This is the thread for unusual details in wikipedia articles.

new user name just dropped

lol

It doesn't really belong in this thread maybe but I'd never heard of "cargo cults" before, until last night, when reading up on active volcanoes

whoa!

Yeah, there’s a very-long-standing active cone on Tanna in Vanuatu, and a particular cult (John Brum I think?) is associated with it. Fascinating stuff, I was like, why haven’t I read about this before? Then I clicked the “in popular culture” section and it said “what, you haven’t seen The Gods Must Be Crazy?” and I replied “I did when I was a kid and it seemed like a weird problematic fantasy, not like something that had any basis in reality”

less an 'unusual' detail than a fucked-up one

Disregarding her daughter's desire to go to Oxford, her mother arranged an encounter with Donald Ferguson, her mother's former lover. Helen Emily Woods married him in 1920, a few months before he took a position with the Railway Company in Burma.

RE: Cargo cults, I've read a few articles about that tribe in Papua New Guinea that 'worshiped' the late Prince Phillip, kind of a cool story

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10357477.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/princephilip-group.jpg

Not unusual, necessarily, but I admire the attempt to summarize the sheer zaniness that is the video for El Debarge's "Who's Johnny?"

The music video features El DeBarge singing in a courtroom, where a judge is presiding over the trial of Johnny 5 (the robotic protagonist of Short Circuit). A representative of NOVA, the government defense contractor that created Johnny, sits at the prosecutor's table as El DeBarge sings his testimony from the witness stand. Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) and a cardboard cutout of Newton Graham Crosby, Ph.D. (Steve Guttenberg) are also in attendance as adversarial witnesses for the prosecution, implying that El Debarge is playing the co-lead role of Ben Jabituya, played by Fisher Stevens in the film. The prosecutor's sole question during these examinations is the titular line of the song "Who's Johnny?" She plays a VHS tape, labeled "Short Circuit", containing various clips from the movie. Meanwhile, Number 5 wreaks havoc in the courtroom (only his robotic hand is visible to the viewer) with various hijinks, including giving the prosecuting attorney a pair of funny nose glasses, turning up the ceiling fan to create a windstorm of papers, swapping the judge's gavel for an exploding one and calling the fire department, resulting in the judge being sprayed with water. Stephanie and El DeBarge sneak out of the courtroom at the end, covering the camera with a slate on their way out. The prosecutor, still wearing the trick glasses, pops up to deliver the last "Who's Johnny?"

A classic! See this discussion from a while back: This is the thread for unusual details in wikipedia articles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroder

Bruno Jean Cornil Metsu (After believing to Islam change his name to Karim)

Today I learned that Christopher Nolan split at least some of his childhood between London and Chicago (where his mother was from), with him spending more time in London and his younger brother spending more time in Chicago. Jonathan (who I guess used to go by Jonah?) Nolan apparently even has an American accent.

From a botanical point of view, the strawberry is not a berry but an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each apparent "seed" (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it.

Sheard portrayed Adolf Hitler five times in his career: in Rogue Male (1976), The Tomorrow People (1978), The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and the documentary Secret History: Hitler of the Andes (2003).[10] He also portrayed Heinrich Himmler three times, in The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), The Bunker (1981) and Space (1985). Although Sheard never played Hermann Göring, he did play Göring's double in the 'Allo 'Allo! episode Hitler's Last Heil.

Godard remains a busy and creative artist, but no more popular (or better) than he was 40 years ago.

xp Anyone know if Rogue Male is any good? I quite enjoyed the book (via NYRB Classics) but have trouble seeing how the climactic standoff would translate to film.

I liked it a lot, but cw for cat death :(

Cast member Gavin McInnes confirmed that Soul Quest Overdrive was cancelled, and incorrectly blamed its cancellation on the other cast members not being "as funny" as he.[56]

The hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse took issue with the album, feeling it copied their style. The American rapper Violent J referenced this in their song "Everybody Rize" by rapping 'Fuck Gene Simmons you make me sick, psycho circus you stole my shit! Spit your blood out and do your dance but I'ma kick that ass through your leather pants.'

