Pop Culturista

The Life and Times of the Kool-Aid ManThe product that eventually became known as Kool-Aid goes back to the 19th century. Ir was first called Fruit Smack and then Kool-Ade and finally Kool-Aid. At the beginning of the Great Depression, packets of Kool-Aid cost ten cents. But they dropped the price by half, and sales quintupled! That's when Kool-Aid became a million-dollar business, and it sounds like a strategy other food manufacturers should think about. It wasn't until the 1950s that "Pitcher Man" came about. Ooooh, yeah! In the 1970s, he got a new name- "Kool-Aid Man," and he got arms and legs! That character had all kinds of adventures over the next 50 years. Kool-Aid Man is known for breaking through walls and causing mass destruction, but you have to admit, you'll never forget him.

We Know Who's Playing John Madden in the Movie MaddenDavid O. Russell is making a movie about the late John Madden. Madden is not going to be about his NFL coaching career, nor about his years of legendary sports broadcasting. Rather, it will be about the development of the video game series Madden NFL. If you were to cast an actor to play Madden in a movie, who would you seek out? Sadly, John Candy is not available, because he would be perfect. There are other intriguing possibilities: Jesse Plemons, John Goodman, Dennis Quaid, Will Ferrell. In fact, Ferrell was announced to been cast as the star of Madden last year. He could pull it off. Then several months ago, we learned that Hugh Jackman would get the part. That seems a stretch, but if Tom Hanks can play Colonel Tom Parker, then we could see Jackman in the role, except we couldn't really see him under layers of prosthetics. But now they've cast another actor. Madden will be played by Nicolas Cage. This appears to be the final decision, as filming will begin soon. Why cast Cage in the part? We don't know for sure, but it very well may have come down to the fact that Cage wanted to do it. He has that kind of clout. We don't know when or if Madden is scheduled for release.-via Uproxx (Image credit: steamXO) 

The Simpsons Embroidery@bazarbartiano is an embroidery artist in Mexico of extraordinary skill, precision, and, most importantly, taste. They love The Simpsons and have devoted many hours to recreating iconic scenes from the show. You can view them all on Instagram.My favorite line in the series is from Abe Simpson, who relates the story of when he went to Shelbyville to buy a new heel for his shoe. So he tied an onion to his belt, which was the style at the time, and took five Bumblebee nickels to the ferry station to go to Morganville, which is what we used to call Shelbyville...

Deadpool & Wolverine Set to Become the Highest-grossing R-rated Movie EverDeadpool & Wolverine ended the weekend again at the #1 spot for the third week. The movie also crossed the $1 billion mark in total box office, with a cumulative $494.3 million in domestic box office and $535.2 internationally, for a total of $1.029 billion. That makes it already the second highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, just behind 2019's Joker, at $1.079 billion. But Deadpool & Wolverine is still in theaters, so it is guaranteed to surpass Joker's total gross within a week. When we talk about box office, all movies in contention will be recent due to inflation and population growth. After all, The Godfather had an R-rating, too, but that was 50 years ago when movie tickets were much cheaper. Still, the first two R-rated movies to ever hit a billion at the box office are superhero movies. That's because, while superhero movies always make a ton of money, there haven't been many with an R-rating. In fact, there have been only three: Deadpool & Wolverine, Joker, and Logan -and Logan is the ninth highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. With numbers like that, they will not be the last.As far as the weekend went, while Ryan Reynolds is celebrating his movie staying at #1, his wife Blake Lively's new film It Ends with Us came in second with a $50 million take. It was a happy weekend for the couple.

Lucille Ball of the Starship EnterpriseX user @StuartY attended the Star Trek: Las Vegas convention in August of 2024. Among the great cosplayers present was this gem of a lady who portrays a Star Trek version of Lucille Ball.For those not in the know: without the consistent and direct work of Lucille Ball, there would be no Star Trek. Therefore we Trekkies have nothing but reverence and respect for her.The red-coiffed Lucy bears the Starfleet logo on her chest, modified with a heart. I'm not sure what her cart represents. It might be a reference to an I Love Lucy scene in which she fended off an aggressive vacuum cleaner salesman.

The Emerging Genre of North Korean Science FictionNorth Korea is leaking. We are getting a glimpse of that nation's literature, including science fiction. The founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, recognized the important role of propaganda and encouraged citizens to read Soviet literature and to write their own visions of a perfect world to be created under communism. His son Kim Jong-il, who ruled North Korea from 1997 to 2011, was a fan of science fiction and often referenced it in his speeches. He inspired North Korean writers to explore the genre. And we are starting to see the creative output that followed.While the propaganda value of these science fiction stories is obvious, as they overwhelmingly depict North Korea as a heroic group of people working together to defeat evil forces, usually the United States. But if you took the names of the nations out, you will recognize the classic "good vs. evil" plot of so many familiar tales. And the stories are good. Change Course (Hangno rǔl pakkura) by Yi Kŭmchǒl tells the story of a plane with a bomb aboard that will detonate if the aircraft drops below 10,000 feet. The 2004 story may remind you of the 1994 movie Speed, but there is little chance that Yi had seen it, and the resolution is very different. North Korean scientists save the day, which is typical of the utopian spirit in such stories. Read about the science fiction produced by North Korea at Ars Technica. -via Metafilter