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You’d be better off just picking a beet or something

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia That Will Qualify You for RFK Jr.’s Forced Labor Camps If Ingested

February 22, 2025

If you ever feel underprepared, just remember that Paul Verhoeven never even read the novel Starship Troopers was based on.

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40

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Meta Movies The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Young Nicolas Cage was based on a crazy interview he gave. Initially meant to look like his Con-Air character, young Cage was based on his shirt-removing, karate- chopping, high-octane 1990 interview with Terry Wogan while promoting Wild at Heart. CRACKED.COM — Source: Screen Rant, NicolasCageOnFire/YouTube

39

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

MARSHALL SARAH The director watched BLUE CRUSH a gazillion times to get the FO surfing right. I scenes Nick Stoller said that he pulled SCENES apart every surfing scene in the Lu 2002 movie to learn how it's done and edited together. BEHIND — Moviemaker

38

Starship Troopers

STARSHIP TROOPERS PAUL VERHOVEN DIDN'T EVEN FINISH THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. Verhoven hated the book and dropped it after a few chapters. Не just had screenwriter Edward Neumeier just explain it to him. CRACKED.COM — Source

37

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON SHOWS OFF PHANTOM MENACE SHIPS BEFORE THE MOVIE RELEASE. SELECT YOUR CRAFT NABOO STARFIGHTER SECONDARY WEAPON SEEKER TORPEDOES CRACKED.COM By entering a cheat code, players could select a Naboo Starfighter to pilot in the Nintendo 64's Rogue Squadron. It would be six months until this class of ship was revealed in The Phantom Menace. — Source

36

Tippi Hedren

Alfred Hitchcock Не harassed actresses outside the set. In one infamous case, The Birds' Tippi Hedren rejected Hitchcock's advances, and he reacted by throwing live birds at her for five days. After shooting was over, he proceeded to ruin her career by blacklisting her for years. CRACKED.COM — More: 12 Classic Movie Moments Made Possible by Abuse and Murder

35

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Embarrassing moments in dignified franchises The Last Jedi Kylo Ren goes topless for some reason They insist Adam Driver needed to be shirtless to prove that Rey could see him, not just hear him, but a lot of fans thought it was for the muscle flaunt (and it still doesn't explain those high-waisted pants). CRACKED — Lucasfilm
HuffPost

34

The Irishman

CRACKED.COM The Irishman Scorsese and Pacino hadn't worked together before. It seems insane and incorrect, but it's true. Martin Scorsese had been wanting to work with Al Pacino ever since they met in 1970 - but they wouldn't for fifty years. — Source: Screen Rant

33

Stranger Things

Stranger Things is ending with Season Five. Fingers crossed we're not in another Cold War with Russia by then. — Source: Collider

32

Ben Stiller

CRACKED BEN STILLER Ben Stiller was in a teenage punk band, Capital Punishment, and they released an album named Roadkill in the 1980s. Yep -- Ben Stiller used to be a punk drummer. — Pitchfork / Hollywood Reporter

31

Jeff Goldblum

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia That Will Qualify You for RFK Jr.’s Forced Labor Camps If Ingested — Source: 6 A-List Stars Who Made Insane Cameos In D-List Video Games

30

Steve Blackman

Post-Wrestling Careers Steve Blackman will bail you out The Lethal Weapon may be former WWF Hardcore Champion, but nowadays he's hardcore about keeping you out of prison. currently working as a bail bondsman in Pennsylvania. 362436 Blackman Bail Bonds CRACKED.COM7) 919-2015 BlackmanBailBonds.com 24HR/7Days A Week — Source: Steve Blackman/YouTube

29

Harry Potter

GRACKEDCON At what point do they become invisible? 10 9 Does no one in a busy train station notice groups of people running and disappearing into a wa

28

The Handmaid’s Tale

BEHIND-THE-SCENESP FACTS THERE'S A REASON WHY HANDMAIDS WEAR RED. THE HANDMAID'S TALE Margaret Atwood says that Handmaids wearing red is meant to symbolize the blood of parturition and Mary Magdalene. There's also a practical reason for the color red - -it's an easy color to spot if they happen to flee. — The New York Times

27

Deadpool 2

In Deadpool 2, the X-Force would originally get blown up by landing on a minefield. The filmmakers couldn't come up with a good reason for the plane f — Source: Film School Rejects

26

American Dad

CRACKEDcO COM rmiesy DEDa In the beginning of the series, Stan Smith is a hardcore conservative. A couple seasons later, that aspect of his character

25

A Christmas Story

CRACKED.COM The leg lamp in A CHRISTMAS STORY was inspired by soda. DRINK NEHI Author Jean Shepherd got the idea for the wonderfully tacky lamp NEW GOLD from an ad for Nehi Soda that featured female legs. (Nehi still QUALITY BEVERAGES exists today - it's called RC Cola.) — Source

24

Batman vs. Predator

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE (Average) Batman: 63.62 Predator: 40.67 The judges rule that critics know nothing! THE ROUND IS VOID! — Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Game Rant

23

24

24's Jack Bauer keeps shouting Damn it! because that was the only option. The creators needed to have him yell something when he's angry, but anything other than a curse word felt forced. Damn it! was the only one they could run on network TV, so they used that every time. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Seinfeld

Jason Alexander and Jerry Weren't Close During The Show's Run Although Alexander and Seinfeld had some of the best onscreen chemistry of any sitcom friends, Alexander has mentioned that they were really just work friends. Alexander elaborates, We had very different lives. But we really hung out with each other at the show. We were workmates. After nine years, when the show ended, we kind of went, 'Oh, bye, see ya! CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — The Things

