12 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia to Jump-Start Your Clunker

The world’s top chess player wore jeans to the World Blitz Championship, and when he was told that was against the dress code, he walked out. They later reached a deal allowing for “appropriate jeans.”

Holland says he saw two guys getting in a fight, and pulled one of them off of the other: “You could see the wheels turning, like, ‘I’m really angry, but Spider-Man is telling me to calm down.’”

NFL football took up the top 11 spots, with the Super Bowl taking number one. The presidential debate on ABC came in 12th place, followed by the Oscars in 13th.

All five games of the World Series made it, after being completely shut out of the list in 2023. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship clocked in at 45, while the men’s game didn’t make it at all.

Rod Stewart put on a beach show in Rio de Janeiro for 3.5 million people on New Year’s Eve in 1994.

Rodgers took his league-record 567th sack in a game against the Buffalo Bills. Then he threw an interception. Then he got called for a late hit after shoving the guy who intercepted him when he was already out-of-bounds. Then he got benched after trailing 40-0.

Thanks to Walt Disney and his legacy of bloodthirsty lawyers, copyrighted works don’t enter the public domain for 95 years. Art from 1929 that just became available for gritty reboots include Popeye, Tintin and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Popeye wasn’t portrayed sucking down spinach to gain superhuman strength until 1931, meaning you’d technically have to wait until 2026. But the copyright on that particular 1931 comic strip may not have been renewed.

Olive Oyl has been in the public domain since 2014, having been created in 1919. Before Popeye came around, she was engaged to a dope named Ham Gravy.

When 72-year-old Rob Paparozzi was tapped to help Chalamet learn the harmonica for A Complete Unknown, his response was, “Never heard of him.” His kids and grandkids had to walk him through Chalamet’s filmography to explain why it was a pretty big deal.

The U.S. box office profited to the tune of $8.5 billion, a higher number than expected, by employing the time-honored tradition of not investing in new ideas. The only non-sequel to crack the top 15 was Wicked, which isn’t exactly a novel story itself.

Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto said he questioned his own parenting when he first watched his kid try to play Super Mario 64: “Seeing him try dozens of times, over and over, to get up this unclimbable hill, as a parent I couldn’t help but think, ‘Geez, does this kid have any brains?’”