Every actor dreams of finally landing the “big role.” It’s the role that will make them stars, earn them millions of dollars, and finally get them those award nominations. Relatively few actors are lucky enough to ever land that role. That’s just the nature of the business. What’s more remarkable is that some actors do land that role and go on to resent it.

For some, those roles end up reminding the actors of bad times in their lives. Other actors later realize that those roles put them on a bad path. Of course, there are always actors who simply feel that their performances in those movies—or even the movies themselves—were simply never that good. For many reasons, these are some of the most notable actors who resent some of their most famous roles.

Related: 10 Things Famous Filmmakers Regret About Their Classic Movies

10 Burt Reynolds–Boogie Nights

After rising to superstardom in the 1970s and early ’80s, actor Burt Reynolds appeared in a series of box office bombs that tanked his name value. When up-and-coming director Paul Thomas Anderson offered Reynolds a role in his 1997 movie Boogie Nights, he essentially gave Reynolds a chance to prove he was still a star. Boogie Nights went on to be a massive hit, and Reynolds received the first and only Academy Award nomination of his career for his portrayal of the fictional porn director Jack Horner.

Yet Reynolds despised working on Boogie Nights and struggled to find anything nice to say about the film even after it earned him an Oscar nomination. Reynolds later said that he had little respect for Anderson and felt that the director was “full of himself.” Some of Reynold’s co-stars think that the actor was simply too out of touch to appreciate the film and understand why it was so successful.^[1]

9 Viola Davis–The Help

In The Help, Viola Davis plays an African-American maid working for a family in the Deep South during the 1960s. Davis’s work in the film garnered nearly universal critical praise and eventually netted Davis her first Best Actress Oscar nomination. Yet Davis describes The Help as one of those movies she regrets being in.

For Davis, the problem wasn’t director Tate Taylor or even her co-stars. Instead, Davis felt that the movie didn’t properly capture the “voices of the maids” and focused too much on the film’s other characters. Some critics at the time echoed Davis’s concerns. Even Abilene Cooper—the real-life maid that Davis’s character was inspired by—sued the producers of the movie over what she felt was an “embarrassing” adaptation of the story. ^[2]

8 Zac Efron–High School Musical

For some, the Disney Channel’s High School Musical movies invoke powerful memories of a time and place in their lives. For others, they invoke somewhat more embarrassing memories of a time and place in their lives. It turns out that High School Musical star Zac Efron belongs to the latter camp.

Efron says that he looks back at himself in the High School Musical films and wants to “kick that guy’s a** sometimes.” Efron goes on to say that those movies may have made him famous but that the kind of fame he received is “not a real thing” and that you can’t “share that with your friends.” This seems to be another case of a breakout role rocketing a young actor to success faster than they anticipated or enjoyed.^[3]

7 Crispin Glover–Back to the Future

Back to the Future is one of those generational hits that helped change the lives of nearly everyone involved with it. While director Robert Zemeckis and stars Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox have embraced the movie’s success, actor Crispin Glover has long been open about his disdain for Back to the Future and its eventual legacy.

Glover always had an issue with the movie’s ending and the ways it suggests the story’s main characters need to be rich to be happy. Glover’s disagreements with Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale over the issue contributed to his decision to not appear in Back to the Future Part II. Glover even sued the producers of that sequel over their attempts to replicate his likeness in the film. Glover later made amends with Zemeckis, though he is one of the only major living cast members from Back to the Future who wants little to do with the movie to this day.^[4]

6 Brad Pitt–Interview with the Vampire

After stealing the show through smaller roles in Thelma and Louise and True Romance, actor Brad Pitt was cast as the co-lead in a major adaptation of author Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. That film went on to gross over $200 million and launch the career of child actress Kirsten Dunst. But if you’ve ever watched that movie and felt that Pitt seems strangely checked out of the whole thing…well, that’s probably because he was.

Pitt has described Interview with the Vampire as a “miserable” filming experience that required him to be abroad in the middle of winter in an old windowless studio for a prolonged period. At one point, he even asked one of the movie’s producers how much it would cost to just leave the production. When Pitt was informed that it would cost him around $40 million to get out of the movie, he decided to gut it out and finish the film.^[5]

5 Gene Hackman–Hoosiers

While Gene Hackman has starred in many memorable movies throughout his legendary career, few are as beloved as 1986’s Hoosiers. Considered to be one of the greatest sports movies ever made, Hoosiers is arguably best known for Hackman’s portrayal of a high school basketball coach named Norman Dale, who helps lead a ragtag group of students to unlikely success.

