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• Truth In Television

Sometimes, Popcultural Osmosis only works part of the way, and as a result, certain famous works or events are only known for one or two lines.

For example, Everybody Knows That Martin Luther King Jr. made a famous speech where he pronounced "I have a dream"... though — sad as it may be — it's getting increasingly rarer to find people who could tell you anything else about that speech, or what it was even about.

To make things worse, a show which attempts to parody said event will only include that one line.

Often the result of Never Live It Down and All There Is To Know About The Crying Game, and is a common cause of It Was His Sled. If this phenomenon is blown out of proportion enough that the original context seems to become irrelevant, it's Memetic Mutation. See also Common Knowledge.

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The Game You just lost it.

Underneath each item is a list of "stock facts" that everybody seems to know about a person, place, event, or work. Try to guess as many of them as possible before looking at the spoilers. Double points if you know the specific significance or context of each fact.

Possible answers will be:

• The premise
• Events
• Specific details or facts
• Well-known quotes
• Completely incorrect information which somehow got associated with it. (Triple points for these, if you both know it and understand why it's wrong!)

Guideline when adding new entries: It must be something that the majority of people, not just you, or a specific niche of the fandom, are able to recall from memory.

Also, you may add an explanation if you so choose, but it's not mandatory.

Finally, Be warned: There are many spoilers!

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Everybody Knows That...

