Mental Floss

THE '80S

Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Jean-Claude Van Damme—a.k.a. The "Muscles from Brussels"—has had a long and storied career full of highs and lows, including the time he threw a papaya at a producer's head.

Jake Rossen








Cornellier, Wikimedia// CC BY-SA 4.0

In the first edition of "Throwback," our all-new YouTube series, we take a deep dive into the bizarre history of Sea-Monkeys and Harold von Braunhut, the man who created them—then funneled the millions he made into illegal activities.

Alvin Ward










Queen's Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and John Deacon pose in London in 1973.

What's in a name? A lot if you're a popular music band. So imagine if Radiohead was still On A Friday? Or Ozzy Osbourne was still performing under the name of his mother’s favorite talcum powder? The stories behind these groups’ original names are curious

Erika Wolf






George Rose, Getty Images

Versatile comic actor John Candy broke out in 1984's 'Splash,' but you might not know he was once targeted for a Sylvester Stallone movie.

Jake Rossen
Kyle MacLachlan stars in David Lynch's Dune (1984).

After several different filmmakers tried (and failed) to adapt Frank Herbert's 'Dune' for the big screen, the movie finally arrived via David Lynch, a then up-and-coming filmmaker who’d never been tested on a film of that size and scope.

Matthew Jackson