Interestingly, Hackman has always seen Hoosiers itself as an unlikely success. While filming, Hackman told co-star Dennis Hopper to save his money because “we’ll never work again after this film.” It’s not entirely clear why Hackman resents the movie so much, though those around him at the time recall that he was generally grumpy throughout the shoot and seemed to feel that the movie was a pandering mess that was destined to bomb.^[6]

4 George Clooney–Batman

Following the success of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, the role of Batman became one of the most coveted casting choices in Hollywood. Few were surprised when the producers of 1997’s Batman and Robin revealed that rising star George Clooney had agreed to play the caped crusader in the much-anticipated movie. Unfortunately for Clooney, that film ended up being a box-office disappointment and is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Clooney doesn’t look back on the role as fondly as other Batman actors.

In fact, Clooney later apologized to Batman fans for his performance in the movie and said that he keeps a photo of himself as Batman around to remind himself to not choose roles solely for commercial reasons. Ouch.^[7]

3 Bill Murray–Groundhog Day

While a modest hit in its day, 1993’s Groundhog Day is now considered one of the best comedies ever made. There are times when it feels like the only person who doesn’t love Groundhog Day is the film’s famous leading man, Bill Murray.

While filming, Murray had a falling out with director—and longtime friend—Harold Ramis over disagreements regarding the film’s tone and messages. Things got so bad at one point that Murray reportedly only agreed to communicate with the movie’s producers via a sign language interpreter. Some theorize that Murray was simply in a bad place at that time and that this movie is a big painful reminder of those times. Regardless, it’s one of the few films in the actor’s legendary career that he never celebrates and rarely speaks about.^[8]

2 Christopher Plummer–The Sound of Music

1965’s The Sound of Music is one of the most successful and acclaimed movie musicals ever made. Yet star Christopher Plummer has rarely found a nice word to say about the picture during his long and illustrious acting career. In fact, in his autobiography, he referred to the movie as “The Sound of Mucus.”

Plummer’s resentment of the film seems to be based on his resentment for his character, Captain Georg von Trapp. Plummer says he quickly grew bored of playing the character and disagreed with some of the studio’s attempts to flesh out the role. Reportedly, Plummer’s boredom seemingly led to him showing up to the set drunk and otherwise enjoying his time away from the production of the movie a bit too much.^[9]

1 Alec Guinness–Star Wars

1977’s Star Wars may be one of the most successful pieces of entertainment ever made, but many people at the time of the movie’s release doubted its potential and saw it as another cheap sci-fi flick. Remarkably, Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Alec Guinness still looked at the film that way even after it became one of the biggest hits in movie history.

While Guinness was reportedly a professional while filming Star Wars, he wasn’t shy about letting everyone know that he thought the script was awful and that he only took the role for the money. According to a popular legend, a child once asked Guinness for his autograph and told the actor that he had already seen Star Wars 100 times. Guinness said he would only give the child an autograph if he agreed to never watch the movie again.^[10]

When we find ourselves wandering through an art gallery, perusing the many different styles and disciplines on display, we often make snap judgements about what we like and what we don’t like. Those judgements we make, we tell ourselves, are based on our very own tastes. We look, we evaluate and then, confident in our thinking process, we pronounce the painting, drawing or sculpture to be bad, good, great or a masterpiece. It’s a simple, straightforward process. We know art when we see it. Case closed.

Turns out, the process of appreciating art is much more complicated than that. There are numerous strange, subtle forces that make us embrace some art, push other art away or magically transform non-art into art. Here are 10 fascinating examples.

SEE ALSO: 10 Great Easter Eggs Hidden In Works Of Art

10 Being Told

Fact: Simply Being Told That Something Is Art Changes Our Response To It

Recently, a group of Dutch scientists, from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, conducted a series of experiments. A total of 24 student volunteers were hooked up to an EEG—which measures electrical activity in the brain—and asked to evaluate a series of pictures for likability and attractiveness. Half of these pictures were of something nice and half were of something awful. The students were also told that some of the pictures were art and some were pictures of actual events.^[1]

What the scientists found was that when the students were told that a picture was a work of art, their emotional response was, “…subdued on a neural level.” In other words, when confronted with what we are told is a work of art, we distance ourselves from it to be able to, as lead researcher Noah Van Dongen puts it, “…appreciate or scrutinize its shapes, colors and composition…”

