.
Brand new info?- Photo:
“Cold or hot, Spam hits the spot.”
When Hormel Foods Corporation began selling the canned pork product known as Spam back in 1937, the company probably never dreamed its creation would still be going strong 86 years later - more than 8 billion cans have now been sold worldwide
But as successful as the lunchmeat has been, its name also has a negative connotation due to the fact that the annoying junk messages that clutter up people's email inboxes are referred to as “spam.”
Hormel can blame this on a 1970 Monty Python comedic sketch in which a couple are ordering breakfast, only to be told by the waitress that nearly all their choices contain the canned pork product:
Well, there’s egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam…
As the word is sung repetitively, the female customer finally angrily declares that she doesn't like spam - but she's pretty much stuck with it.
Of course, this sketch was produced years before people had email, and it's unclear who initially coined the term. But the idea of spam as a repetitive inundation you can't escape traces back to the sketch, and therefore the canned meat product.
But no matter the reason, Hormel doesn't want its famous product connected to annoying emails - so much so that employees are not allowed to refer to such emails as “spam.” Instead, they simply call them “unwanted emails.”
Brand new info?- Photo:
9The Band Chumbawamba Pulled A Sneaky Backstab On General Motors
In the US, the British rock band Chumbawamba is likely remembered mainly for its 1997 hit single “Tubthumping.”
But in their native England, they're also remembered for their irreverent attitude toward authority and support of various political and social causes. The anarchist band was definitely not supportive of huge corporations.
Marketing executives at General Motors were clearly not aware of this. In 2002, the largest car manufacturer in the world decided it would be a good idea to use Chumbawamba's song “Pass it Along” in the newest GM advertising campaign.
The band sold the song's licensing rights to GM for $70,000. But they did so while contacting CorpWatch, a US-based nonprofit focused on holding corporations accountable for their actions; and IndyMedia, a progressive global media nonprofit, about using the money for a campaign against GM.
The groups agreed to this plan. According to a 2002 article in The Guardian, CorpWatch's executive director Joshua Karliner explained:
We're planning on using some of the money to document some of the social and environmental impacts of General Motors itself… It's known for resisting the kinds of change in production that would assist in reducing climate change, and for helping debunk the science of global warming. If the company knew how its fee was being used, I'd imagine it would make executives squirm in their big comfortable leather chairs.
When contacted by The Guardian about these plans, Dayna Hart, publicist for the Pontiac division at GM, replied:
I didn't know that. I did know [the band] had quite a political background in England. That's very interesting.
Brand new info?- Photo:
Mattel, Inc., the toy manufacturing giant, was founded in 1945 by Harold “Matt” Matson and the husband-and-wife pair of Elliot and Ruth Handler.
Ruth wanted the company to make toys for girls like her daughter Barbara. On a family trip to Switzerland in 1956, she discovered a doll named Bild Lilli. She was much sexier than the typical dolls found in the US in the 1950s, which tended to be either baby dolls or ones meant to be mothers or housewives. Bild Lilli helped provide Handler with the inspiration for a different kind of doll for girls - one that would soon take the toy market by storm.
As Ruth explained in her 1964 autobiography:
My whole philosophy for Barbie was that, through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman had choices.
But when she presented her idea to Mattel's executive committee - a group of all men apart from Ruth herself - they rejected it. And the (male) head of one of the largest advertising agencies told her, “It has no chance of succeeding. You’re joking.”
Still she persisted, even persuading Mattel to sell the doll at cost, with profits coming from the clothes and accessories. When none of the major toy buyers wanted to take on the doll when it debuted at the 1959 New York International Toy Fair, Mattel pivoted, selling it directly to consumers. Around 300,000 Barbies were sold in the first year (at $3 per doll).
But Ruth wasn't the only member of the Handler family to come up with an iconic toy. By the late 1960s, Mattel sought a toy that would appeal to boys as much as the Barbie doll did to girls. It was Elliot who created Hot Wheels.
Introduced in 1968, the miniature cars with the customized designs and paint jobs have proven to have staying power; according to The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service, Hot Wheels were the top-selling toy in the world from January through September of 2022.
Brand new info?- Photo:
Many chains have tried to earn the loyalty of fans of the sandwich, known (depending on where one is from) as a hoagie, sub, submarine, hero, Italian sandwich, grinder, torpedo, po'boy (poor boy) or Cuban.