• 2001 A Space Odyssey and series
  • "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that"
  • "Will I dream?"
  • The big black cuboid Monolith
    • "Oh my god... it's full of stars!"
  • "But you'll look sweet/upon the seat/of a bicycle buuilt for twooooooooo...
  • The Star Child
• 300
  • THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA! (kicks other guy into pit)
  • TONIGHT! WE DINE! IN HELL!
• Ace Attorney
  • It's about Hot Blooded lawyers who like to give the pointer finger.
  • OBJECTION!
  • Phoenix and Edgeworth are incredibly gay together. (But they actually aren't)
• Abraham Lincoln
  • Ended slavery / Freed the slaves. Of course, he really didn't.
  • Was assassinated.
  • Had a tall black hat and facial hair.
  • Is on the US penny and $5 bill
  • "Four score and seven years ago..."
• Adolf Hitler
  • Leader of the Nazis.
  • He started World War 2
  • He committed suicide
  • Evil
  • Is burning in hell
  • Oddly similar to everyone you disagree with.
  • He was a vegetarian... except he wasn't.
  • Didn't manage to get into art school...twice.
  • Wrote a book called Mein Kampf
  • He ate sugar.
  • Had a funny moustache.
  • Was responsible for a little thing called The Holocaust.
• Albert Einstein
  • Relativity
  • E = mc^2
  • "God does not play dice with the Universe."
  • His hair
  • Was allegedly a slow student, much to the delight of motivational speakers everywhere.
  • Took a picture showing his tongue.
• Alexander Nevsky
  • Ice breaks, the knights drown.
• Director Alfred Hitchcock
  • Made a cameo in each of his own films.
  • Even folks who've never seen Alfred Hitchcock Presents can usually hum the theme song, Funeral March of the Marionettes.
  • The Birds
    • A bunch of black birds gather around and then attack someone,
  • Psycho
    • A girl gets stabbed in the shower with freaky music playing.
    • Norman Bates is the killer and his mother
• American Pie
  • "This one time, at band camp ..."
  • The kid has sex with a pie.
• Anything Goes
  • It's all on a boat
• Barack Obama
  • Thinks we have an army of zombies.
    • "I would like to thank corpse-man..."
  • First African-American President.
  • "Yes, we can!"
  • Osama bin Laden went down on his watch.
• The Beatles
  • Played the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
  • Paul McCartney played left-handed a bass that looked like a violin.
  • Made Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, still considered one of the best albums of all time.
  • Made "Yesterday", the most covered song ever.
  • The Walrus Was Paul.
    • Number 9, number 9, number 9...
  • "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah."
    • "Woooooo!" *shakes head*
  • Had screaming teenage female fans.
  • The Beatle "mop-top" haircuts and matching suits.
  • John Lennon wore glasses.
  • Ringo Starr had a big nose.
  • Were interested in the religion/culture/music of India late in their careers. Especially George Harrison.
  • John Lennon married Yoko Ono in the late '60's, who is blamed (or Misblamed for breaking up the band.
  • John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980.
• Benjamin Franklin
  • The electric kite experiment.
  • On the $100 bill
  • Poor Richard's Almanack
  • "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
• The Bible - The Old Testament
  • Adam and Eve eat the Fruit of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
  • Cain kills Abel.
  • Noah builds the ark to survive the Flood.
  • Moses leads the slaves out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea on the way.
  • Moses brings down the Ten Commandments.
  • David kills Goliath with a sling.
• The Bible - The New Testament
  • Mary gives birth to Jesus in a Bethlehem manger.
  • Jesus walks on water, amongst other miracles.
  • Jesus has a Last Supper.
  • Judas betrays Jesus to the Romans.
  • Jesus dies on the cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
  • Jesus is resurrected three days later.
  • The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• Bill Clinton
  • ...did not inhale.
  • He did not have sexual relations with that woman.
    • Except that felatio is a sexual relation.
  • It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.
  • He feels your pain.
    • And your breasts.
• The film Casablanca
  • "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
  • "Play it again, Sam." (Which was never spoken in the movie)
  • "Here's looking at you, kid"
  • "I'm shocked, shocked, to find that this quote hasn't been mentioned gambling is going on in here!"
  • "You'll regret it... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."
  • "Round up the usual suspects."
• Castlevania
  • Dracula comes back from the dead (again).
  • Our hero kills him with a whip.
  • "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"
  • "What a horrible night to have a curse."
• The film Citizen Kane
  • Rosebud was his sled
• Clint Eastwood
  • Harry Callahan
    • "You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
    • "Go ahead, make my day."
  • Firefox
    • "You must think in Russian."
• The Crying Game
  • Dil is a pre-op transsexual.
• The Dark Knight
  • Why so serious?
  • How about a magic trick?
• Disgaea
  • Penguins, dood!
• Doctor Who
  • The Doctor is a Time Lord.
  • The Doctor regenerates.
  • His time machine/spaceship is a phone box that's bigger on the inside.
