29 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History for Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Hurry or you’ll be late for your college seminar on ‘The Simpsons’
29 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History for Tuesday, October 28, 2025
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As we just learned from this batch of pop-culture facts, there’s actually a college seminar on The Simpsons. Which it got us thinking: If The Simpsons alone has enough information to fill a college course, then pop culture itself would have an infinite amount to teach. 

So welcome to lesson number one. Take a close look at each one because they will be on the final exam.

The Boys

THE BOYS TRANSLUCENT WAS CREATED FOR THE SHOW. The invisible member of The Seven replaced the comic's Jack from Jupiter. Showrunner Eric Kripke reportedly removed Jack (who is an alien) in order to keep his adaptation more grounded (even though the show still has eye lasers and blood showers). CRACKED.COM

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross

COMEDY NERD After Bob Odenkirk and David Cross made Mr Show, they shot a new pilot. THE It was called David's Situation, and it had David Cross as himself - but they both lost interest in the project pretty soon. CRACKED.COM

Busta Rhymes and Eminem

Busta Rhymes shattered a windshield when he first heard Eminem PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT Busta Rhymes was on a tour bus when he first listened the Slim Shady LP and was so moved that he smashed his head against the bus' windshield. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Steve Martin

FOR ONCE, STEVE MARTIN IS NOT GOING TO PHONE IT IN CRACKED.COM IN THIS SHOW-TUNE PARODY, MARTIN DECIDES TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO TRY. FUTURE HOST TOPHER GRACE MARVELS: THIS LEGENDARY STAFF, WHICH HAS BOB ODENKIRK, CONAN O'BRIEN... CAME TOGETHER TO WRITE SOMETHING THAT'S so PERFECTLY . I COULDN'T GET OVER HOW PERFECT THAT OPENING IS.

Lost

Lloyd Braun, the former chairman of ABC Entertainment, got the idea for the show Lost after he watched the movie Cast Away. 0 ST CAST AWAY CRACKED.COM

National Comics

A comic book foretold Pearl Harbor. CONSTITUTION National Comics #18 depicted an air assault on Pearl Harbor. It was released in November 1941-one month before the attack by Japanese airplanes. GRACKED COM

Aunt Jemima

QUAKER OATS REBRANDED AUNT JEMIMA'S IMAGE IN 1989 AFTER ACTIVIST OUTCRY OVER THE RACIST DEPICTION OF A MAMMY CHARACTER. delicious for supper too! REG.U. S.PAT.OFF. AUNT JEMIMA READY-MIX for PANCAKES WHEAT, CORN. RYE AND RICE FLOUR Still based on Green's likeness, the character was given curly hair and pearl earrings in a superficial attempt to offset the racist history. CRACKED.COM

Fergie and Justin Timberlake

Fergie & Justin Timberlake 7 YEARS O Before Timberlake dated Britney, the 16-year-old had a brief fling with 23-year-old Fergie, who described it, We went to Hawaii together, but we were never serious. Не was Mr. Right Now. Mr. is a generous title to give a high schooler. CRACKED.COM

Travis Barker

Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker barely escaped a burning plane. Los A CAL RE THIS NOT In 2008, his flight crashed on takeoff, killing four people but sparing Barker and another passenger. Не remembers unbuckling his seatbelt with his hands on fire, then getting soaked in jet fuel and his whole body catching fire, and then running out of the plane before it exploded. Не had to spend four months in burn centers and have 27 surgeries. CRACKED.COM

G.I. Joe

CRACKED COM SPIRIT WAS A JUMBLE OF STEREOTYPES IN THE SHAPE OF AN ACTION FIGURE. Everything about G.I. Joe figure Spirit was a Native American stereotype, starting with his name: Charlie Iron-Knife. His card file described him as a tracker, a shaman, and a mystic warrior. Не also had an American eagle, because we know every Native American is issued one of those.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger Не called out Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. In February 2022, Scharzenegger put out a video in support of Ukraine, directly calling Putin out, while treating the Russian people with respect, and firmly telling them they were being fed misinformation about the invasion and its causes. CRACKED.COM

Mark Twain

Mark Twain invented the modern bra strap. CRACKED.COM Не was trying to eradicate suspenders from the face of the earth, but instead, his patented attachable and removable garment straps became the bra straps we wear and/or burn today.

