Did 'South Park' Torpedo Paramount’s Plan to Acquire Warner Bros.?

We Predict Two Things Are Very Likely To Happen On This Week's ‘SNL’

Did Joe Rogan Wait to Fire Back at Marc Maron Only After His Podcast Ended?

27 Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Friday, December 5, 2025

Hecklers May Have Just Chased Dave Chappelle Out Of Edmonton Forever

48 Hollywood Secrets and Paranoid Fan Theories to Fuel Your Conspiracy Brain

Fans know best

48 Hollywood Secrets and Paranoid Fan Theories to Fuel Your Conspiracy Brain

June 06, 2024 Add Cracked to Google

Some directors keep major plot points from their actors in order to get a more authentic reaction.

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

48

The production team for El Camino rented a replica of Breaking Bad's iconic RV from a tour company in Albuquerque to film the diner flashback featuring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. A NETFLIX ORIGINAL EL CAMINO A BREAKING BAD MOVIE NETFLIX They told onlookers 11 they were filming an ad for a Breaking Bad tour and even gave out the tour company's brochure. CRACKED.COM — Source

47

To keep Yondu's death in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 a secret, Marvel leaked photos of Michael Rooker around the set of Avengers: Infinity War. INFINITY in - - de 4a CRACKED COM Of course, Yondu wasn't in Infinity War, and the whole thing was just a clever ruse to throw internet detectives off and keep the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 under wraps. — Source

46

48 Hollywood Secrets and Paranoid Fan Theories to Fuel Your Conspiracy Brain — Source

45

CRACKED COM In late 2007, John Cena tore his pectoral and was supposed to be out six months to a year. Не returned three months later, winning the 2008 Royal Rumble. HUS LOVAL To keep the surprise, the WWE hid him all day in Madison Square Garden. When it was time for him to enter the match, they even walked him through the hallway covered to conceal his identity. — Source

44

Amazon's LOTR

In order to keep the scripts for Amazon's Lord Of The Rings show safe, the writers work in a safe room with taped windows and security guards. Only those with approved fingerprints can get in. CRACKED.COM — Source

43

Star Trek

J.J. Abrams kept paparazzi away from Star Trek: Into Darkness with a wall. MUJI HCZU 887834 و MARK 4261 SPE WAR GR TARE с - NET = S CE CAP NB Abrams's wall Не barricaded the movie's outdoor set with 30 shipping containers. CRACKED.COM — Source

42

David Merkin, showrunner for Simpsons seasons 5 and 6, called up TV stations and comic book stores... ...to claim (anonymously) to know Who Shot Mr. Burns, naming everyone except for Maggie Simpson, hoping someone would pass it along to anyone who'd publish the wrong answer. No one ever did. CRACKED.COM — Source

41

As a security measure during the 2005 series of Doctor Who, the production team renamed the preview tapes of the program Torchwood to trick any video pirates desperate to get their hands on the revival. Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. DOCTOR - WHO Showrunner Russell T Davies thought it was such a clever name, he decided to use it for the 2006 spinoff, Torchwood! CRACKED.COM — Source

40

To ensure nothing came out about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, scripts were printed on dark red pages to prevent any photocopying. CRACKED.COM — Source

39

Game of Thrones

Anti-air guns guarded the Game of Thrones set. IXI DRONEKILLER X not taken on the GoT set The studio had people with drone killer guns watching the sky, ready to shoot down any drones. CRACKED.COM — Source

38

Twin Peaks

During the production of Twin Peaks (2017), the actors didn't even know what was going on with the plot. According to actor Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy Brennan), everyone only received a portion of their lines in the morning of the shoot and immediately after filming wrapped, an assistant would feed their scripts to a shredder. CRACKED.COM — Source

37

GRACKED.COM Deadpool 2 director David Leitch kept everything related to the movie on paper and stayed away from storing things digitally to prevent any security breaches. — Source

36

The Dark Night Rises

CRACKED.COM To keep Bruce Wayne's death under wraps when shooting the funeral scene in The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan had the prop team make a grave- stone with Miranda Tate's MIRANDA name on it, then digitally TATE changed it in post. BRUCE WAYNE Nolan even had Christian Bale show up for the scene, and had his name on the call sheet in case it was leaked. — Source

35

Miramax took a polite approach to keeping The Crying Game's secret: They just asked people to not spoil the surprise. The approach focused on simply asking critics and audiences to not ruin the movie for people who hadn't seen it yet, banking on people being decent and doing the right thing. CRACKED COM — Source

34

CRACKED.COM RuPaul RACE Rupaul's Drag Race films several different endings of their finale so that no one will be able to leak the winner. taping The contestants find out at the same time the viewing audience does in a special ceremony. airing — Source

33

Harry Potter

British intelligence worked on preventing Harry Potter Potter leaks. Harry and Blood Prince Before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out, GCHQ (the British NSA) found an early copy of the text online. They checked if it was fake by reading out a page to the editor (it was). CRACKED.COM — Source

32

During the making of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the production team would round up actors' scripts at the end of filming and shred them all - every single day. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