21

Ginny Weasley

Ginny Weasley's characteristics are insultingly watered down in the Harry Potter films. She is written as a complex character in the books: a fierce,

20

The Smurfs

Smurfette was created to be a honey pot to trap the smurfs. The recipe Gargamel used to bring her to life called for sugar and spice but nothing nice, a dram of crocodile tears, half a pack of lies, a chatter of a magpie, and the hardest stone for her heart. Her hair turned blonde when Papa Smurf countered the spells. CRACKED.COM — Origin Stories That Are Over-The-Top Dark (For No Reason)

19

Xander Berkeley

CRACKEDCO YOU MAY RECOGNIZE XANDER BERKELEY FROM THE WALKING DEAD TURNS OUT HE'S OVERQUALIFIED

18

The Olympics

CANCELLED CRACKED.COM OLYMPIC EVENTS Gold Medal Sculpture In 1912, American Walter Winans became the first and only Olympian in history to win medals for both art and sport: Sculpture and Running Target Shooting — Mental Floss and Artnet.com

17

David Beckham

celebrity Besties Bendin' it like Beckham, smokin' it like Snoop David Beckham + snoop Dogg The soccer star and the rapper have been friends ever since Beckham and his family moved to California. The Doggfather said, Whenever I make a record, I give a copy before it's done. He's like a brother. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

The Social Network

You're not an asshole, Mark. You're just trying so hard to be. the social network Wait, what? If someone's trying to be an asshole, that's what they are. (As proven by him being an asshole to every single person in the entire movie.) CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Half-Life 2

Do you want to play as Gordon Freeman with a Portal Gun? You can! While not official (it’s too cool for that), dedicated modders have found a way to, ahem… combine the two Valve games, by bringing the Aperture Science device from Portal into Half-Life 2. — More: 6 Marvelous Mods That Combine Games In Glorious Ways

14

Yeardley Smith

Celebrity Side Hustles Yeardley Smith Podcaster Famous for voicing Lisa Simpson, Smith and her husband Detective Dan host the popular true crime podcast Small Town Dicks. It's had 11 series, including trips to Australia and the UK to look into small-town crimes, with Smith adding humor. CRACKED

13

Biff Tannen

Movie Bullies Back to the Future BIFF TANNEN We could easily include every Tannen here: The Donald Trump-like, parallel universe butthole, Buford Mad Dog Tannen, everyone. We're going with Biff Tannen, though, who tries to molest Lorraine. Good job putting him in his place, George! You ever think of running for class president? CRACKED.COM

12

Mattel

CRACKED MATTEL'S NIMBUS 2000: A SHORT-LIVED HIT WITH KIDS AND ADULTS ALIKE. In 2001, Mattel released a vibrating version of Harry Potter's broomstick, the Nimbus 2000. It was a big hit, but it was quickly taken off the shelves after people on Amazon.com started talking about how popular it was among younger girls. — Source

11

The Princess and the Frog

To cash in on The Princess and the Frog hype, somebody made a lazy, innuendo-loaded ripoff. The Frog Prince is about a frog dishing out lies to get la

10

Scandal

ABC WANTED CONNIE BRITTON TO PLAY THE LEAD IN SCANDAL. cracn When the show got the green light, ABC recommended Connie Britton for the role of Olivia

9

Dunkirk

The guy walking off into the sea in Dunkirk -well, that really happened. The man who did it in real life just dropped his equipment, told people he'd walk to England, and simply walked off into the waves. CRACKED.COM — Slate

8

Visual Effects

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now The FX wizards The wizards to whom we owe our cinematic visions of dinosaurs can be summed up in five names: The visionary, decades-long stop-motion work of Willis O'Brien and then Ray Harryhausen-and then the quantum leap that Phil Tippett's modern stop- motion, Stan Winston's animatronics, and Dennis Muren's CGI brought to Jurassic Park. CRACKED.COM

7

Will Smith

Will Smith came up with After Earth as a parenting metaphor. In the movie, a sci-fi soldier (Will Smith) guides his son (his real-life son Jaden) through a post-apocalyptic landscape. For Will Smith, it was really about him helping Jaden navigate show business. The movie got an 11% Rotten Tomatoes score and six Golden Raspberry nominations (the Smiths won an acting Razzie each, and another one as the Worst Screen Combo). CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Demi Lovato

In Venezuela, a fan pulled Demi Lovato's hair while they were on the street. H They were walking with a bunch of bodyguards around them, but apparently that wasn't enough - - somebody got ahold of their hair and grabbed. CRACKED.COM — Source: PopCrush

5

The Sound of Music

CRACKED Christopher Plummer finally found fame in America when he played the grumpy Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Though he enjoyed working with Julie Andrews, he thought the movie itself was quite boring. In his autobiography published later on, he even referred to it as S&M and expressed no apologies for his distaste. — Boston

4

Taco Bell

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia That Will Qualify You for RFK Jr.’s Forced Labor Camps If Ingested — Source: Mental Floss

3

Sky Dancers

Product Recalls Sky Dancers In 2000, Galoob Toys Inc. recalled 8.9 million Sky Dancers flying dolls due to reports of 150 injuries, including eye injuries, broken teeth, a mild concussion, a broken rib, and facial lacerations. CRACKED — Source

2

Peter Pan

The creator of Peter Pan wrote Sherlock Holmes fanfic. Think fanfiction is a thing of the internet? People have been writing (and publishing) pastiches and imaginary sequels with their favorite characters since the 1800s. J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote his own Sherlock Holmes adventure in 1893. — More: 4 'Internet Things' That Are Older Than You Thought

1

Iron Man 3

All the marketing campaigns for Iron Man 3 indicated Tony Stark would be facing one of his biggest enemies, The Mandarin. Even teasing the 10 Rings of

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