9 Where It’s Shown

Fact: Where The Art Is Displayed Affects Our Appreciation Of It

A work of art is a work of art. Observed up on a gallery wall or in somebody’s garage, that same painting should be able to be appreciated in the same way in either environment, right?^[2]

In 2014, a simple experiment was conducted by a team at the University of Vienna. In that experiment, two groups of volunteers took in an art exhibition—one in a museum and one in a laboratory. A Mobile eye tracking device captured each participant’s viewing time in both places. Afterwards, they were asked to rate each artwork based on, “…liking, interest, understanding, and ambiguity scales.”

The results showed that galleries and museums do matter. Participants in the museum environment viewed each of the individual works of art for a longer time, liked them more and found them more interesting.

Summing up, the team from the University of Vienna concluded that, “…art museums foster an enduring and focused aesthetic experience and demonstrate that context modulates the relation between art experience and viewing behavior.”

8 Hunter-Gatherer Instincts

Fact: The Hunter-Gatherer Era Differentiated What Men And Women Find Aesthetically Pleasing

Next time you disagree with a member of the opposite sex on the aesthetic value of a painting it might just be because, once, long, long ago, men hunted animals and women gathered nuts and berries.^[3]

So says Camilo J. Cela-Conde and his colleagues. They hooked up 10 female students and 10 male students to a MEG—which measures the brain’s electrical currents and the magnetic fields it creates—and showed them each hundreds of pictures of artistic paintings, natural objects, landscapes and urban scenes.

They found that when visually evaluating a work of art, men’s brains show stimulation on the right side only, while women’s brains show stimulation on both sides.

From the data they collected, the authors of the study concluded that male and female differences in the appreciation of aesthetic beauty might be tied to the different roles each had during the time of the hunter-gatherer society.

Men hunting needed to “…process a large landscape” and because of this are, “…more comfortable in open configurations and larger art works.” On the contrary, women gathering would, “…seek out nuts and berries and find the same static patch each day” and because of this, “…would be more comfortable and would like small spatial configurations…”

7 Exposure

Fact: We Prefer The Art That We Are Exposed To More Often

Ever dislike a song, the first time you hear it, but grow to like it after listening to it a few more times? That experience has a name.^[4]

The “mere-exposure effect” is the experience one has when one begins to like things merely because they are repeatedly exposed to it.

James Cutting, a psychologist at Cornell University, showed his students artistic examples of impressionism for a very brief blip of time—2 seconds. Some of those works of art were considered classics and some were not—though, qualitatively, they were very close. The works of art that were not considered classics were shown 4 times as much.

The results were surprising. The students preferred the non-classics to the classic works of art. A control group still gave the edge to the classics.

6 Electroshock Therapy

Fact: Jolting Your Brain With Electricity Enhances Our Love Of Classic Art

Zaira Cattaneo at the University of Milan Bicocca and her team took 12 people and asked them their opinion of a series of paintings. The twist was that they asked these people before and after they either zapped their brain with a small amount of current or merely pretended to zap them.^[5]

The part of the brain that received the jolt, in this experiment, is known as the DLPFC or the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain processes emotions.

Surprisingly, the people who received the zap rated paintings that contained regular everyday moments more highly.

Neurologist Anjan Chatterjee, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, believes that zapping the DLPFC may, “…improve your mood.”

This is why Zaira hopes that, someday, this method may help those suffering from anhedonia—a condition in which people are incapable of experiencing pleasure.

5 Ambiguity

Fact: The More Ambiguous A Work Of Art The More We Like It

We crave clarity. When we shop, we want to see a clearly printed price tag for the item we wish to purchase. When we drive, we want to see clearly printed signs that tell us how fast we can go and when to stop.^[6]

When it comes to art, though, we ache for ambiguity.

A study was conducted featuring 29 people who ranged in age from 18-41 and had zero art or art history training. They were shown photos of ambiguous works of art done by Rene Magritte and Hans Bellmer.

The results were fascinating, “The higher the participants assessed the ambiguity of a stimulus, the more they appreciated it.”

What the participants found was that the ambiguous art triggered, “…flashes of understanding as they studied the work, which they found enjoyable even if it didn’t unlock all of its secrets.”