One such chain is Quiznos (the company now omits the apostrophe). In 1981, Todd Disner and Boyd Bartlett opened the first Quiznos in Denver, CO. They had developed the concept for an Italian-style sandwich shop while operating a restaurant called Footer's. By 1991, they had opened 16 Quiznos in Colorado and another in Los Angeles, CA. However, they didn't have the financial ability to continue expanding the chain or provide marketing or advertising support to the existing stores. In 1991, they sold the company to one of their franchisees, Rick Schaden, and his father.
Under the management of the Schadens, by the early 2000s, Quiznos had become a major rival to the sub sandwich chain giant Subway, with around 4,700 locations across the US. However, the majority of the locations were owned and run by franchisees struggling to make a profit, in part fueled by high food costs. By the mid-2000s, the company was dealing with dozens of lawsuits filed by disgruntled franchisees.
The lawsuits were just one of the reasons Quiznos saw its American locations drop from 4,700 in 2007 to fewer than 400 in 2017. In 2006, the company entered into a leveraged buyout with private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors that left it heavily in debt - so much so that Quiznos filed for bankruptcy in 2014, with nearly $900 million in loan obligations.
The chain's one competitive advantage over Subway was that Quiznos focused on toasting sandwiches instead of serving them cold. In 2005, however, Subway began adding toasters to its locations, basically negating that advantage. Later, when Subway began selling its footlong subs for $5, Quiznos tried to compete by offering coupons for free subs, but many franchisees refused to honor them, which angered customers.
Around this time (2009), the US went through a recession, which severely affected the restaurant business as a whole. Some 700 Quiznos locations, many run by franchisees already struggling to make a profit, shut down in 2009; 800 more followed suit in 2010. Even after the country emerged from the recession, Quiznos continued to lose locations.
In June 2018, investment firm High Bluff Capital Partners bought out the company. As of April 2023, only 154 Quiznos locations remained in the US.
Brand new info?In the 1980s, Klaus Teuber was working as a dental technician near Darmstadt, Germany, but he wasn't happy with his job. So, outside of work, he spent time in his basement workshop designing board games. As he explained to the New Yorker in 2014:
I developed games to escape. This was my own world I created.
One of those games was The Settlers of Catan. First published in Germany in 1995 as Die Siedler von Catan, it involves players competing to build the most successful colony on the fictional island of Catan. The English-language version came out in the US in 1996, and by 2014, the game's various iterations had sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.
In addition to the more than 80 official versions and expansions of The Settlers of Catan, various spinoff products also exist, including socks, custom-designed tables, and even a historical novel.
As of 2014, Teuber was one of a handful of people to actually make a living as a board game designer; most had to work full-time in other jobs to support themselves. He quit working as a dental technician in 1998, “when I felt like Catan could feed me and my family,” he said, referring to his wife and three children.
Brand new info?- 13
A Study Found Joining A Fraternity Generally Lowered Students’ GPAs, But Increased Their Future Income
Greek life on American university campuses is often depicted as a party-heavy atmosphere, but defended as an academically bolstering institution. However, one study found that while it may harm students in the academic arena, it actually correlated positively with their future wealth.
In 2016, Jack Mara, Lewis Davis, and Stephen Schmidt published a paper titled “Social Animal House: The Economic and Academic Consequences of Fraternity Membership.” They focused on the alumni of a small unnamed college in the northeastern part of the US. The survey, which took place in 2009, had a response rate of about 26% of the school's alumni, but the researchers limited the data to male respondents younger than 65 who had full-time jobs and who met the other control variables the researchers sought.
The study determined that participating in fraternity life often negatively affected a student's academic performance - fraternity members' average GPA was about 0.25 points lower on a four-point scale than the average GPA of students who didn't belong to fraternities. However, the data also found that fraternity members' future income was an average of 36% higher than non-fraternity members. The researchers also discovered that alcohol consumption had only a very slight role in the lower academic results.
Brand new info? - 14
A Taylor Swift Concert In Seattle Generated Real Seismic Activity
Taylor Swift's Eras tour has generated enough excitement to rattle the Earth. Literally. In July 2023, the two 3.5-hour shows she performed in Seattle at Lumen Field apparently set off seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a Western Washington University geology professor who tracked the quaking, told CNN: "The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
Swift, who broke the attendance record for Lumen Field, broke another record at the stadium as well: The shaking at her concerts was twice as strong as the quaking generated when Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown in 2011 and the crowd roared, creating what was dubbed the “Beast Quake.”
And yes, one of the Swift songs that set the Earth quivering was “Shake it Off.”
Brand new info?
