Mental Floss

POP CULTURE

Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder star in 'Blazing Saddles' (1974).

Mel Brooks’s audacious comedy was the first movie to incorporate audible flatulence (though the offending noises were muted when the film aired on television).

Mark Mancini


Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

After Ralph Anspach created an anti-monopoly game, he ended up in the middle of a controversial patent case with Parker Brothers over the history of ‘Monopoly’ itself.

David W Brown






















Virginia Woolf, Charlie Chaplin, and Ludwig van Beethoven could be considered nepo babies.

Plenty of nepo babies have earned their places in history. But it’s always good to acknowledge the doors open to people who have rich relatives—or whose dad knows the manager of a clogging troupe.

Ellen Gutoskey
John Carpenter on the set of 'Halloween' (1978).

From his 1978 classic “Halloween” to his love of video games, there’s a lot to appreciate about John Carpenter, but here are some other cool facts you might not have known about the storied director.

Shayna Murphy