In September 2000, the Millionaires released a soundtrack album to Baller Blockin' in which they starred. In 2001, the group disbanded due to monetary issues.

Nick Lowe had initially written the song while in the pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz. He has said that Judee Sill's "Jesus Was a Cross Maker" was an influence on the song

Munich was found dead outside Number 10 on 5 August 1943. In newspaper reports covering his death, it was revealed that Munich had produced a son with another cat. He was described by the Birmingham Post as "disagreeable", "unfriendly", and "how one imagines Ribbentrop would have been had he been a cat", and by the Evening Chronicle as a "detestable quisling"; the Huddersfield Daily Examiner instead stated that he "had a great reputation for 'ratting'".

Not specifically in wikipedia, but close enough:

The "lil" nickname originates in American gangs; a nickname given to members who aren’t at the top of the hierarchy, and rap (as it has done with many street codes and expressions) has appropriated it. The first recorded "lil" rapper came from Texas, a former drug dealer named Troy Lane Birklett who became Lil’ Troy and had a career with the group Mass 187 and as a solo artist since the late 1980s.

Steele imagined the first aspects of video's plotline when he was running around his house chanting "La la la!" repeatedly, then quickly envisioned the rest of the plotline shortly thereafter.

hahaha

Months before the 2005 reunion, a person named "P.J." called into the radio station WFMU in New Jersey, claiming to be a former member of Old Skull. "P.J." stated that he was re-forming Old Skull as a jazz fusion band without the input of any of the other former members. The call turned out to be an elaborate comedy sketch set up by Tom Scharpling, a supervising producer and writer for the Monk television series, and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, for their radio show, The Best Show on WFMU.

This is the last sword and sorcery movie that Roger Corman produced in Argentina during the 80s.

Thomas Pablo Croquet was born on 21 November 1976 in Versailles, France. Croquet was originally inspired to learn English by his uncle, Horst.

When Croquet was ten, he formed the band Phoenix with schoolfriends Chris Mazzalai and Deck d'Arcy. Mazzalai's older brother, Laurent Brancowitz, also joined the band after the break-up of Darlin'. Croquet says that he "destroyed every single other option that would lead me to any potential career other than music", attending college for only four days, studying economics.

Just seemed like an odd thing to mention for someone who only attended four days of college

I was hoping he'd be credited with developing the game that bears his name.

Yeah his real name is another funny detail I learned in a previous wiki search

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_the_Elephant

The rhythm and tempo of this song is often used to teach people the rhythm of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The recommended rate for CPR is 100 chest compressions per minute. A study at Coventry University compared the effectiveness of this song in maintaining this rhythm with an alternative of "That's the Way (I Like It)" and no song at all. The version used for the study was from a Little Acorns brand children's record, and was found to have a tempo of 105 beats per minute. Singing the chorus of the song twice, with a compression on each beat, results in exactly 30 compressions, which is the international standard for CPR.[7]

The use of "Nellie" resulted in correct timing for 42 out of 130 cases, as compared with 15 for no music and just 12 for "That's the Way (I Like It)". However, the depth of compression was found to be inadequate in most of those cases, and the use of "Nellie" was found to increase this inadequacy slightly, as compared with the use of no music (56% too shallow with "Nellie" and 47% without).[7]

More recently Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" has been promoted as an alternative.[8][9]

A+

somehow am not familiar with the childrens song but spent a lovely minute reading and trying to imagine cpr performed to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pcw34mL0c

like this tempo would be much cooler if it worked, gawkers crowded around just grooving hoping for the best

This is the canon version of Nellie The Elephant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m7tPikH0UA

An elderly man, played by Maazel, sits in a white room, bandaged, bloodied and with his once nice white suit dirtied. Another man, also played by Maazel, enters looking clean and in good spirits. He attempts to communicate with the tired version of himself and tells him that he is going to the park despite him telling him that "there is nothing out there." The cleaner man walks through the door and is immediately in the park. On the outside the door is not connected to anything. The man walks about and happily examines his surroundings before coming across a ticket taker who swindles other septuagenarians out of their things with low pay. He buys some tickets from him which take the form of money in the park.