Harvey Weinstein

Fallen Celebrities Then vs. Now For almost two decades, HARVEY WEINSTEIN was a respected figure in the indie movie industry. НЕ WAS ALSO ABUSING ACTRESSES. He'd harass them and threaten them with career death-and he indeed boycotted the careers of amazing actresses such as Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd. He's currently serving a 23- year sentence for sexual assault and rape. CRACKED.COM

Lacoste

The popped collar originated as a way to keep tennis players' necks from getting sunburnt. Prolific French tennis player René Lacoste came up with a softer, starch-free polo shirt in 1929, breaking with the stiff tennis gear tradi- tions of the day. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Racist Monopoly

A board game released called Blacks & Whites was basically a racist Monopoly. EHALL 04 COMPANY ELECTRIC £150 ٢٩٨٨ MALL PALL CRACKED.COM The game explores issues of racial inequality by treating players differently based on the race in which they play, demonstrating how the odds were stacked against some races in com- parison to others.

The Thing

John Carpenter's 1982 classic THE THING made keen use of practical effects to create a visceral haunting alien menace... The 2011 quasi-prequel of the same name instead settled for instantly dated and overly plastic-looking CGI, with no visceral impact whatsoever! CRACKED.COM

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg served subs... in a sub! Get it? The highest-grossing director of all time opened two locations of Dive! (a submarine-themed sub sandwich restaurant). The over-priced, mediocre food saw them close within a few years. CRACKED

The Elder Scrolls V

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has you face the colossal cosmic threat of bears! For a good chunk of the game, they are faster and stronger than you, and always show up completely out of nowhere. CRACKED.COM

Tommy Chong

CRAZY Cannabis Countries 6' 5' CHONG. TOMMY Pennsylvania has very strict state laws against pot paraphernalia. Shipping bongs there from California is what got Tommy Chong 9 months in jail. CRACKED.COM

School of Rock

BEHINO-THE-SCENES FACTS School was adapted for Nickelodeon and BROADWAY CRAGKED.COM The School of Rock show on Nick lasted for three forgettable seasons. It fared better on the stage, with new songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and four Tony nominations. Though it didn't win, the kids shredded during the awards show, sticking it to the Broadway man.

Matt Lauer

Fallen Celebrities Then vs. Now MATT LAUER was the face of NBC's Today for 20 years. НЕ ALSO REPORTEDLY HARASSED A LOT OF WOMEN, abused his power, and had a button to close the door of his office automatically, as normal people do. Не was fired from NBC, and nobody has seen him since. CRACKED.COM

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender was inspired by Antarctic exploration documentaries. Animation director Michael Dante DiMartino went through a period of being into documentaries about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, and the idea of a small band of people surviving in harsh conditions stuck with him. One night at Bikram Yoga, his friend Bryan Joseph Konietzko had the idea to combine that with a sketch they'd made of a bald kid with an arrow on his head. CRACKED.COM

House of Cards

UK's House of Cards predicted the fall of Margaret Thatcher The episode in which Margaret Thatcher's character resigned aired only four days before the actual Prime Minister resigned. CRACKED.COM

Roseanne

They wanted Roseanne Barr to play Peggy Bundy. They based the character on her, so they offered her the role first -- but she said no. CRACKED.COM

The Guess Who

THE GUESS WHO WROTE AMERICAN WOMAN ON THE SPOT AT A DIVE BAR. Guitarist Randy Bachman broke a guitar string during their set, and after he'd restrung it he was at the piano tuning his guitar. The audience started responding to the tuning sounds, so the band worked them into a song, right then and there. CRACKED.COM music.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2013/2/Randy-Bachman-takes-us-behind-the-writing-of-American-Woman

Lose/Lose

There is a video game, called Lose/Lose that deletes a random file on your computer every time you-killanenemy. CRACKED.COM Styled after games like Galaga, the player controls a spaceship and can shoot at aliens in their path, each representing a random file on the player's computer.

The Simpsons

NAME: Denise DuVernay FAN OF: The Simpsons THE SIMPSONS IN THE CORDORA CLASSROOM RESULT: A college seminar based on Springfield. Dr. DuVernay teaches a course at UC Davis called The Simpsons: Satire and Postmodernism for those who want to embiggen their college experience. CRACKED.COM

Supernatural

The Supernatural writers put themselves into the show, then mocked themselves for it. In Supernatural, an in-universe author (whose pen name is a combination of two of the show's writers' names) writes about his visions, and they all really happen to the main characters - without his knowledge. At one point, he says, Writing yourself into the story is one thing, but as a prophet? That's, like, M. Night-level douchiness. CRACKED.COM

Quake II

CRACKED.COM Quake II wasn't meant to be a Quake sequel. The new FPS that id Software was working on had several titles along its development process - first it was Lock & Load, then Strogg, then Load... Until they pretty much said, screw it, let's make it Quake II.

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