30 Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Thursday, November 13, 2025

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30 Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Thursday, November 13, 2025
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Thanks for joining us on our morning stroll through the Pop Culture Fact Hall of Fame. Years ago, we were given the task of dusting off their glass casings each day, and we couldn't have been more honored to be curating all the exhibits for you now.

It does get a tad lonely in this creepy old hall, so we're more than grateful for the company. Pop culture history is meant to be shared, discussed and endlessly pontificated on. We have this time together, but we hope you'll take anything you learned here today and share it yourselves. We also hope you'll tell whomever where you learned it and come back yourself. We're always open. Thanks!

Bohemian Rhapsody

30 Trivia Nuggets from Pop Culture History for Thursday, November 13, 2025

Jabba's Inspiration

Sydney Greenstreet was famous for playing greedy gangsters in movies like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. не WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR JABBA THE HUTT. George Lucas instructed his design team to make Jabba alien and grotesque, just like Sydney Greenstreet. CRACKED.COM

The Shawshank Redemption

The Ohio State Reformatory very nearly got demolished in the '90s. 792 302 5 It shows up in The Shawshank Redemption, and after filming, they were supposed to demolish it - - but it eventually became a tourist attraction instead. CRACKED.COM

Crossroads

EARLY GIGS OF STAR TREK ACTORS ZOE SALDANA CROSSROADS Everyone has to start somewhere. Sometimes it's in a terrible Britney Spears movie everyone hates. That's what Zoe Saldana starred in before becoming Uhura in the rebootquel of Star Trek. CRACKED.COM

Leon: The Professional

A thief thought movie extras dressed as police on the set of Leon: The Professional were actual cops. The man ran from a store he had just robbed and en- countered the movie set by accident, where he saw all of the police and gave himself up to a bunch of uniformed extras. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Titanic

CRACKED.COM WHINING TITANIC THERE WAS A (BAD) ALTERNATE ENDING. Old Rose throws the Heart of the Ocean into the water, and Bill Paxton's character learns... something. Paxton disliked this ending, even though it gave him more screen time. The film tells you what it needs and what it does not need, he said-and it did not need this scene.

Finding Nemo

IN 2003's FINDING NEMO Extensive motion capture was used of actual great white sharks to get Bruce the shark's look. - CLASSICA ... Six different sharks were used, including two from the private collection at Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. CRACKED.COM

The Story of the Kelly Gang

The first full-length narrative feature film was accompanied by live sound effects. SANDY HAWKER. CLOSTER ON SALE DRAPERY. CLOTHING CUTLER TS SALOES Books The silent Australian film 'The Story of the Kelly Gang,' released in 1906, was enhanced by blank cartridges as gunshots and coconut shells beaten to- gether to simulate hoof- beats. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

Mr. Deeds

Rigyan Dav Halkon MANDRAKE 1898 FALLS inform in FIRR DEPARTMENT An The 2002 Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds was a remake of a 1936 film called Mr. Deeds Goes to Town which itself was based on a 1935 short story called Opera Hat. CRACKED.COM

Three Amigos!

CRACKED THREE AMIGOS! WAS ALMOST DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG. Instead it went to John Landis, who directed it while on trial for involuntary manslaughter.

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 2 was almost a direct-to-video release... 9 SAY ROUNDUP TV STINKY PETE ...but Disney saw the potential ($$$) and it made almost $500 million at the box office. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Pulp Fiction

According to Tarantino, the Gimp in Pulp Fiction is just a really unlucky dude. Не says the Gimp was like a hitchhiker or somebody that they picked up seven years ago, and they trained him so he's the perfect victim. CRACKED.COM

Harry Potter

CRACKED.COM Harry Potter wears glasses because J.K. Rowling wore glasses as a child. She was annoyed that none of the heroes in the books she read ever wore glasses, so she created one that did.

