Fact. Fact. Bullsh*t! Read online

  CHAPTER 2

  Pop Culture!

  I know a bestselling, prize-winning author who is hopelessly addicted to reality TV shows about rich housewives, and a decorated sommelier who has Bieber fever. These days, Americans watch three to eight hours of television every day–much more time than we spend socializing. At the supermarket, you can find a mountain of magazines with cover stories about what color toothbrush your favorite celebrity uses.

  Of course, popular culture is more than just tacky television and celebrities–it’s the music we listen to, the lingo we use, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive. If you think you’re not connected to pop culture, take a look at photographs of people a hundred years ago and ask yourself: Do I look like them? A hundred years from now, somebody may look at a picture of you and say, “What is she wearing? What is that strange machine next to her? And what does that gesture mean?”

  If you’ve been a college student recently, you might well have taken a “Philosophy and Star Trek” course at Georgetown University, or perhaps Brooklyn College’s “South Park and Political Correctness.” You might have enjoyed Frostburg State University’s “The Science of Harry Potter,” Stanford’s “Psychology of Facebook,” or if you’re truly masochistic, the University of Virginia’s “GaGa for Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity.”

  And if you’ve taken them all, you might be ready to spot the bullshit in this chapter.

  BACK TO THE FUTURE!

  In Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s original draft of the script, the time machine was a modified Honda CBX 650 motorcycle. In order to generate the power needed to return home, Marty and Doc had to steal atomic energy from a nearby nuclear reactor.

  Michael J. Fox was originally considered to be too busy shooting Family Ties to be in the film, so the producers cast Eric Stoltz instead. Stoltz filmed the role for a month before he was fired and Fox was cast.

  President Ronald Reagan was a huge fan of the movie. During a personal screening, he laughed uproariously at Doc Brown’s joke at his expense and had the projectionist run the scene again. Reagan went on to quote the movie in his 1986 State of the Union address.

  Bullsh*t! In the original draft of the script, the time machine was a refrigerator. In order to return home, Marty and Doc had to harness power from an atomic explosion at the Nevada Test Site. Zemeckis scrapped the idea because he was concerned kids would lock themselves in refrigerators after seeing the movie.

  Fact. Recasting the part added $3 million to the price tag of the film. Fox continued shooting Family Ties during the day and shot Back to the Future on nights and weekends. Stoltz, it was decided, was too dramatic as Marty McFly. Teen heartthrob Corey Hart was also considered for the part. The filmmakers’ original choice for Doc Brown? John Lithgow.

  Fact. The affable president quoted Doc Brown: “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” Richard Nixon also had a connection to the movie: He attended Whittier High School, which served as the set for the film’s fictional Hill Valley High School.

  THE CELL PHONE!

  The first cell phone call was placed in New York City in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper on a Motorola phone that weighed more than 4 pounds. The first mobile phone call was placed in St. Louis in 1946 with a phone plus equipment that weighed 80 pounds.

  In 1987, around 1 million people in the U.S. had a cell phone. By 2010, more than 285 million people in the country had one. That means Americans with cell phones today outnumber the total population of the country in 1987 by many millions.

  A recent study revealed that around one in 200 British people suffer from nomophobia: the persistent, irrational fear of cell phones. Nomophobes will go to great lengths to avoid owning or even using cell phones, and they experience anxiety while near one, even if the phone is off.

  Fact. Dr. Cooper developed the phone for Motorola, and had the honor of placing the first call. The battery alone weighed as much as five entire cell phones today, and only lasted twenty minutes.

  In 1946, a cell phone hadn’t been conceived of, but a mobile phone had. The phone operated using the Mobile Telephone Service, which was actually radio-based. In 1946, there were only three channels available for mobile phone calls, which meant that each one was a sort of party line. The service cost $30 per month, which, adjusted for inflation, is the equivalent of more than $300 today.

  Then, of course, there would be the chiropractor fees you’d need to pay after lugging around 80 pounds of equipment.

