The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles initially loved beer, not pizza

Dive into the history of beer via comic book

Why was the covered beer stein invented, and what led to the creation of the Vienna Lager beer style? Find out in this article about a 173-page comic book outlining the history of beer. According to creator Mike Smith, the history of beer is a...

Mario's archnemesis hosted a children's show in the 1980s

"Super Mario Bros." grew so popular in the '80s, even King Koopa, the video game's villain, had his own television show, though it's been all but erased from TV history. There's good reason for that: It was a bizarre enterprise, featuring '30s cartoons, a grumpy stand-up comedian, and cheap production.

Many critically panned cult classics did well at the box office

Franchise flops like 1997's "Batman & Robin," 1983's "Jaws 3-D," and 2015's "Fantastic Four" were panned, though that didn't stop them from selling hundreds of millions of dollars in tickets.

The Beastie Boys started as a punk band

Before they became a legendary rap group, the New Yorkers played fast, scrappy hardcore in the style of Bad Brains. Still, they were fans of the explosion of hip-hop culture in their city and recorded a jokey track in 1983, which led to a record deal and conversion to hip-hop.

Matt Groening wrote the comic 'Life in Hell' before creating 'The Simpsons'

The strip began in 1977 as a self-published book featuring disturbing-looking rabbits navigating the indignities of life in Los Angeles, where Groening had recently moved. It was picked up by the Los Angeles Reader in 1980 and then syndicated by over 250 newspapers by 1986. Eventually, it caught the eye of James L Brooks, who was looking for a cartoonist to create sketches for "The Tracey Ullman Show" for Fox.

Pizza is believed to have been invented in Naples

Flatbreads were eaten by ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks, but historians trace pizza—flatbread with toppings, including present-day staples like tomatoes, cheese, garlic, oregano, and oil—back to 18th-century Naples, where the food was loved by its working poor, who appreciated a cheap, tasty meal. Naples formally became a part of Italy in 1861.

The man behind Comic Sans, the world's most contentious font

Comic Sans is often used as a joke, but it wasn't intended that way. Its creator wanted something eye-catching and original, something that reminded people of iconic comics like Batman and Watchmen. This interview details how he made that happen and how it took on a new life once it was released into the world.

Pepe the Frog went from internet meme to symbol of hate

The character first appeared in 2005, in an online comic called "Boy's Club," inspiring countless memes in which his likeliness was used as a supportive shorthand. Then, people started pairing Pepe with hateful messages, morphing him into something his author never intended.

A biker from Hell's Angels said Hunter S. Thompson's book about the group was mostly 'cheap trash'

Thompson's popular coverage of the motorcycle gang was not necessarily popular with the gang members themselves. In a bizarre and amusing TV interview from 1967, a biker is given the opportunity to confront Thompson about using the gang for profit, misrepresenting them, and failing to buy beer he promised them.

Fanfiction proliferated on fan-made sites in the 1990s

As the internet became more accessible in the '90s, fanfiction writers created websites dedicated to publishing stories about their favorite characters. Still, the hobby was far from mainstream. As one writer from that time said, "Going to Star Trek/comic book conventions in the '80s and '90s was something nerds did. Telling people you read or wrote fan fiction put you in the super geek category."

Pizzagate alleged a neighborhood pizza joint was hosting a sex trafficking scheme

During the 2016 presidential elections, Comet Ping Pong Pizza became the subject of a conspiracy theory that the Clinton family used the space as a front for kidnapping and trafficking children. The hoax began on the message board 4chan after the public became aware that the shop's owner was a Democratic donor.

Every Halloween, one Texas bar transforms into Moe's Tavern

Nickel City, a bar in Austin, Texas, dons a costume once a year, turning itself into Moe's Tavern, the watering hole that figures prominently in "The Simpsons." The menu features themed drinks, including "The Bart vs. Australia" and "The Spicy Marge."

'Pastafarians' have used their pasta-strainer-wearing faith to test the legal limits of what counts as religion

Founded in 2005 to mock the teaching of creationism in public schools, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has led to real First Amendment cases—over driver's license photos, courthouse statues, and prison rights. Courts have generally ruled it as satire rather than religion.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Onion stuck with satire

Although other comedians believed anything lighthearted in the wake of the attacks was inappropriate, The Onion, a satirical newspaper, decided to do what it always did. That issue’s top story was a headline that would go down in comedy history.

The modest monks behind Trappist beer

Trappist monks, a sect of Catholic clergy, follow a strict code that requires all work to benefit their religious community. It's believed they began brewing beer sometime in the 6th century to fund their abbeys.

The 'Ratatouille' musical started as a joke on TikTok

It all started as a meme: What if “Ratatouille” were adapted for the stage? Just a few months later, though, it was an actual production, featuring genuine Broadway stars.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

McDonald's releases a new adult Happy Meal

Some McDonald's restaurants in Ohio began a nostalgic campaign in late 2023, reviving chicken nugget-style doll toys famous in adult-themed Happy Meals over a quarter-century before. The company collaborated with artist Kerwin Frost to create the toys. Read more and see photos here.

The story of Sweeney Todd was first told in 1800s penny dreadfuls

The demon barber of Fleet Street made his first print appearance between the pages of penny dreadfuls, cheaply made serials filled with grisly tales and sold for a single penny. The tale of Sweeney Todd was published in 18 parts over the course of 18 weeks between November 1846 and March 1847. The series was expanded into 92 parts and later gathered into a single volume published in 1850.

The first draft of the classic American novel 'Of Mice and Men' was torn to shreds by John Steinbeck's dog.

T. rex hunted for prey but wasn't above scavenging rotting meat

Despite possessing a huge head full of serrated teeth the size of rail spikes, the Tyrannosaurus rex had puny, rigid arms, and scientists think it enjoyed scavenging.

Frisbees are named after a pie company

The toy was based on pie tins manufactured by the Frisbie Pie Company. Students used to throw the used tins around, inspiring Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni to design a plastic version.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Browse a pamphlet warning parents about the dangers of 'Dungeons & Dragons'

Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons was a nonprofit dedicated to counteracting what it considered the "Witchcraft Suicide Violence" of the fantasy roleplaying game. It includes a list of recent teenage suicides, arguing that they all had "one common denominator: ALL WERE HEAVILY INVOLVED IN DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS."

Carboxylic acids are one reason teens are smelly

Scientists compared the smells of babies and teenagers and identified some of the compounds that make teens smelly. Carboxylic acids present in teens, they wrote, seemed to give off an "earthy, musty, or cheesy" scent. This 2024 research could help inform future odor-control products.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The streamer no longer just offers TV and movies

As a means of keeping existing subscribers engaged, and to add new users on the margins, the streaming service began releasing its own original video games. Many are based on existing Netflix titles and franchises. See their current offerings here.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

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

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

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

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

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.

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.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

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.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

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

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

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

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.