Alone

Survival Horror Movies 2020 ALONE Director John Hyams clearly learned a lot from those badass Universal Soldier straight-to-video sequels, because he then turned his talent to this gritty, minimalist, and just brutal survival horror thriller. A woman is stalked and then kidnapped, which is already bad enough- and then it devolves into violence and horror. CRACKED.COM

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp HOPE VAN DYNE is far from a hero in the comics. Hope was never the Wasp on the printed page. When she is there at all (she isn't a part of Marvel's main continuity), she's a baddie named the Red Queen. CRACKED.COM

Thanos

In the comics, Thanos does the awful things he does just to impress a girl. The girl is Death who, in the MCU, is a woman in a purple robe. Thanos is totally in love with her and murders countless beings just to impress her. CRACKED.COM

Darth Vader

Darth Vader STAR WARS CRACKED.COM Vader is the Dutch word for father and Darth comes from the word dark, so Darth Vader basically means Dark Father. Honestly, pretty cool. Especially when most Star Wars characters get stuck with a name like Poopoo Dungo.

Watchmen

We almost got a Watchmen movie in the '90s. Terry Gilliam was supposed to direct, and they wanted Schwarzenegger for Doctor Manhattan, while David Bowie wanted to play Rorschach. But it turned out to be too expensive, and anyway, Gilliam later decided Watchmen was too big for one movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Who Let The Dogs Out?

Two movies had a bidding war over Who Let The Dogs Out back when it was released. Nickelodeon wanted to use it for Rugrats in Paris, and Disney wanted it for 101 Dalmatians. Nickelodeon won by paying for the music video and giving the band, The Baha Men, a live concert special. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Spartacus

The crowd noises for Spartacus were recorded at a college football game. Before a 1959 MSU vs. Notre Dame game, the Spartacus sound crew showed up and asked the 76,000 fans to scream as loud as they could. They screamed, among others, the legendary line I am Spartacus! NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Godfather

Al Pacino nearly got fired from The Godfather. In the first couple of weeks, his performance totally baffled the filmmakers (except for Coppola, who supported him) and they wanted to replace him. They only changed their mind once they saw him in the restaurant scene -- if that scene hadn't worked, not even Coppola's support would have kept him in the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Baby Driver

C.J. Jones, who played Baby's deaf foster father in Baby Driver, is himself deaf. A bunch of hearing actors auditioned for the part after Jones did, but watching their auditions was very difficult for Wright after he'd seen Jones. Не says he couldn't give the part to someone else when a deaf actor can do it, so he just gave it to Jones. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Troy

Eric Bana made $550 off Brad Pitt in Troy. They had an agreement that they'd pay each other for hits during training for their fight scene - -5$0 for minor ones, and $100 for major ones. Eric Bana apparently got a whacking, because Pitt had to pay him $750 while he had to pay Pitt $200. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

First Man

In First Man, they recorded the sound of Ryan Gosling's breathing with a real lunar helmet. Gosling breathed through the helmet worn by Apollo 16 astronaut John Young. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Parasite

The trash can in the Parasite house cost $2,300. Bong Joon-ho wanted that specific model because it would look great in the movie: it opened and closed very smoothly, and it made a quiet sound instead of a loud clank. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

It

In It, when Pennywise's eyes look in opposite directions, that's not an effect. Bill Skarsgard can really do that with his eyes, so he did it in the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Matrix

The Matrix's code is a bunch of scrambled sushi recipes. To make the iconic code, production and concept designer Simon Whiteley scanned the kanji from his wife's Japanese cookbooks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Originally, Groot was going to be all grown up again in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. But James Gunn decided to keep him as baby Groot because he thought that'd be too repetitive. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Mad Max: Fury Road

The night-time sequence in Mad Max: Fury Road was shot in bright daylight. They just heavily overexposed the footage to turn it into a deep blue night. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Phantom Menace

The Phantom Menace even CGl'd Natalie Portman. She limped in some scenes because she had hurt her ankle, so the VFX team had to give her CGI legs in them. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

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