40 Generous Bits of Trivia That Usually Charge An Arm and A Leg for This Kind of Info

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia Assigned to You by the Trivia Distribution System

12 Trivia Tidbits to Sprinkle on Your Brainpan As A Garnish

39 Myths and Counterintuitive Facts That Would Have Gotten Away With It If It Wasn’t for Us Meddling Kids

44 Random Bits of Trivia We Shucked Out of the Smartest Clams in the Ocean

34 Taboo TV and Movie Roles That Probably Should Have Been Cast Into the Sea

You never go full prosthetic

34 Taboo TV and Movie Roles That Probably Should Have Been Cast Into the Sea

February 26, 2024

Be honest: knowing what you know now, would you take the role of Arnie Grape? Would you do an impression of a little person in Tiptoes? Would you portray — YEGH – Venom?

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

34

CRACKED CHARLIZE THERON Mad Max: Fury Road Mad Max: Fury Road explores the collapse of civilization through disability tropes, but also challenges them by depicting disabled characters as powerful and autonomous. It normalizes physical disabilities in its post-apocalyptic world while using them to signify power or evil depending on which character is portrayed. — Source

33

CRACKED PATRICK STEWART X-Men Professor X is one of the most famous disabled characters, known for turning his mansion into a safe space and school for marginalized people. In recent years he has been subject to retcons which have changed established history in order to discredit him as well as strip away representation from other disabled Mutants. — Source

32

CRACKED JAMIE FOXX Ray Ray Charles' life is explored in Taylor Hackford's 2004 film, which follows his journey from birth to the mid-1960s when he overcame addiction and achieved success. — Source

31

CRACKED JOAQUIN PHOENIX Don't Worry, Не Won't Get Far on Foot The Ruderman Family Foundation has criticized the casting of Joaquin Phoenix in Gus Van Sant's biopic Don't Worry, Не Won't Get Far on Foot for overlooking an opportunity to cast actors with disabilities and being offensive to the disability community. — Source

30

CRACKED BEN STILLER Tropic Thunder In Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller plays an action movie star who once played a mentally disabled character (and the point of that, admittedly, was kind of to lampoon the practice). But Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, still called for a boycott due to the movie's use of offensive language and lack of respect towards people with intellectual disabilities. — Source

29

CRACKED EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything got criticized for pandering to able-bodied audience members' disgust at disability and its depiction of disabled people on screen, which fails to challenge the limits set by society. — Source

28

Me Before You

CRACKED ermabe SAM CLAFLIN Me Before You Me Before You is a film about the romance between two people, one of whom has been quadriplegic since an accident and decides to end his life. Disability activists have criticized it for perpetuating the idea that death is preferable to living with disability. — Source

27

CRACKED DUSTIN HOFFMAN Rain Man Rain Man's release in 1988 brought autism to the public consciousness, but its influence has become a suffocating stereotype that persists 30 years later. The film gave autistic people visibility and representation, yet it is still seen as the only depiction of autism on screen despite there being many more stories to tell. — Source

26

CRACKED DANIEL DAY-LEWIS My Left Foot Daniel Day-Lewis is renowned for his extraordinary method acting, famously dedicating himself to the role of Christy Brown in My Left Foot by learning how to type and paint with his feet as well as being spoon fed during lunch breaks. — Source

25

CRACKED LEONARDO DICAPRIO The Aviator The Aviator is a biographical film about Howard Hughes, an eccentric billionaire with OCD symptoms. The movie follows his life as he deals with classic contamination-related fears and compulsions while also exhibiting traits not typically associated with the disorder such as risk taking and promiscuity. — Source

24

CRACKED RETNAM VE - for ТОМ CRUISE Born on the Fourth of July Tom Cruise's performance in Born on the Fourth of July earned him his first Oscar nomination, showcasing his ability to modulate rage and convey emotion through a powerful story about an injured Vietnam veteran. — Source

23

CRACKED LEONARDO DICAPRIO What's Eating Gilbert Grape Leonardo DiCaprio prepared for his role in What's Eating Gilbert Grape by visiting a home for the mentally-disabled and was given freedom to do whatever he wanted with minimal pushback, which earned him Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. — Source

22

CRACKED 411 SEAN PENN / Am Sam I Am Sam was met with criticism when it released in theaters, but has become a cultural touchstone due to the debate around casting conventionally abled people as disabled characters. The movie's impact on autism representation is still being discussed today, but its anachronistic approach looks more outdated every year. — Source

21

CRACKED GARY OLDMAN Tiptoes Tiptoes is a 2004 romantic comedy starring Gary Oldman, Matthew McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale which attempts to show that little people are just like everyone else but fails due to its offensive portrayal of dwarfism. — Source

20

CRACKED JULIETTE LEWIS The Other Sister According to Roger Ebert, The Other Sister is a movie that uses mental disability as a gimmick and treats its characters like performing seals, while also featuring Diane Keaton's character who struggles to accept her daughter's independence. The film has been criticized for its lack of knowledge about the subject matter and false details in the plot. — Source

19

Cuba Gooding, Jr. JERRY ROBINSON CRACKED.COM For a while there, Cuba couldn't make a bad movie if he tried - until 2002's Boat Trip. Who would've thought Snow Dogs would be his best movie of 2002? — Source