    • Except it's actually a police box.
    • And it's called the TARDIS.
  • The original series had hilariously low production values.
    • And featured lots of running through corridors.
    • And lots of strange alien worlds.
  • Captain Jack Harkness loves Anything That Moves.
  • EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMINATE!!
    • Daleks have plungers for hands, egg whisks for guns and pepper pots for bodies.
  • The theme song.
  • It makes you hide behind the sofa.
  • The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver.
• Don Quixote
  • A madman tries to fight a windmill.
  • Sancho Panza
  • "En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no me quiero acordar..." is the Spanish cultural equivalent to "To be or not to be, that is the question."
  • Was writen by Miguel de Cervantes as a parody of chivalry novels.
  • Happens in La Mancha.
  • Has 2 volumes.
• Dracula
  • A Transylvanian aristocrat is actually a vampire and can turn into a bat.
  • In the end, he dies.
  • 1932 film:
  • look into my eyes.
  • I bid you, goodnight
  • He never drinks... wine.
• Dragon Ball Z
  • Goku is really a Saiyan, part of a Proud Warrior Race.
  • IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!!!!!
    • What?! Nine thousand?! That can't be right, CAN IIIT?!
• ET The Extraterrestrial
  • E.T. has a glowing finger
  • "E.T. phone home."
  • Kid and E.T. flying through the sky in a bike
• The Exorcist
  • If your head twists more than it's possible, you're possessed by demons.
  • Pea soup vomit.
  • "Your mother sucks cocks in Hell!"
• F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
  • Alma rapes Sgt. Beckett.
• Fatal Attraction
  • Bunny boiler.
  • "I'm not going to be ignored, Dan!"
• A Few Good Men
  • You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! (Also an example of a Beam Me Up, Scotty!)
• Fight Club
  • The first rule of Fight Club is you DO NOT talk about Fight Club / The second rule...
  • Tyler Durden isn't real
• Final Fantasy IV
  • You Spoony Bard!
• Final Fantasy VII
  • Famous for its deep and incomprehensible story.
  • Famous for its big swords, breasts, and other big stuff.
  • The dude with the spiky blonde hair.
  • Aeris dies.
  • Even after being told that Meteor's gonna blow up the world in a few days, you can spend time at the Gold Saucer like nothing's wrong.
  • SEPH-I-ROTH!
• Final Fantasy VIII
  • They were all at the same orphanage together. Save for Irvine, they had all forgotten due to the use of their Guardian Forces.
• Forrest Gump
  • Forrest runs.
    • "Run, Forest! Run!"
  • "Life is like a box of chocolates".
  • "Shit happens".
  • Stumbles onto historical events.
  • was played by Tom Hanks.
• Frankenstein
  • A mad scientist throws a switch which causes electricity to be channeled down into a figure laying on a table
  • Monster made out of body parts.
  • A creepy hunch-backed assistant named Igor
  • "It's Alive!"
  • "Yeth, Mathter."
• George Washington
  • He cut down a cherry tree
    • And couldn't tell a lie about it
    • Both of these originated in a poem well after his death.
  • He was the first president of the US
  • He crossed the Delaware River
  • He's pictured on the US dollar bill and quarters
  • Wore false teeth that actually were not wooden (They were Ivory).
• George W. Bush
  • Strategery.
  • Misunderestimate.
  • Nucular
  • "Heckuva job, Brownie"
  • Led us into the Iraq War and a recession.
  • Googler.
  • Dodged a shoe.
• The Godfather
  • "Make him an offer he can't refuse."
  • "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
  • Man wakes up, finds a decapitated head of a horse in his bed. Based on this, some writers have come up with the idea that putting a horse head into someone's bed is a common way for the Mafia to scare people, even though in The Godfather the horse head is there only because that particular horse was important to that particular man.
  • "Nothing personal, it's just business."
  • "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
• Godzilla
  • Dr. Serizawa is the ONLY human to ever succesfully kill Godzilla.
  • He fights King Kong in one movie.
  • Destroys Tokyo on a daily basis.
• Gone with the Wind
  • "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
  • "After all, tomorrow is another day."
  • "As God as my witness..."
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  • There is a duel
  • "There Are Two Kinds of People in the World, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig."
• Hamlet
  • "To be, or not to be. That is the question."
  • "Alas, Poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio."
    • A brooding young man speaks to a skull in his hand.
  • Everybody dies at the end.
  • "Good night, sweet prince."
  • "Get Thee to a Nunnery!"
  • "The Melancholy Dane"
• Harry Potter
  • He wears glasses and has a scar on his forehead.
  • He goes to Hogwarts.
  • He's friends with Ron and Hermione
  • "You're a wizard, Harry."
  • Snape kills Dumbledore.
  • Harry has a pet owl called Hedwig.
  • Lord Voldemort is the bad guy and he doesn't have a nose.
• Henry VIII
  • Had six wives.
  • Father of Elizabeth I and Bloody Mary.
  • Was really fat.
  • liked to have people beheaded, including his wives.
• Home Improvement
  • "I don't think so, Tim."
  • "MORE POWER!"
• Inception:
  • It has something to do with dreams...
    • ...within dreams...
    • ...within dreams.