  Fact. There are well over 307 million American citizens around today, over 90 percent of whom have a cell phone. In 1987, the population of the country was between 230 and 245 million people total.

  In 2009, Americans used about 6.1 billion minutes of talk time each day.

  Bullsh*t! Nomophobia is quite real, but it is the fear of being out of cell phone contact. Nomophobes experience anxiety when away from their phones, often never turn them off, and experience noticeable increases in anxiety and stress levels when their battery is low. “Nomophobia” is a portmanteau of “no-mobile-phobia.” A recent study found that 53 percent of Brits are nomophobes.

  RUBIK’S CUBE!

  A classic Rubik’s Cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible starting positions. If you had a Rubik’s Cube for every possible permutation, you could cover the surface of 30,000 earths.

  The Rubik’s Cube was first invented by naval engineer Richard James in the 1940s, who first called it “The Rubric Cube.” His two sons couldn’t pronounce it, calling it “Rubik’s Cube” instead, and the new name stuck.

  A Saturday-morning cartoon called Rubik, the Amazing Cube ran for one season in 1983. The show centered on three siblings, Carlos, Lisa, and Reynaldo Rodriguez, and their magical talking cube named Rubik. The theme song was recorded by the boy band Menudo.

  Fact. When the toys first went on sale, promotional materials stated that there were “more than 3 billion” possible arrangements of a Rubik’s Cube. This was correct, since there are more than 43 quintillion arrangements, but it’s a gross understatement–it’s even more extreme than saying the earth is home to more than one person.

  If you counted the permutations of the Rubik’s Cube at a rate of one per second, it would take you even longer than the total age of the universe. Much longer.

  Despite the ridiculously high number of combinations, a team of mathematicians proved in 2010 that you are never more than twenty moves away from solving a Rubik’s Cube.

  Bullsh*t! Richard James, a naval engineer, did invent one of the most popular toys of all time in the 1940s: the Slinky.

  The Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian architect named Erno˝ Rubik.

  Fact. Rubik looked a lot like a Smurf trapped in a regular Rubik’s Cube toy. He had all kinds of magical powers, and routinely saved Carlos, Lisa, and Reynaldo from an evil magician. Before Rubik could unleash his magical powers, he had to be solved.

  Episodes include “Honolulu Rubik,” “Back Packin’ Rubik,” and “Rubik and the Pooch-Nappers.”

  THE BEATLES!

  Before joining the Beatles, Ringo Starr played in a very short-lived band called Beatcomber, alongside Roy Dyke, Richie Snare, Billy Shears, and Richard Starkey.

  There was a fifth Beatle, named Stuart Sutcliffe, who tragically died of an aneurysm at age twenty-one in 1962. In the same year, the Beatles’s original drummer, Pete Best, was replaced by Ringo Starr.

  The original name for the song “Hey Jude” was “Hey Jules,” and was about Julian Lennon, John’s son. In 1996, Julian anonymously bid £25,000 at an auction to get the original recording notes for the song.

  Bullsh*t! “Beatcomber” was an alias used by John Lennon on a couple of occasions. “Roy Dyke,” “Richie Snare,” and “Billy Shears” are all aliases once used by Ringo Starr.

  “Ringo Starr” itself is a stage name; the Beatle’s real name is Richard Starkey.

  Fact. Sutcliffe was the band’s bassist who quit in 1961 to pursue his visual art career. Some believe that his
aneurysm in 1962 was a result of an earlier bar fight he had gotten into alongside John Lennon in 1961. The true cause is not known.

  Pete Best was the drummer for the Beatles from August 1960 to August 1962.

  Fact. Paul McCartney wrote the song for Julian shortly after John split up with Julian’s mother, Cynthia, in hopes that it would help him cope. McCartney later changed the name in the song to “Jude” because it “sounded better.”

  Julian Lennon was famously bitter towards his father for years, but in the ’90s he started to acquire mementos (such as the “Hey Jude” recording notes) and publicly started to embrace his connection to John.

  SOAP OPERAS!