CRACKED.COM Quentin Tarantino kept his Once Upon A Time In Hollywood script secret by not making any copies of it. Before production began, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio took turns sitting on Tarantino's porch to read the only copy, which Pitt remembers getting more stained and dirty on every visit. — Source

15 Pop Culture Nuggets About ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ Star Frankie Muniz on his 40th Birthday

27 Movie Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Wednesday, December 3, 2025

15 of the Most Interesting Things We’ve Learned from Ancient Human Remains

29 Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Sunday, November 30, 2025

15 Pop Culture Facts About Music That Wasn't Churned Out By A Computer

25 Movie Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Sunday, November 30, 2025

30

To prevent spoilers and leaks from spreading about Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios limited the amount of information the cast was given. Actors only got scripts for their own portion of the film, in addition to fake scripts and scenes, to prevent accidental spoilery interviews (Tom Holland is notorious for them). Only Robert Downey, Jr. knew the complete plot. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Friends

Friends was filmed in front of a live studio audience that they asked to leave before shooting the cliffhangers. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

In order to keep people from trying to take pictures of the Hands Across America scene in Us, the production team told onlookers they were making an ad for Verizon. Us CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones directors shot fake scenes to keep the final season a secret. 801 16E BOM s 503 sin Fans and paparazzi were so intent on getting Season 8 spoilers, they found ways to bypass set security. The solution was to give them fake shoots to spy on. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Stranger Things uses code names for actors, and literally burns scripts after shooting. CRACKED COM — Source

25

CRACKED.COM Most of the audience is removed before a singer's identity is revealed on The Masked Singer. This is to minimize the risk of leaks. — Source

24

CRACKED.COM To prevent any leaks about the ending of No Time to Die, the crew filmed three different versions of it. Not even Daniel Craig knows which one they'll be using. — Source

23

Benicio del Toro got The Last Jedi script on an iPad customized by the studio, that a guy brought to his house. The guy had to take the iPad back when del Toro was done reading, so he waited outside (it took 8 hours). CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Game of Thrones

The Maester Conspiracy: In Game of Thrones, the maesters are secretly erasing all the magic from the world... and they almost succeeded in it. In a world without magic, scholarly men with knowledge would be the ones with power and control over the Seven Kingdoms. The maesters are working behind the scenes to attain this goal by making the dragons go extinct, conspiring against the Targaryens by kickstarting Robert's rebellion and withholding all the information that they see as a threat to themselves. CRACKED COM — Source

21

Lord of the Rings

A lot of Lord of the Rings fans have asked why the Fellowship didn't just ride the giant eagles into Mordor. But maybe that was Gandalf's plan, and the reason his dying words were fly, you fools! CRACKED.COM

20

Neville Longbottom

How does Neville Longbottom go from zero to hero? Не gets a new wand. In the Harry Potter universe, a wand must choose its owner, not the other way around. At first, Neville has trouble because he uses his dad's wand. When, during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, the wand breaks, a new wand chooses him, and he becomes a badass wizard. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Snoke is Palpatine's mentor Darth Plagueis. STAR WARS Palpatine tried to kill Plagueis (who could save people from death), and thought Plagueis died. Well, Snoke looks just like someone brought back from near-death. And John Williams uses the same, unique music motif when Palpatine talks about Plagueis, and when Snoke is on-screen. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

PULP FICTION Fabienne Butch * Dreams of * Talks longingly his father about wanting * Decides it's time a pot belly to get out of a * Lavishly details dangerous business what she wants * Risks his life for breakfast for his father's * Butch calls her watch Little mamacita Fabienne is pregnant. Не goes back for the watch, so he can pass it down to the child they will soon have. In a sense... his biological clock is ticking. CRACKED COM — Source

17

Sandy never made it past this scene GREASE BECAUSE SHE DIED. Danny never saved her from drowning at the beach and the whole movie is a dream she has while she is dying. This explains the ending where she flys away in the car. The flight represents her soul going to heaven. CRACKED.COM

16

The Dilophosamrus doesn't attack Nedry at first because she wants to mate with him. The dinosauris playful at first, possibly having mistaken his yellow rain poncho as a mating display. Her tone changes when Nedry puts on a threat display by raising his hood, and she doesnt raise her own frill or attack, until after he's fallen down, revealing himself to be meat, not mate. CRACKED COM — Source

15

The Dursleys are awful to Harry because he's a Horcrux. Harry Potter Everybody who had a Horcrux around for a while became brainwashed (like Ginny Weasley in Chamber of Secrets) or very bad-tempered (like Ron and Hermione in Deathly Hallows Part 1), and the Dursleys lived with Harry for over 10 years. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

CRACKED COM The Good Place is actually Michael's personal Bad Place. From the mid-point of Season Two and on, Michael has been in a constant state of anxiety, always worrying that he's about to be erased from the universe. That's the exact variety of torture that he had arranged for the humans when he was creating a Bad Place to torture them in forever. — Source

