# Examples of actual knowledge disseminated by pop culture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384 "2006-08-12T01:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/21 "2006-08-12T15:21:44Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] I know several people who learned The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner because of the Iron Maiden song. That count? [/QUOTE] Only if you get the title right – it’s “Rime.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/22 "2006-08-12T15:41:45Z")
For some reason, **robardin** ’s post about all of the errors in _Billy the Kid_ reminds me of an article Steve Martin wrote for the _New York Times_ or somesuch a couple years back while King Tut’s remains went on tour where he pointed out that his own song _King Tut_ was full of errors- he was not born in Arizona, he did not have a condo made of stone-a, he never ate a crocodile, etc. And also, because I’m a nitpicking fool, I have to point out that even though they popularized the songs, the two They Might Be Giants songs mentioned in the thread were not TMBG originals- _Istanbul_ was a hit in the 1950s for The Four Lads, and _Why Does The Sun Shine_ was originally from an old educational record. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/23 "2006-08-12T17:52:33Z")
The musical _1776_ helped a lot of kids pass American history, I bet (it helped me!). Aside from the fictional encounter with Martha Jefferson, nearly everything in the script and libretto is factually accurate, and much of it is pulled from the letters and diaries of the people in question. “Molasses to Rum” is a neat geographical outline of the Triangle Trade, and “But Mr. Adams” reminds you of all the members of the Declaration Committee by giving them each a verse _and_ rhyming their states’ names within that verse! (“I cannot write with any style or proper etiquette/I don’t know a participle from a predicate/I am just a simple cobbler from Connecticut.”) ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/24 "2006-08-12T18:25:05Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] While we’re on the subject of Disney, I’m sure a lot more people now know what naked mole rats are thanks to _Kim Possible_. [/QUOTE] I learned about naked mole rats from Errol Morris’s [Fast, Cheap & Out of Control](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119107/). Not exactly “popular” culture, but it was a work of entertainment whose point was not to educate folks about naked mole rats. (By the way, I saw TMBG in concert a few years ago and they played “Why Does the Sun Shine” as a ramped-up punk song. It was terrific.) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/25 "2006-08-12T19:09:47Z")
I always remember Steve Martins bit from My Blue Heaven where he tells Rick Moranis that you never wear a suit jacket separate from the pants otherwise you’ll end up with a suit that doesn’t quite match. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/26 "2006-08-12T21:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] I know several people who learned The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner because of the Iron Maiden song. [/QUOTE] When I saw the subject line, my first thought was their song “Alexander the Great”: _By the Aegian Sea In 334 B.C. He utterly beat the armies of Persia_ There’s no way in hell I’d know what century he lived in if it weren’t for that song. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/27 "2006-08-12T21:44:06Z")
We all know how influential _True Romance_ has been in enlightening the general public on the topic of Southern Italian history… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/28 "2006-08-12T22:57:49Z")
I thought [Eris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28Billy_and_Mandy%29) , Godess of discord in Grim adventures, was a made up greek goddess until I looked at another wikipedia article on [Eris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris) ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/29 "2006-08-12T23:14:00Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] We all know how influential _True Romance_ has been in enlightening the general public on the topic of Southern Italian history… :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Oh yea, well, you’re a canetlope. And TMBG fans can find the original “Why does the sun shine” here: [Singing Science Records](http://www.acme.com/jef/singing_science/) ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/30 "2006-08-12T23:20:07Z")
