# So has the SDMB ever been the origin of a broader cultural phenomena? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647 "2013-12-18T14:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/21 "2013-12-19T03:08:50Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I highly doubt that since death pools predate the internet by many years. Well, the point is that Leo Laporte read from Baker’s 2012 Death Pool thread during one of his broadcasts(which is internet only, I think). He was talking about it specifically. [And here is the clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzGdd2YZHH8&feature=youtu.be) ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/22 "2013-12-19T04:31:07Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Well, the point is that Leo Laporte read from Baker’s 2012 Death Pool thread during one of his broadcasts(which is internet only, I think). > > He was talking about it specifically. > > [And here is the clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzGdd2YZHH8&feature=youtu.be) Very cool! He even read the tagline “Fighting ignorance…” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/23 "2013-12-19T05:52:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Well, the point is that Leo Laporte read from Baker’s 2012 Death Pool thread during one of his broadcasts(which is internet only, I think). > > He was talking about it specifically. > > [And here is the clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzGdd2YZHH8&feature=youtu.be) > [@Honey](#): > > Very cool! He even read the tagline “Fighting ignorance…” That is very cool and I stand corrected. Still, it wasn’t anything close to the origin of a broader cultural phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/24 "2013-12-19T07:00:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Well, the point is that Leo Laporte read from Baker’s 2012 Death Pool thread during one of his broadcasts(which is internet only, I think). Who is Leo Laporte? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/25 "2013-12-19T08:47:33Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > It’s kind of surprising that it hasn’t happened considering how much Google loves this site. It happened once for 20 minutes… ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/26 "2013-12-19T12:46:48Z")
Still not of greater cultural awareness, but I have one of the very few “3. Hi Opal!” T-shirts she made and it got recognized at a restaurant once. I always figured the hostess was one of us but never got the chance to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/27 "2013-12-19T14:51:37Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > It’s kind of surprising that it hasn’t happened considering how much Google loves this site. I’m probably being whooshed, but google bumps results for sites you visit. Your google loves the straightdope, not google in general. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/28 "2013-12-19T15:27:10Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I’m probably being whooshed, but google bumps results for sites you visit. Your google loves the straightdope, not google in general. Exactly. Google knows where you go and sorts the results accordingly. It knows that you’ll be more likely to want a link to a site that you regularly visit. So many times people are so proud that “OMG we showed up at the first hit on Google!!” but on a non-Doper computer it might be the third page. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/29 "2013-12-19T17:21:29Z")
> [@bup](#): > > According to the [earliest Cecil column I could find](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2638/an-airplane-taxies-in-one-direction-on-a-moving-conveyor-belt-going-the-opposite-direction-can-the-plane-take-off) on the airplane treadmill question, it had been “popping up all over the net.” And [the long 2005 thread on the topic here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=348452&pp=50) begins with: > [@](#): > > OK, I have seen this question posted on a couple other message boards I go to, but seeing asd most of the people at those messageboards don’t have a large knowledge of physics, I am posting here in hopes to get the correct answer. I wouldn’t be surprised if this question predated the internet, getting kicked around in “letters” columns of various magazines and so on. I would also not be surprised if it was discussed on USENET before the commercialization of the internet. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/30 "2013-12-19T19:45:48Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised if this question predated the internet, getting kicked around in “letters” columns of various magazines and so on. I would also not be surprised if it was discussed on USENET before the commercialization of the internet. Thank you. It’s actually a fairly common thought problem for engineering students and goes back a while. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/31 "2013-12-19T20:09:39Z")
Not exactly CNN, but we were linked in a Cracked article one time. [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638052) a thread I started on it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/32 "2013-12-19T20:38:56Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Not exactly CNN, but we were linked in a Cracked article one time. [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638052) a thread I started on it. It has happened more than once. Somebody there reads our threads. > **[Apparently Cracked.com contributors read the SDMB](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=688987)** > > I have suspected this for a while because I see a whole bunch of references in their articles that seemed to have originated here but I was never sure because maybe it is just some kind of convergence. In case you aren’t family with Cracked.com, it... ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647/33 "2013-12-19T21:12:35Z")
[An article in The Atlantic online](http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/why-do-npr-reporters-have-such-great-names/275493/) linked to [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=665984&highlight=names) about NPR reporters having great names. > [@The best name ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-name-ever/635171/99): > > [In \*The Atlantic \*online: “Why Do NPR Reporters Have Such Great Names?”](http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/why-do-npr-reporters-have-such-great-names/275493/) Do you suppose they got the idea from us? (I think there was another SDMB thread on NPR names, but I didn’t search for it.) > > ETA. They DID get the idea from here. The article links to this thread. Cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-the-sdmb-ever-been-the-origin-of-a-broader-cultural-phenomena/676647.md?page=1)