13

CRACKED.COM FRNATURAL SUPERNATURAL Things keep getting worse for the Winchester brothers every season, as the body count of people they care about goes up. Fans believe that it may be due to the fact that they broke a bunch of mirrors while fighting Bloody Mary back in Season 1. As we all know, breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck. — Source

12

Sarah Jessica Parker's Theory

Are Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda from Sex and the City too archetypal to be real? Sarah Jessica Parker thinks that Carrie made them up, as characters in her column. CRACKED COM — Source

11

The Lion King

The Lion King, Disney's THE Disney's Robin LION KING Hood, and Zootopia are all set in the same world with the lions maintaining peace. The Lion King starts the beginning of peace between predator and prey, which leads to the more familiar world we PO NDRENI see in Robin Hood with King Richard. The AC world then becomes modern with Leodore as the leader of adidas Zootopia. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

A fan theory claims that Ferris Bueller is stuck in a Groundhog Day-like loop. On his day off, Ferris's attempts to not get caught by his parents and teacher seemed way too effortless. Like Phil in Groundhog Day, if Ferris were living the same day over and over again, he would have had time to perfect it through trial-and- error. This could also explain Ferris's laissez-faire about going through life. GRACKED.COM — Source

9

CRACKED.COM THE REASON WHY THE WEASLEYS ALWAYS GET SORTED TO GRYFFINDOR HOUSE IS BECAUSE THEY'RE DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF GODRIC GRYFFINDOR HIMSELF. — Source

8

The kid who Alan Grant scares shitless in Jurassic Park grows up to be Owen Grady. In the first movie, Dr. Grant demonstrates on a bratty child how velociraptors kill their prey, before telling him to show a little respect. Jurassic World takes place 22 years later, and Grady has a relationship based on mutual respect with the dinosaurs. It would only make sense for the kid, who is called volunteer boy in the end credits, to become a raptor trainer. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

WAS THE BIRD BOX MONSTER A REPRESENTATION OF THE RAPTURE? CRACKED.COM People who look at it see dead people, they call it beautiful and criminals are unaffected by looking at it since they wouldn't be raptured anyway. — Source

6

Why does Ben disappear from Friends? Ross lost custody of his son. Carol and Susan never wanted Ross to be a part of Ben's life. After too many of his antics, they filed for full custody and won. CRACKED COM — Source

5

Daniel Craig

In the Daniel Craig James Bond movies,Bond.is so.promiscuous because he's infertile. While on his first ever mission in Casino Royale, Bond gets tortured by the villain Le Chiffre, who does irreparable damage to the spy's double-Os. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Although Groot is among the heroes who are disintegrated by Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, fans believe that he is not quite dead yet. The handle of Thor's Stormbreaker axe is made of Groot's arm, and it is not shown to be disintegrating after Thanos has snapped his fingers. Не can be regrown from the Stormbreaker. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Donkey from Shrek may be one of the boys from Pleasure Island that was transformed into a jackass in Pinocchio. 1. Most of the characters in Shrek are from fairy tales or nursery rhymes (such as The Three Little Pigs, The Three Blind Mice, Pinocchio). 2. Не seems to have memories of being a human (remembers wedgies and swirlies). 3. Despite the fact that other animals can talk, a talking donkey is treated like an anomaly. 4. When Donkey and Puss in Boots switch bodies, Puss can't control his 'hee-haws,' much like the boys from Pleasure Island. CRACKED COM — Source

2

The Dark Knight

CRACKED.COM What if The Dark Knight's Joker is an ex-intelligence operative who specialized in interrogation? Talking to the mob, he says, I know the squealers when I see them. When Batman tries to interrogate him, he's in charge, giving tips like Never start with the head, the victim gets all fuzzy. And he can figure out important stuff about anyone, like how Harvey Dent values fairness or Commissioner Gordon feels isolated, that lets him screw with them. — Source

1

THE SIMPSONS ME SUCKERS Lyle Lanley wasn't just a conmãn, he was a mass murderer who delighted in killing people via his Poorly-made monorail. CRACKED.COM — Source

Tags:

Visual

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Science & History

This Is What Pop Culture Looked Like In 1970

Comedy

‘Abbott Elementary’ Creator Quinta Brunson Is Doing What The Real Public School System Couldn’t

Movies & TV

Michael McKean Confirms That Spinal Tap is Done

Trivia & Jokes

15 Animation Innovations from the Last 30 Years of Pop Culture History

Movies & TV

Robin Williams Was Going to Guest Star on ‘The Simpsons’ Before ‘Aladdin’ Ruined Everything

Trivia & Jokes

15 Pop Culture Nuggets About ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ Star Frankie Muniz on his 40th Birthday

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

Did 'South Park' Torpedo Paramount’s Plan to Acquire Warner Bros.?

2

Did Joe Rogan Wait to Fire Back at Marc Maron Only After His Podcast Ended?

3

27 TV Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Friday, December 5, 2025

4

‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Fans Say That Elon Musk Is Turning Into Mac’s Mom

5

29 Movie Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Thursday, December 4, 2025

I agree to the Terms of Service

Add me to the weekly newsletter

Add me to the daily newsletter

I am AWESOME