  The term “soap opera” originated in the 1950s, during the dawn of daytime serials, as a disparaging reference to the idea that the audience was made up of procrastinating laundrywomen and dishwashing housewives.

  The longest-running television drama of all time was Guiding Light, which was canceled in 2009 after fifty-seven years and nearly 16,000 episodes. Second place goes to As the World Turns, with fifty-four years and nearly 14,000 episodes.

  Soap operas are not just an American phenomenon. They are hugely popular in the United Kingdom and Australia, and, in all, soap operas are aired in more than fifty countries, including Kazakhstan, Jamaica, Indonesia, Egypt, and Slovakia.

  Bullsh*t! The term originated in the 1930s, and it was disparaging, but in actuality the word “soap” was a reference to the fact that the shows were sponsored by manufacturers of household cleaning products, such as Procter & Gamble. “Opera” was a reference to the over-dramatic quality of the programs. The first soap operas were radio broadcasts.

  Soap operas made the leap from the airwaves to the TV set during the 1950s, and by the early 1960s, radio soaps were all but extinct.

  Fact. In fact, Guiding Light has the record for the longest-running drama in television and radio history. The show was launched on the radio in 1937, long before it made the jump to television in 1952. The show ran, in various formats, for seventy-two years. Between 1952 and 1956, Guiding Light was produced on both radio and television simultaneously.

  Both As the World Turns and Guiding Light were sponsored throughout their history by Procter & Gamble, the “soap” in “soap opera.”

  Fact. Sri Lanka, Belgium, Morocco, Japan, Estonia, China, New Zealand, and Serbia have their own soaps as well, as do many, many other countries.

  In 2011, the British soap Coronation Street was the longest-running soap opera still in production, having launched in 1960.

  BARBIE!

  Ruth Handler had the idea for Barbie dolls while on a 1956 trip to Germany, when she encountered a doll called Bild Lilli, which was for adults. She named Barbie after her daughter and Ken after her son.

  Karate Barbie, Rodeo Clown Barbie, Grunge Barbie, and Twinkie-Time Barbie are all real, official Barbies produced by Mattel at one time or other.

  The BBC News estimated that if Barbie were a real woman with the same proportions, and had a 28 waist, she would be 76 tall. A group of researchers at the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, similarly concluded that if Barbie were a real woman, she’d lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for regular menstruation.

  Fact. Bild Lilli was based on a German cartoon character–a single sassy girl who was into the party scene and used men for money. The Bild Lilli doll was sold to adults as a joke gift. The original Barbie doll is extremely similar, with only a few modifications.

  Ruth Handler’s husband had founded Mattel, and she would later become president of the company. She noticed her daughter giving her baby dolls adult roles during playtime, and decided girls needed adult dolls. She bought a few Bild Lilli dolls in Germany, brought them home, and the rest is toy history.

  Her children were named Barbara and Ken.

  Bullsh*t! None of the mentioned were ever official Mattel Barbies, but Totally Tattoos Barbie, Oreo Fun Barbie, The Birds Barbie (styled after the Alfred Hitchcock movie, complete with attacking birds), Harley Davidson Barbie, NASCAR Barbie, Barbie’s pregnant friend Midge, and the Barbie & Tanner play set (which includes her dog, a trash can, a scooper, and a tiny piece of dog poop) are all very, very real.

  Fact. Barbie defenders argue that her proportions have to be exaggerated in order to wear doll clothes, which are much thicker in proportion to the body than human-sized clothes. Barbie’s T-shirt, scaled to human size, would be as thick as a heavy coat.

  The 76 Barbie of BBC News’s estimation would also have 40 hips and a 37 bust. Barbie creator Ruth Handler reportedly argued that it was important for a girl’s esteem to play with a doll with breasts.

  JEANS!

  In 1909, Solomon Levi and William Strauss patented an amazing new kind of fabric–denim–and began selling blue jeans under the company name Levi Strauss. Andrew Strauss, the great-

  grandson of William, is the current C.E.O.