Echoing those comments, researchers also found that, “…subjective solvability of ambiguity was not significantly linked to liking, and was even negatively linked to interest and (emotional involvement).”

4 No Info Please

Fact: Providing Information About A Work Of Art Diminishes Our Appreciation Of It

More information does not lead to more enjoyment—at least when it comes to art.^[7]

Psychologist Kenneth Bordens of Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, recently wrote about a study where 172 undergraduate students—with little to no art smarts—looked at two paintings and two sculptures in one of four styles. Those styles were—Impressionist, Renaissance, Dada and Outsider.

Initially, each student was handed a broad definition of art and a card indicating the style a particular work represented. Then, half of them were handed even more information, including: a definition of that style, a short look at where that style came from and what artists who worked in that style set out to achieve.

Then, using a scale from 1-7, Students had to rate how much they liked each work and how closely it lined up with their personal idea of art.

The study showed that, “Providing contextual information led to participants perceiving examples of the various styles of art as matching less well with their internal standards than when no contextual information was presented,”

Bordens thinks that the extra information provided about some of the works of art may have led to “greater conscious processing” on the part of the participants which may have made them, “more critical.”

3 Abstraction? Sacré Bleu!

Fact: We Appreciate Abstract Art More In A Foreign Language Context

There is a term in psychology called Psychological Distancing. It refers to the, “…subjective space that we perceive between ourselves and things.”^[8]

Elena Stephan, Department of Psychology, Bar-ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel and her colleagues studied psychological distancing and how it related to the appreciation of art.

They argued that a foreign language may create enough of a psychological distance to move an individual, “…away from the pragmatic everyday perception style and enhance appreciation of paintings.”

In the end, they found that abstract art was appreciated more deeply in a foreign language context than in a native language context.

2 Patterns

Fact: Seeing Patterns In A Work Of Art Is Our Sweet Spot

Our brain loves patterns. An ability to recognize patterns is so important that it played a big role in helping our Neanderthal ancestors survive.^[9]

Not surprisingly then, recognizing patterns actually gives us a pop of pleasure via our brain’s opioid system.

Jim Davies, a professor at Carelton’s Institute of Cognitive Science, says patterns are crucial in our appreciation of art. “If we don’t see a pattern…we rapidly get bored with it.”

1 Mona Lisa . . . Yawn

Fact: The Mona Lisa Only Became A Masterpiece After It Was Stolen

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Whether true or not, absence certainly helped boost the profile and popularity of a certain Leonardo Da Vinci painting.

Though difficult to imagine now, there was a time when interest in the “Mona Lisa” was, “…relatively minimal.” So, what accounts for its now legendary status? The tireless work of art historians? Re-evaluation by art critics of the early 1900s? Da Vinci’s ancestors? No, all it took was a construction worker and a few of his buddies.^[10]

Sleeping overnight in the Louvre, Vincenzo and his friends awoke the next morning, Monday August 21, 1911, dressed themselves in workman’s smocks, grabbed the painting and then split via a back stairwell.

The “Mona Lisa” was so uncelebrated that it took 26 hours before someone noticed the painting was missing.

Newspapers around the world announced the theft with big front page headlines. The walls of Paris became crowded with wanted posters. People flocked to police headquarters. Songs were written about it. Through this process, high art became mass art and the people fell in love with Da Vinci’s now universally adored masterpiece.

So, the “Mona Lisa” owes much of its renown and appreciation to an obscure 5′ 3″ Italian construction worker whose brothers called a nut. Strange but true.

Professional clowns are great. However, those who pretend or stray outside of the circus can sow fear. Wayward clowns have triggered violent brawls, car chases and appeared in creepy ways unannounced. They also make things awkward for managers—employees can now take comfort in a clown’s presence when called into the boss’s office to get fired.

See Also: Top 10 Clowns You Don’t Want To Mess With

10 They Really Lurk In The Woods

In 2016, the Great Clown Scare hit the United States. Reports started pouring in; civilians across several states insisted that clowns were trying to lure children into the woods. Photos appeared on Facebook showing the scary criminals leaning out behind trees or blatantly standing out in the open.

Undoubtedly, most of the stories and photos were fake. This was probably behind the zero-tolerance response to false claims and related actions. Among those arrested was an 11-year-old girl. She had brought a knife to school because she was afraid the clowns were going to get her. Some of the stories were not fake at all.

