Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Trivial Pursuit

I love Wikipedia. Every year I donate to Wikipedia (I recommend you do, too).

Why? Because I love learning stuff. Granted, Wikipedia is far from perfect, but nothing is. And for someone who likes trivia, it's awesome. In quiet moments I can click the "random article" feature repeatedly and learn all kinds of new stuff.

But.

There are some things I'm sorry I've learned. Things I likely could go to my grave perfectly happy without knowing about.

For example:

The Hulaburger. In 1963 McDonalds (briefly) test marketed this bizarre creation, hoping it would sell with Catholics on Fridays. It consisted of a bun, cheese, ketchup, pickles, onions- and a thick slice of pineapple. It was invented by Chairman Ray Kroc, and I can only assume it got as far as it did because no one dared tell him it was insane.

The Ethel Merman Disco Album. In 1979 the legendary Ethel Merman felt the need to record some of her biggest Broadway hits as disco numbers.

The Bud Bowl scores. Of course I remember the odd "Bud Bowl" advertising campaign of the 1990's, featuring football playing beer bottles. It only aired during the SuperBowl, and some years was more exciting than the game itself. And I'm not surprised the ad campaign has a wiki page. But what frightens me is that someone actually tracked the final scores of each of Bud Bowl and put them in the article.

The ingredients in a McRib sandwich. I personally have never eaten a McRib, nor do I plan to. And if I ever had the slightest thought of such, learning that the faux-rib-shaped patty is made of pork shoulder and "restructured meat products such as tripe, heart,and stomach" would drive it out of my brain FAST.

As a child of the Atari 2600 age, I figured I'd played all of the titles for it. Even the shitty Atari Pac-Man, which I saved money for, raced home with, and was absolutely horrified to discover bore absolutely no fucking resemblance whatsoever to the arcade game. But I digress. Anyway, I was shocked to find out that there was actually an Atari game based on the rock group Journey.

I suppose nothing should surprise me where pornography is concerned, but learning that there's a porn flick based on the "Mario Brothers" video game franchise still did.

I am not a "high 5" person. I have never been, and will never be, a high-5 person. I have one patient who feels the need to give me high-5s multiple times at each appointment, and it drives me nuts. So I was especially horrified to learn that there is actually a national high-5 day.

These, and many less-strange facts (and a few more so) can all be found at Wikipedia. Expand your mind!

12 comments:

Officer Cynical said...

I checked, and I'm not in there. WTF?

Anonymous said...

http://gamingafter40.blogspot.com/2011/07/are-you-hot-enough-to-play-with-journey.html

Ivan Ilyich said...

Sure it's convenient and even "awesome" if you like for certain subjects. On the other hand, more than once I've come across howlers on technical subjects which would never happen in a publication vetted by experts. That's enough reason for me to resist their pleas for support. There are plenty of other more worthy causes.

I wonder if Dr. G. would recommend it as a source of medical information.

Anonymous said...

As a child of the late 60s early 70s expanding my mind is no longer an option.

Tsunoba said...

I suppose nothing should surprise me where pornography is concerned, but learning that there's a porn flick based on the "Mario Brothers" video game franchise still did.

Rule 34: If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.

Candi said...

I take it you don't read Cracked. They had an article just yesterday on some of the worst Christmas fan fiction. Peanuts porn. Yes, Charlie Brown. And that was the lowest number on the list.

I prefer TV Tropes myself for donations. Wikipedia's moderators and admins tend to be too picky and preferential to me, and every time I wander over every six months or so, they've shown no signs of improving.. I once fixed a broken link to point to the right page on the same site originally linked, and had it reverted and had a nastygram about posting "bad links". Yeah, no.

Anonymous said...

I'm waiting for the PiXXXar movies, like "Sex Toy Story," "A Butt's Life," "Monster's Kink," "Binding Nemo," "BALL-E," and "Shtup."

Ray Kroc said...

After the McRib, the Hula Burger suddenly doesn't seem so bad, does it?

Freddie Garrity said...

You think it's just a coincidence that the British Invasion started right after the invention of the Hulaburger? There was finally something we could eat in America that reminded us of home.

Anonymous said...

How said is it that I remember the Journey Atari game!!

Laura said...

This comment made my day, and possibly week. Hahahaha!

Anonymous said...

I love your blog, Dr. Grumpy. I am slightly younger than you, but had my older neighbor friend take me to a local VHS/Laser Disc/video game rental store to rent 2609 Pac Man when it came out. I had saved up from mowing yards and such to buy it...but was disgusted by it. I used the money to buy my favorite Atari 400/800 game, Star Raiders. My older sister LOVED Journey and bought the game for us when it came out. I still do not get the connection The Kool Aid Man has in that game, however.

 
Locations of visitors to this page