Music and lyrics
Unlike Dirty, which features a loud and "dense blast of noise", Experimental Jet Set was considered warmer and more relaxed.[11]

Music and lyrics
Unlike Experimental Jet Set, which was described as difficult and claustrophobic, Washing Machine is considerably more open-ended and contains some of the band's longest songs.[1]

To date, he is the only member of the Forbes 400 richest Americans to be convicted of murder.[3]

this isn't _an_ unusual detail, i was just struck by the intensely labored mansplaining tone of this wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funniest_Joke_in_the_World

Hitler footage from the sketch in reality
The footage of Adolf Hitler is taken from Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will. The section (about 34 minutes into the film) where Konstantin Hierl presents the Reichsarbeitsdienst to Hitler is the source of the speech used for the joke. The first clip shows Hitler saying Insbesondere keiner mehr in Deutschland leben wird... ("In particular, no one will live in Germany anymore [without working for their country]"), subtitled "My dog has no nose". The crowd (led by Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach) saying: "How does he smell?" is from a scene just before Hitler's speech; the original German is Wir sind des Reiches junge Mannschaft!, "We are the Reich's young men!"[4] The punchline of the joke "Awful" is the next shot that shows Hitler's face. The original words are eure Schule, from "[The whole nation will go through] your school".

Influence, and other works

Jim Carrey is a fan of Monty Python. He described how Ernest Scribbler, played by Michael Palin, laughing himself to death in the sketch, had a huge effect on his early years.[5]

deep fake!

This has been seen as a criticism of the album, along with the glaring omission of songs by New Order or The Stone Roses and for not anticipating the imminent arrival of Grunge music.[2]

The drummer and songwriter Phil Collins found the 808 useful for looping rhythms for long periods, as human drummers would be tempted to add variations and fills.

McKenna lives in Sheffield, England with his wife and four children.[3] McKenna has 7 SCE Ordinary Grades.[4]

It contains a distinctive guitar intro by Keith Mullin which was possibly his most significant contribution to any one song.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Murray#Loved_Songs

I just googled NY-style pizza and: "Minerals present in New York City's tap water supply are also credited with giving the dough in metro area pies its characteristic texture and flavor.[7][8]" LOL.

Author's photograph

The photograph of Silverstein on the back cover of the book has attracted negative attention, with some people finding it frightening.[22][29][30]

This photograph and the attention it received was touched upon in the children's novel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by author Jeff Kinney. Protagonist Greg Heffley states that the photograph of Silverstein on the back cover of The Giving Tree terrified him as a child, and that his father would exploit this fear, saying to his son that if he got out of bed at night, he would "probably run into Shel Silverstein in the hallway".

Though they considered themselves a band, Warner Bros. signed Christopher Cross as a solo artist in early 1979.[5][6][7]

Although best known for his vocals and songwriting, Cross is also a skilled guitarist. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan invited Cross to play on their albums, but Cross declined.[8] Cross also substituted for Richie Blackmore during a Deep Purple concert in 1970 when Blackmore fell ill.[6][9]

where is my time machine

I just googled NY-style pizza and: "Minerals present in New York City's tap water supply are also credited with giving the dough in metro area pies its characteristic texture and flavor.[7][8]" LOL.

― Nabozo

seriously people won't shut up about new york city water. usually they then go on to talk about how it was all because of theodore roosevelt. it's a whole thing.

look i know this is just the guy's name, but i still love this quote:

"Rusty Kuntz," Royals manager Ned Yost has said, "is the best first base coach in baseball."[1]

It is also the oldest club in Albania which means it is the first club created in Albania.

citation needed

Abel Ferrara, director of the 1992 film, has been quoted by various media outlets as being very angry about the film. After it was first announced, Ferrara was quoted as saying "As far as remakes go, ... I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they're all in the same streetcar, and it blows up."[15]

I really love that laconic style you find in certain Wikipedia articles.