Its subculture has a litany of carny-inspired terms

Carnivals and circuses helped create professional wrestling

Catch wrestling became a fixture of American carnivals, which rose in popularity in the early 20th century. Carnival workers began fixing matches to reduce injuries and earn money from ignorant fans, whom they called "marks."

Wrestling terms you need to know

Wrestling may be scripted, but it’s built on its own vocabulary. From "babyfaces" and "heels" to "kayfabe" and "finishers," this explainer breaks down the key terms that shape what fans see in the ring—and what’s really going on behind the scenes.

The internet has changed how fans understand wrestling

Maintaining the illusion of professional wrestling—or kayfabe—was once considered the most important aspect of running a successful promotion. That’s changed over time, with wrestling’s most serious fans growing as interested in the stories behind the scenes as they are in the matches taking place in the ring.

Wrestling's superstars are capable of electric 'promos'

One convention of pro wrestling is the “promo”—a televised interview that allows wrestlers to develop their personas and articulate their characters’ motivations. The “Macho Man” Randy Savage is arguably the best to ever cut a promo, with his gravelly voice, memorable catchphrases and hilarious non-sequiturs making for great television.

Lucha libre is Mexico's high-flying spin on pro wrestling

Lucha libre, a Mexican style of professional wrestling that roughly translates to “free fighting,” shares some common characteristics with the American style, though it’s a genre in and of itself, with high-flying acrobatics, masked wrestlers and longstanding traditions.

Philosopher Roland Barthes loved wrestling

In his essay "The World of Wrestling," French philosopher/literary theorist Roland Barthes analyzes the "Human Comedy" of professional wrestling, arguing the form is a legitimate dramatic genre.

The internet has changed the definition of a cult classic

Cult classics were often established slowly over time, often through alternative outlets, like independent video and record stores, underground magazines, and tape trading. The internet has put those delivery methods on hyperdrive, helping to splinter the notion of a mainstream monoculture. The Ringer's Miles Surrey wonders whether anything can have a "cult following" if everything now exists outside the "mainstream."

Band names often fit into 'semantic spaces'

Linguist Chi Luu explains that we often understand and identify with band names, even if they're odd (or nonsensical) word combinations, based on their associations with other words. For example, bands that begin with "The" often nod to 1960s garage rock; heavy metal bands often rely on morbid or funereal words.

The history of curse words

While profane language is frowned upon in many circumstances, it remains an important part of human expression. This article explores the history of taboo words, and how they eventually creeped more into the mainstream. From 19th century Irish folk-saying “bejabbers,” to the dirty language in comedy routines by Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, discover a brief history of the swear words that have now become more prevalent in society.

'New wave' was coined for listeners put off by punk's ethos

The term was a reference to New Wave cinema, an iconoclastic, largely French form. Sire Records' Seymour Stein is believed to have pushed to use it to describe the label's bands, many of which came from the CBGB's scene, to avoid the negative associations with "punk rock." Sire ran a promotional campaign named "Don't Call It Punk" that made that message clear.

Hip-hop is both a music and a culture

While the word is often used to describe the popular genre, it’s historically been used to describe the culture that sprang up around the music in 1970s New York, including breakdancing and graffiti.

Prediction markets have their own lingo that's an amalgamation of Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang

For instance, if you've been out-maneuvered by another trader, you've been "mogged." A "rulescuck" is someone who is a stickler for betting market rules and may try to win on a technicality.

'Creepypasta' is a meme that has its roots in folklore

The genre of crowdsourced, horror folklore comes from copypasta, a term that refers to snippets of content copy-and-pasted online ad nauseam. These memes' allure stems at least partly from how they seemingly rise from nowhere, with tales crafted by many hands over many iterations.

Understanding the Disney adult phenomenon

Disney isn’t just for kids, at least according to Disney adults, who dress up as their favorite characters and make pilgrimages to the company’s parks. They’re often considered immature, unrefined, or worse, but the members of this subculture don’t see anything wrong with their passionate devotion to Disney. This article explores the phenomenon through interviews with actual Disney adults, offering a more nuanced take on the reasons behind the much-maligned trend.

Where did the term ‘astronaut’ come from?

Astronaut essentially translates to space sailor, though these sailors may be referred to differently depending on their home country. For example, Russian star sailors are called cosmonauts. Though why American, European, Canadian, and Japanese...

Edgier burlesque shows helped define the form

Stand-up came into its own at burlesque shows, thanks to audiences who sought humor that reflected the hectic, urban settings where they lived. According to historian Joseph Boskin, “The tempo of the comedy, like the movement of city streets, was swift and jolting and possessed highly recognizable parameters.”

Country music can be traced back to Colonial America

The genre begins with the folk music of the Colonial settlers, blending the area’s regional sounds, including gospel, African spirituals, and Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, and Celtic ballads.

One podcast professional believes the format needs a new name

In the past few years, the podcast has moved from a purely audio-driven medium to one that doesn’t appear all that different from a television talkshow. Audio engineer Dennis Funk proposes renaming the classic podcast—an artful audio documentary—to distinguish it from the junk posing as the genuine article.

Dr. Seuss was likely the first to use the word 'nerd' in print

The word appeared in 1950's "If I Ran the Zoo," but there are theories that the word (or forms of it) were already part of popular slang before the book was published.

Soap operas earned their name thanks to the sponsorships of soap brands

Many early 20th-century radio programs for women were sponsored by brands that introduced each new episode. Because these dramas were aimed at women, many of their sponsors were for household products, like soap. The association led some to refer to the shows as "soap operas," a title that stuck.

Fantasy has dozens of subgenres

“Fantasy” itself is a rather broad way of characterizing fiction. The genre encompasses many subgenres, including epic (like JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings”), dark (like Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline”), or even superhero (like your favorite Marvel or DC comics).

A DJ helped popularize the term 'rock 'n' roll' to resell R&B to a broad audience

Cleveland DJ Alan Freed launched his radio show "Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll Party," rebranding R&B records, largely performed by Black artists, as "rock 'n' roll" to appeal to a largely white audience. The name was a double-entendre, describing the sound and the sexual activities it was said to induce.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

A group of daring bootleggers created NASCAR

When Prohibition made alcohol illegal in 1920, it didn’t stop Americans from making and consuming it. The law drove the practice underground. Runners risked their lives to deliver moonshine and began racing among themselves.

A children's toy inspired the name ‘Super Bowl’

The name “Super Bowl” was coined by AFL founder Lamar Hunt, who casually suggested it in 1966—riffing on his child’s Super Ball toy—after alternatives such as “The Big One” and “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” proved clunky and forgettable. The name was officially adopted for the third championship.

The drama of the car dealership quota

Car salespersons are often under a ton of pressure to meet quotas at their dealership, at least partly explaining why they are known to stoop to such lows to sell cars. In this now legendary podcast episode, "This American Life" host Ira Glass and...

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.