  • Spinning totem.
  • "We need to go deeper."
  • "The dream is collapsing."
  • "Quick, give me a kiss"
• I Wanna Be the Guy
  • It's really, really hard to win.
  • APPLES DON'T FALL UP!
    • They're actually more like giant cherries.
  • You get killed by a fake error message.
  • YOU JUMPED INTO A SWORD, YOU RETARD.
  • GAME OVER - PRESS 'R' TO TRY AGAIN
• James Bond
  • "Bond. James Bond."
  • "Shaken, not stirred."
  • 007
  • "Ooooh, James!"
  • Spy gadgets, possibly laser cufflinks.
  • "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"
  • Villain explains plans in a dinner and puts him in ellaborate traps instead of simply shooting him.
• Actor James Cagney
  • The line, "You dirty rat", which he never said in any of his movies.
• John F. Kennedy
  • "Ask not what your country can do for you..."
  • Shot dead in his car in Dallas, TX.
  • Promised to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
  • "Ich bin ein Berliner."
  • The Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Kingdom Hearts
  • …is light!
  • A kid fights with a giant key alongside Disney and Final Fantasy characters.
    • "Got it memorized?"
• King Kong
  • He climbs a skyscraper.
    • Holding a woman while doing so.
  • He dies.
  • "It was the beauty that killed the beast."
  • He fought Godzilla once…and won.
• The Legend of Zelda
  • The main character is an elf named Zelda Link.
    • Even thought Link IS NOT an elf.
  • He finds pieces of the Triforce. (In the original game.)
  • He fights a pig named Ganon.
    • As well as monsters called octoroks that... spit rocks!
  • HEY! LISTEN!
  • "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."
• The Lion King
  • "Hakuna Matata"
  • "The circle of life."
    • NAAAAAAAASH'BENYAAAAAA MABAGI TSEBABA
  • Mufasa dies.
• The Lord of the Rings
  • "One Ring to rule them all…"
  • Hobbits
  • "My precious!"
  • Elves. Especially Legolas.
  • They take the Hobbits to Isengard.
  • "You Shall Not Pass."
    • In the book, "You cannot pass."
  • "One does not simply walk into Mordor."
• Lost
  • Survivors of a plane crash in a mysterious island.
  • A smoke monster and polar bears.
  • The plot is overtly complicated.
• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • He was deaf (and composed music despite losing his hearing)
  • Ode to Joy (aka the final movement of his 9th symphony)
  • Da Da Da DANNN! (aka the first movement of his 5th symphony)
  • Für Elise
  • Moonlight Sonata
• The Maltese Falcon
  • "The stuff that dreams are made of."
• Marilyn Monroe
  • Had an affair with President Kennedy. Happy birthday, Mr. President...
  • The famous scene from ''The Seven Year Itch'' where her dress is blown up by a sidewalk vent.
  • Died of an overdose.
  • Real name Norma Jean.
• The Matrix
  • Bullet Time (so much that any slow motion action leads people to reference it.)
  • "There is no spoon."
  • "Matrix-like" fight scenes.
  • Red pill or blue pill?
  • "Dodge this."
• Moby Dick
  • "Call me Ishmael."
  • Some pirate with one leg is hunting a white whale.
  • Contains reams of seemingly-pointless information about whales.
  • "From Hell's heart I stab at thee!"
  • "Thar she blows!"
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
  • It's...
  • And now for something completely different!
  • NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!
  • The Lumberjack Song: "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay."
  • This is an EX-PARROT!
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • "It's just a flesh wound."
    • The Knights say "Ni."
    • The Killer Rabbit.
    • The Holy Hand Grenade
    • "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
• NetHack
  • It's really, really hard to win.
  • The shrieker shrieks!
• Paul Revere
  • "Listen, my children, and you shall hear/Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere"
  • "One if by land, two if by sea"
  • "The British are coming! The British are coming!"
• Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Captain Jack Sparrow
    • He's got a jar of dirt.
    • And wondering why the rum's gone.
• Pogo
  • "We have met the enemy and he is us."
• Pokémon anime
  • "Gotta catch 'em all!"
  • "I choose you!"
  • "Pi-ka-chu!"
  • "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
• Portal
  • The cake is a lie.
  • GLaDOS is Still Alive.
  • "I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?!"
• Power Rangers
  • It's Morphin Time! Dragonzord, Mastodon, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Sabertooth Tiger, Tyannosaurus!
• The Princess Bride
  • "Hello. My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die."
  • "INCONCEIVABLE!"
    • "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
  • "Have fun storming the castle."
  • "I am not left-handed."
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • "I'm just a Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania..."
  • The Time Warp. It's just a jump to the left....
  • They eat Meat Loaf (The singer, not the food) during the dinner scene.
• Romeo and Juliet
  • It's a love story.
  • They commit suicide at the end.
  • "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Often quoted without the initial "O"; frequently cited as though "wherefore" meant "where" rather than "why".
  • "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
• Samuel L. Jackson
  • Snakes on a Plane