  For a long time in the U.S., jeans were more popularly called dungarees, a name derived from Dungri, India, where a denim-like material was made. In Danish they are called cowboybusker, and in Hungarian, farmernadrág.

  After President Barack Obama threw the first pitch at the 2009 All-Star game in a pair of ill-fitting Levi’s, he was derided by the press for wearing “dad jeans.” Obama responded to the outcry, saying, “Those jeans are comfortable. And for those of you who want your president to look great in his tight jeans, I’m sorry. I’m not the guy.”

  Bullsh*t! The company was founded (as a dry goods purveyor) in 1853 by Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant to the United States. He did not invent denim–it had been around for hundreds of years already. John Anderson is the C.E.O. of Levi Strauss & Co., not Andrew Strauss, who is a British cricket player.

  You generally can’t patent a fabric, and it’s even hard to obtain a patent on a style of clothing. Levi Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis did get a patent in 1873 for an “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings,” which was the method of using little copper rivets to reinforce work pants–a feature we still have on our jeans today.

  It is generally accepted that Levi Strauss & Co. was the first American company making and selling blue jeans.

  Fact. Dungri (sometimes Dongri) is part of Mumbai, in India, and coarse calico (similar to denim but not the same) was made there for a long time, as were pants of the material.

  Apparently, Danes associate jeans with cowboys, while Hungarians associate them with farmers.

  Fact. Obama went on to say, “Michelle–she looks fabulous. I’m a little frumpy.” Critics complained that the pants were too baggy and high-waisted, and that the legs were too short.

  Obama threw the first pitch at Nationals Park on April 5, 2010, wearing sharp-looking, well-tailored khaki pants.

  STAR WARS!

  The original Star Wars trilogy earned a combined six Academy Awards and ten nominations, while the subsequent trilogy received three nominations and not a single Oscar. Still, the Star Wars franchise is the highest-grossing film series of all time.

  When Darth Vader’s iconic mask was first designed, it was only supposed to appear in one small scene in the initial film.

  In Britain’s 2001 census, 390,000 people listed “Jedi” as their religious affiliation. Inspired by this, the Church of Jediism was founded in 2008 as a legitimate religion for practitioners of “the Force.” A British man narrowly avoided jail after donning a trash bag, yelling “Darth Vader!”, and assaulting the leader of the church with a metal crutch.

  Bullsh*t! The original Star Wars trilogy did not win a single Oscar, though it received six nominations. The later trilogy received twenty nominations for Academy Awards.

  Star Wars is the third-highest-grossing film series of all time, after Harry Potter and James Bond.

  Just in case you were wondering (I was), the Police Academy movies are rock-solid at around 135th place.

  Fact. Originally, Vader was supposed to be a tall, grim-faced general. Since a scene involved him crossing
through the vacuum of space to board a ship, a breathing apparatus was needed. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie designed the helmet for the one scene. Little did he know that it would become an enduring cultural icon.

  Fact. Although the 390,000 census respondents were making a collective joke, the Church of Jediism is very real. To date, they have over 16,000 official members of the church. The founder, Barnaby Jones, did take a mighty thwack to the head from a crutch. His attacker, Arwel Hughes, claimed to not remember the assault because he had drunk two gallons of boxed wine.

  STAR TREK!

  In the Star Trek franchise, aliens known as the Klingons periodically speak Klingon, which is a grammatically complete artificially constructed international auxiliary language created by linguist L. L. Zamenhof. Notable writers Baldur Ragnarsson, Marjorie Boulton, and Raymond Schwartz have all penned poetry in Klingon, and the horror movie Incubus was produced entirely in Klingon.

  After playing Lieutenant Uhura on the first season of the original Star Trek series, Nichelle Nichols was seriously considering quitting the show. She was convinced to stay by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who told her she was an invaluable role model for black women in America.

  You could live on Star Trek Drive in either Birmingham, Alabama, or Shingletown, California; Star Trek Lane in Garland, Texas; Klingon Court in Sacramento, California; or Roddenberry Avenue (Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry) in Enterprise, Nevada.