This thread is about pop culture works (could be anything that falls under the pop culture umbrella, from any era) that gained a large chuck of their success/fame/infamy from including a portion that stood out from the rest of the work, for whatever reason.
Apologies if this has been done here before. Also, apologies if TV Tropes has covered this; my otherwise strong Google-fu is awful on that site.
Examples:
The movie Pink Flamingos certainly had something for nobody, er, everybody; but would it still be well-known today if not for the scene where Divine eats dog shit?
Changing gears as much as possible: would the 1812 Overture still be as popular if not for the part with cannons?
Last year’s movie The Revenant got a lot of headlines and decent box office; how much of that was because of the bear scene?
Maybe because I just finished reading, but IT by Stephen King has than infamous scene where
Beverly pulls a train on the six boys to help get them out of the sewers.
It was cringe-worthy reading it and I think the right decision to leave it out of the 1990 adaptation (and perhaps the remake.) I don’t think there’s anyway that translates well, and it didn’t translate in the book well either.
Rossini’s opera William Tell. A 4-hour opera largely famous for the “Lone Ranger” theme in the overture (in spite of the amazing tenor solos in the last act).
The Satanic Verses by Rushdie, known for the part when Muhammed has a revelation involving polytheistic gods and then denounces them, saying those verses came from Satan.
Nah – too many people remember other parts. The ultimate would be Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, so its opening 2 minutes. How many people know anything of the rest.
(I do – I own recordings and have listened to the whole damned thing plenty of times.)
As has been remarked, most people only know “Take me out to the ballgame” from the chorus, and have probably never heard the verses.
Same for “Ta ra ra Boom de Ay”
Newman (Wayne Knight) from Seinfeld was one of the onlookers.
Does Deliverance count? That actually had two. The banjo/guitar duel, and the tender love scene out in the woods…
George Melies’s A Trip to the Moon. Most people just know the gun being fired and the bullet in the eye of the man in the moon. There’s a lot more to it.