    • "I had it with these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane!"
  • Pulp Fiction
    • Does he LOOK... Like a BITCH?!
    • Say what again. SAY WHAT AGAIN! I DARE YOU! I DOUBLE DARE YOU MOTHERFUCKER! SAY WHAT ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME!
  • The Incredibles
    • Honey? Where's my Supersuit!
    • WHERE! IS! MY! SUPER! SUIT!
    • YOU TELL ME WHERE MY SUIT IS WOMAN!
• Saw
  • "I want to play a game"
  • Sawing your own limbs off.
  • The puppet
  • Jigsaw
• Sherlock Holmes
  • "Elementary, my dear Watson" (which he never said in the books)
  • Deerstalker and cape (which he never wore*
    He did however, have a pipe.
    )
  • Being a Private Detective (which he never was *
    He was a consulting detective.
    )
  • Deductive reasoning (which he never used *
    the correct term is inductive reasoning.
    )
• The Simpsons
  • "D'oh!"
• The Sixth Sense
  • Bruce Willis' character is dead.
  • "I see dead people."
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Super-fast hedgehog fighting a fat guy in a hovering arm chair
  • Has too many bloody friends and hasn't been very good since the mid-nineties.
  • Was once kissed on the mouth by a human princess while dead.
• Soylent Green
  • is people!
• Spider-Man
  • "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility."
  • The original theme song - "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does Whatever a Spider Can."
  • The upside down kiss.
• Star Fox
  • "Do a barrel roll!"
  • "Can't let you do that, Star Fox!"
  • "Help me Fox!"
• Superman
  • "Up, up, and away!"
  • "Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to leap tall buildings In a Single Bound."
  • "Look, up in the sky: It's a bird! It's a plane!..."
  • "This looks like a job for Superman!"
  • Vulnerable to Kryptonite.
  • "The Man of Steel"
  • Last son of the destroyed planet Krypton.
  • His secret identity is Clark Kent, thanks to a pair of glasses. The fact that his birth name is Kal-El is also well known, but not as ubiquitous.
  • Girlfriend - Lois Lane; best friend - Jimmy Olsen; archenemy - Lex Luthor.
  • In order of "everybody knowsness": Superstrength; flight; invulnerability; X-Ray vision; heat vision; superspeed; telescopic vision; superbreath; super hearing.
• Super Mario Bros.
  • "It's a-me, Mario!"
  • Eats shrooms.
  • Stomps on turtles and little brown things.
  • Overalls and a stache.
  • Enters green pipes.
  • The princess is in another castle.
  • Collects coins. Trades one hundred for green mushrooms.
• Star Trek
  • "Beam Me Up, Scotty!."
  • "Uh dun't haf the par!"
  • "She canna take much more captain!"
  • Spock / A character with pointy ears
    • "Fascinating."
    • "Live long and Prosper"
    • Vulcan salute
  • KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
  • The ensign with the Red Shirt will always die.
  • "To boldly go where no man one has gone before."
  • "He's dead, Jim."
    • Bones is a doctor, not another profession more relevant to the situation at hand.
  • "We are Borg. Resistance is Futile."
  • "You will be assimilated."
• Star Wars
  • "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."
    • Wall of text scrolling off into the distance.
  • "Use the Force, Luke."
    • "May the Force be with you."
  • "I am your father."
  • There are warriors using light swords, one of which is a cyborg.
  • Darth Vader wears a black helmet that helps him breathe. Heavily.
  • The droids C-3P0 and R2-D2.
  • You Have Failed Me for the last time.
  • "I have a bad feeling about this."
  • "It's a trap!"
  • Jar Jar Binks, who is apparently the only character in the prequels.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
  • Kamina and his impossibly cool shades.
  • "Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me who believes in you!"
  • Galaxy-sized mecha.
  • "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"
  • "Mine is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"
• Theodore Roosevelt
  • Fought at the battle of San Juan Hill
  • Had the Panama Canal built
  • Inspired the Teddy Bear
  • "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"
• Twilight
  • Sparkly vampires.
  • Forks, Washington.
  • Edward Cullen.
  • Jacob Black, a Walking Shirtless Scene werewolf.
• Titanic
  • The boat sinks.
  • "I'm the king of the world!"
  • "Jack, I'm flying!"
• Troll 2
  • They're eating her... and then they're going to eat me... OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
  • You don't piss on hospitality!
• The Twilight Zone
  • "There's something on the wing!"
  • "It's a cook book!! It's a cook book!!"
  • "Your next stop... The Twilight Zone."
• Uncle Tom's Cabin
  • Eliza crossing the ice
• WarGames
  • "Shall we play a game?"
  • "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play"
• Winston Churchill
  • "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
  • "I have nothing to offer but blood, tears, toil and sweat."
  • "Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it!" (said in response to Lady Nancy Astor, who told him: "If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee!")
  • "See some of you there"
• World War 2:
  • The Germans lose.
  • Japan is nuked.
    • and surrendered.
  • Paved the way for the Cold War.

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Essential Third Act Twists

Just for Fun

Examples Of Myers Briggs Personalities In Stories