Everybody Knows That

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"I was re-reading Moby Dick the other day and--oh, I haven't read it since... I'm sure none of us has. It's worth picking up again. It's about this whale..."
—Ruth, Wonderful Town

Sometimes, Popcultural Osmosis only works part of the way, and as a result, certain famous works or events are only known for one or two lines.

For example, Everybody Knows That Martin Luther King Jr. made a famous speech where he pronounced "I have a dream"... though—sad as it may be—it's getting increasingly rarer to find people who could tell you anything else about that speech, or what it was even about.

To make things worse, a show which attempts to parody said event will only include that one line.

Often the result of Never Live It Down and All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game", and is a common cause of It Was His Sled. If this phenomenon is blown out of proportion enough that the original context seems to become irrelevant, it's Memetic Mutation. See also Common Knowledge.

The Game You just lost it.

Underneath each item is a list of "stock facts" that everybody seems to know about a person, place, event, or work. Try to guess as many of them as possible before looking at the spoilers. Double points if you know the specific significance or context of each fact.

Possible answers will be:

  • The premise
  • Events
  • Specific details or facts
  • Well-known quotes
  • Completely incorrect information which somehow got associated with it. (Triple points for these, if you both know it and understand why it's wrong!)

Guideline when adding new entries: It must be something that the majority of people, not just you, or a specific niche of the fandom, are able to recall from memory.

Also, you may add an explanation if you so choose, but it's not mandatory.

Finally, Be warned: There are many spoilers!

Everybody Knows That...

0-9

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey and series
    • "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that"
    • "Will I dream?"
    • The big black cuboid Monolith
      • "Oh my god... it's full of stars!" (only in the novel)
    • "But you'll look sweet/upon the seat/of a bicycle buuilt for twooooooooo...
    • The Star Child
  • 300

A-E

  • Ace Attorney
  • Abraham Lincoln
    • Ended slavery / Freed the slaves. Of course, he really didn't.
    • Was assassinated.
    • Had a tall black hat and facial hair.
    • Is on the US penny and $5 bill
    • "Four score and seven years ago..."
  • Adolf Hitler
  • Albert Einstein
    • Relativity
    • E = mc^2
    • "God does not play dice with the Universe."
    • His hair
    • Was allegedly a slow student, much to the delight of motivational speakers everywhere.
    • Took a picture showing his tongue.
  • Alexander Nevsky
    • Ice breaks, the knights drown.
  • Director Alfred Hitchcock
    • Made a cameo in each of his own films.
    • Even folks who've never seen Alfred Hitchcock Presents can usually hum the theme song, The Funeral March of a Marionette.
    • The Birds
      • A bunch of black birds gather around and then attack someone,
    • Psycho
      • A girl gets stabbed in the shower with freaky music playing.
      • Norman Bates is the killer and his mother
  • American Pie
    • "This one time, at band camp ..."
    • The kid has sex with a pie.
  • Anything Goes
    • It's all on a boat
  • Barack Obama
    • First African-American President.
    • "Yes, we can!"
    • Osama bin Laden went down on his watch.
  • The Beatles
  • Benjamin Franklin
    • The electric kite experiment.
    • On the $100 bill
    • Poor Richard's Almanack
    • "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
  • The Bible - The Old Testament
    • Adam and Eve eat the Fruit of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
    • Cain kills Abel.
    • Noah builds the ark to survive the Flood.
    • Moses leads the slaves out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea on the way.
    • Moses brings down the Ten Commandments.
    • David kills Goliath with a sling.
  • The Bible - The New Testament
    • Mary gives birth to Jesus in a Bethlehem manger.
    • Jesus walks on water, amongst other miracles.
    • Jesus has a Last Supper.
    • Judas betrays Jesus to the Romans.
    • Jesus dies on the cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
    • Jesus is resurrected three days later.
    • The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
  • Bill Clinton
    • ...did not inhale.
    • He did not have sexual relations with that woman.
      • Except that fellatio is a sexual relation.
    • It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.
    • He feels your pain.
  • The film Casablanca
    • "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
    • "Play it again, Sam." (Which was never spoken in the movie)
    • "Here's looking at you, kid"
    • "I'm shocked, shocked, to find that this quote hasn't been mentioned gambling is going on in here!"
    • "You'll regret it... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."
    • "Round up the usual suspects."
  • Castlevania
    • Dracula comes back from the dead (again).
    • Our hero kills him with a whip.
    • "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"
    • "What a horrible night to have a curse."
  • The film Citizen Kane
  • Clint Eastwood
  • The Crying Game
    • Dil is a pre-op transsexual.
  • The Dark Knight
  • Disgaea
  • Doctor Who
    • The Doctor is a Time Lord.
    • The Doctor regenerates.
    • His time machine/spaceship is a phone box that's bigger on the inside.
      • Except it's actually a police box.
      • And it's called the TARDIS.
    • The original series had hilariously low production values.
    • Captain Jack Harkness loves Anything That Moves.
    • EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMINATE!!
      • Daleks have plungers for hands, egg whisks for guns and pepper pots for bodies.
    • The theme song.
    • It makes you hide behind the sofa.
    • The Doctor has a sonic screwdriver.
  • Don Quixote
    • A madman tries to fight a windmill.
    • Sancho Panza
    • "En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no me quiero acordar..." is the Spanish cultural equivalent to "To be or not to be, that is the question."
    • Was writen by Miguel de Cervantes as a parody of chivalry novels.
    • Happens in La Mancha.
    • Has 2 volumes.
  • Dracula
    • A Transylvanian aristocrat is actually a vampire and can turn into a bat.
    • In the end, he dies.
    • 1932 film:
    • look into my eyes.
    • I bid you, goodnight
    • He never drinks... wine.
  • Dragonball Z
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
    • E.T. has a glowing finger
    • "E.T. phone home."
    • Kid and E.T. flying through the sky in a bike
  • The Exorcist
    • If your head twists more than it's possible, you're possessed by demons.
    • Pea soup vomit.
    • "Your mother sucks cocks in Hell!"

F-J

K-O

P-T

U-Z

  • Uncle Tom's Cabin
    • Eliza crossing the ice
  • WarGames
    • "Shall we play a game?"
    • "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play"
  • Winston Churchill
    • "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
    • "I have nothing to offer but blood, tears, toil and sweat."
    • "Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it!" (said in response to Lady Nancy Astor, who told him: "If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee!")
    • "See some of you there"
  • World War II:
    • The Germans lose.
    • Japan is nuked.
      • and surrendered.
    • Paved the way for the Cold War.
  1. ↑ He did however, have a pipe.
  2. ↑ He was a consulting detective.
  3. ↑ the correct term is inductive reasoning.
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