18

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez RICKI CRACKED.COM 2003's Gigli has ruined more than its fair share of careers. Jennifer and Ben Affleck made it out alive, but Lopez' career never quite rebounded the way Affleck's has. — Source

17

Lindsay Lohan AUBREY FLEMING/ DAKOTA MOSS CRACKED.COM Lohan was a fixture in Hollywood for most of her life, but she seemed to hit her expiration date with 2007's I Know Who Killed Me. It proved she was popular in the tabloids, but not so much on screen. — Source

16

Alicia Silverstone BATGIRL CRACKED.COM She cashed in her Clueless cred on the now-infamous Batman & Robin, garnering a Razzie and not much else. She's had a lot of work since, but nothing close to her mid-90's potential. — Source

15

John Travolta TERL CRACKED.COM After a Tarantino-fuelled resurgence in Pulp Fiction, Travolta went down a dark road starting with the 2000 L. Ron Hubbard adaptation Battlefield Earth. — Source

14

Meg Ryan ALICE BOWMAN CRACKED.COM Meg Ryan and costar Russell Crowe began dating while filming 2002's Proof of Life. Their controversial relationship sucked up all the press, the movie flopped, and it was all pinned on Ryan for some reason. — Source

13

Elizabeth Berkley NOMI MALONE CRACKED.COM Fresh off of a wildly successful run on Saved By The Bell, Berkley took a gamble on the risky, semi-raunchy, NC-17 rated Showgirls. It didn't pay off, and she's had to settle for bit parts on TV ever since. — Source

12

Justin Chatwin GOKU CRACKED.COM Landing the role of Goku should have launched Chatwin to stardom, but Fox fumbled 2009's Dragonball Evolution so badly that we haven't heard much from him since. — Source

11

Mike Meyers GURU PITKA CRACKED.COM Meyers has made some massive hits, but even more extremely questionable duds. 2008's The Love Guru seems to have been the last straw, and he's just been jumping from Shrek movie to Shrek movie ever since. — Source

10

Adam Sandler JACK/ JILL CRACKED.COM Не did just make a critical comeback in the more serious Uncut Gems, but 2011's Jack and Jill was probably the last time anyone went to a Sandler movie with expectations of being delighted by his antics. — Source

9

Tom Green GORD BRODY CRACKED.COM Green started his career as an improbable rapper, then became an improbable television host, but it all came crashing down after Freddy Got Fingered. It's fun to imagine he just went back to the lab, and has been working on the next wave of gross-out comedy in his basement all these years. — Source

8

Orlando Bloom DREW BAYLOR CRACKED.COM After Bloom found massive success in high fantasy and pirate movies, the 2005 drama Elizabethtown did the impossible: it made Orlando Bloom boring as hell. — Source

7

Pamela Anderson BARB WIRE CRACKED G COM Only one thing could stop her meteoric rise to stardom: an awful comic book adaptation. Anderson blames the studio for the failure of 1996's Barb Wire, but critics also say her limited acting skills were finally on display in a way they never were on Baywatch. — Source

6

Chris Klein JONATHAN CROSS CRACKED.COM Klein was strapped into a dorky helmet and plopped next to LL Cool J in the absolute bomb Rollerball (2002). It lost a ton of money, and all of Klein's professional momentum. — Source

5

Halle Berry CATWOMAN CRACKED.COM After the debacle that was 2004's Catwoman, there were calls for her to return her Oscar. She has managed to hold onto the role of Storm since then, but it's still a far cry from her early 2000's dominance. — Source

4

Freddie Prinze Jr. FRED JONES CRACKED.COM As he started to age out of teen heartthrob territory, he had a hard time finding his niche. Не spent the last of his credibility with a weird blonde haircut on Scooby-Doo. — Source

3

Sean Connery ALLAN QUATERMAIN GRACKED.COM 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was such a critical and popular disappointment that Connery retired from the biz altogether. — Source

2

Topher Grace VENOM CRACKED.COM Grace left That 70's Show to pursue a film career, and was gaining some momentum. 2007's Spider-Man 3 was supposed to be his crown jewel, but instead he was drained of all remaining marketability as a lead. — Source

1

Josh Hartnett SLEVIN KELEVRA CRACKED.COM Hartnett was more or less blamed for the failure of 2006's star-studded Lucky Number Slevin. The movie marked an abrupt halt to his reputation as a hit-maker. — Source

Tags:

Visual

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Movies & TV

21 of the Best Wordless Gags in Comedy History

Trivia & Jokes

20 Jokes That Become Funnier When They’re Explained

Science & History

5 Parts of Life We’re Stuck With Because the King Ordered It

Movies & TV

25 Trivia Tidbits About ‘Galaxy Quest’ on Its 25th Anniversary

Movies & TV

The Five Craziest Musician Cameos on Sitcoms

Science & History

5 of the Oldest Board Games in the World

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

The 22 Most Pointless Arguments We’ve All Wasted Time On

2

20 Jokes That Become Funnier When They’re Explained

3

9 Terrifying Things Doctors Pulled Out Of Living People

4

18 Surprising Things That Celebrities Believe

5

33 Bits of Trivia to Assemble in Your Mind Palace Like a Nice Piece of IKEA Furniture