I know this isn’t much of a worthwhile example, but at least Gwen Stefani’s [_Hollaback Girl_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollaback_Girl) must have surely taught the ADHD-riddled youth of today how to spell ‘bananas’ correctly. No double Ns in sight! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/31 "2006-08-13T01:08:27Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] Unfortunately, Billy’s track record on spreading information through pop music is spotty. In contrast to _We Didn’t Start The Fire_, his song _The Ballad of Billy The Kid_ is more or less completely made up factually: The Kid did not come “from a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia”, for example, nor “rob his way from Utah to Oklahoma”, starting with “a bank in Colorado” (he is thought to have been born in New York, and grew up and “worked” mostly in New Mexico, rustling cattle and not robbing trains/banks), nor is it true that he “always rode alone”, etc., etc. I read an interview once with Billy Joel where he described the song (which I love, by the way) as an exercise in “legend-making”, the idea that the essence of why we love the figure of a Billy The Kid character transcends mundanities such as, well, historical fact. He continues this playfulness by apparently referring to himself, another “Billy”, at the end (_From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island / Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand…_), when in fact he was born in the Bronx and grew up in Levittown. OK, BJ, you had your fun, but I definitely walked around for years thinking I had learned something about Billy The Kid when I hadn’t!! [/QUOTE] As far as I recall, in the liner notes to the album with “Billy the Kid” Billy Joel wrote that “Billy the Kid wasn’t me, he was a boy I knew in Oyster Bay.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/32 "2006-08-13T02:06:55Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] I keep hoping Kate Bush’s song “Pi” from her newest album will be released as a single and get big. It would teach a bunch of people at least some of the numbers of Pi (yes, she sings a good many of the numbers in the song, and it’s quite beautiful and catchy too). [/QUOTE] I would have gone through life content to remember only the first two decimal places if it weren’t for a mock football cheer for the math department: _Secant, tangent, cosine, sine 3.14159 Yay, team!_ ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/33 "2006-08-13T02:57:47Z")
Most people know their Miranda rights from cop shows: “You have the right to remain silent…” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/34 "2006-08-13T03:07:13Z")
This isn’t really “popular” culture but knowing that Oliver Cromwell was born in 1599 and died in 1658 really helped me with my English History dates, both in social studies and literature classes. This is from a Monty Python song about Oliver Cromwell called…“Oliver Cromwell” 🙂 I think “Holy Grail” also helped me get through Authurian legends in English Lit in 10th grade. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/35 "2006-08-13T03:14:13Z")
According to an episode of StarGate: Atlantis, tomatos are not only not deadly, but they are in fact quite tasty. Stargate and Babylon 5 are both indirectly responsible for me learning all sorts of stuff because I’d look it up online (for B5, I’d look up names of ships like EAS Aggamemnon, and for StarGate, lots of character names, including aliens like Ra and Anubis, and some of the humans like Daniel, are references to ancient legends and stories. Also, thanks to Boondock Saints, I know that Charlie Bronson always needs rope, assault guys crawling through the vents never happens in real life (and in fact, only happens in bad television), and I also know how to say “The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit” in Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/36 "2006-08-13T03:36:14Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] I know several people who learned The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner because of the Iron Maiden song. [/QUOTE] [Pedant]It’s _Rime_, not Rhyme: a coating or encrustation, usually of frost or ice. [/Pedant] ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/37 "2006-08-13T03:39:21Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] [Pedant]It’s _Rime_, not Rhyme: a coating or encrustation, usually of frost or ice. [/Pedant] [/QUOTE] Which is also a variant spelling of “rhyme.” ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/38 "2006-08-13T04:05:12Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] [Pedant]It’s _Rime_, not Rhyme: a coating or encrustation, usually of frost or ice. [/Pedant] [/QUOTE] Sorry, **twickster** beat you to it. 😃 [QUOTE=jsgoddess] Which is also a variant spelling of “rhyme.” [/QUOTE] Which is neither the spelling in the name of the poem nor in the name of the song. Regardless of what the word means, “rime” is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/39 "2006-08-13T05:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] [Pedant]It’s _Rime_, not Rhyme: a coating or encrustation, usually of frost or ice. [/Pedant] [/QUOTE] Obviously, of course, they are both from the same Greek root, and in fact these two spellings were often used interchangably by early English prosodists, though some made the distinction that has come to be standard in our own time that ‘rhyme’ is the matching of similar-sounding syllables and ‘rime’ is the use of accent as the chief determinant of a poem’s rhythm (also from the same Greek root). ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384/40 "2006-08-13T05:31:59Z")
A lot of people warn me about the _pounds_ of undigested red meat I must have in my colon. I always say, “Yes, I love \*Beverly Hills Cop \* too!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-actual-knowledge-disseminated-by-pop-culture/368384.md?page=3)