Residents from Middlesboro, in Kentucky, reported a clown traipsing in the woods. The police took the multiple sightings seriously and indeed, they nailed the creature when he started lurking behind trees near a building complex during the early hours of the morning.

Once unmasked, the 20-year-old Jonathan Martin was charged with violating a city law stating that nobody is allowed to wear facial concealment and cause public alarm. He posed for his mug shot in his clown suit.

9Clown Pranks Are Expensive And Deadly

When the 2016 American clown scare reached the United Kingdom, it was not pretty. Apart from the usual paranoid sightings, real incidents scared the pants off the public. In Gloucester, six separate incidents saw somebody being followed by a knife-carrying clown. A group of schoolchildren walking in County Durham was traumatized when a clown jumped at them wielding a blade. Several clowns chased a boy in Suffolk.

The police treat all clown-related reports as a grade one emergency, meaning officers must respond to every sighting and incident. The growing number of clown pranks is not just scaring the public who is already on edge from sex offenders, muggers, and violent criminals. Visiting each scene could cost lives. Somebody in real danger could die because the police are elsewhere searching for a clown. Needless to say, clown-hunting also wastes the department’s fuel, time and resources.

8 Clown Makeup Defies Facial Recognition Systems

Insane Clown Posse is a band with die-hard fans. They call themselves Juggalo and paint their faces like clowns. To be fair, nobody is running around with rainbow curls and red noses. Think more along the lines of goth-looking entertainers. Indeed, a Juggalo’s face paint is done in a certain way—and that is a problem for facial recognition systems.

These systems are increasingly used across the world. Big Tech knows your face and where you go. Lovely. Should you desire anonymity, smearing paint across your face in a Juggalo pattern might help. Apparently, one of their trademarks messes with the system’s ability to recognize faces and that is the dark line beneath a Juggalo’s bottom lip. This smudge tricks the technology into thinking that the jaw is more retracted than it really is.

Besides following innocent people and invading privacy, facial recognition systems are saving lives. They catch terrorists before they can detonate bombs. They find children tagged with an Amber Alert. In this sense, criminals can exploit the software’s weakness by using clown makeup to conceal their identity.

7 They Infiltrated The Police

By day, Karina Salgado is a police officer in Chicago. But on a dark Halloween night in 2019, she turned into a clown. An intoxicated one. The off-duty cop decided to visit another alcoholic establishment and meandered up to a Lakeview East bar. That was when the trouble started.

The staff was not chuffed with the idea of allowing a tipsy clown inside. When told that she was not allowed to enter, the 30-year-old became so disruptive that the police were called. They arrived at 1:20 in the morning to find their colleague in full uniform—and not the blue kind—still demanding to be let inside the bar.

When the cops tried to reason with Salgado, she took a drunken swing at one of them. Unfortunately for her, the slap connected. After hitting her fellow crime-fighter in the face, she was arrested for battery, criminal trespass and obstructing an officer. After an internal investigation, Salgado was reassigned to a desk job, dealing with the public over the phone and, for obvious reasons, not in person.

6 They Infiltrate Our Beds

Imagine coming home and there is a clown in your bed. Not a clown doll that you left there but a living person. This person is not your husband, wife or another family member. Just a freaking clown sleeping in your bed. This was the scenario that shocked the socks off a teenager in 2017.

The unnamed teenager arrived home in Marlboro, in Vermont. He was spooked to find a clown passed out in an upstairs bedroom. He called 911 and explained the situation. The police had no difficulty arresting the clown, which turned out to be 43-year-old Sean Barber. Apart from having broken into the home and taking a fancy to one of the family’s beds, the clown was also intoxicated. In an even better example to kids everywhere who love clowns, the police found cocaine in his colorful suit.

Barber was allowed to dry out in a correctional facility before being charged with drug possession and trespassing.

5 They Cause Mass Brawls

When the cruise ship Britannia left to visit Norway’s fjords, the plan was to provide a lot of fun for the holidaymakers. Instead, what they got was an aggressive clown at the buffet table. He was also a passenger and whilst suited up in clown gear, triggered trouble at two in the morning inside one of the ship’s restaurants.

By the time the security got there, the fight was in full swing. Described as a “mass brawl,” several people were embroiled in the altercation and staff was also in the thick of things. However, the crew was desperately trying to separate the highly-intoxicated participants. Passengers used plates and furniture as weapons while the rest of the patrons fled in fear. When the dust settled, three women and three men had sustained serious injuries. There was blood everywhere.

The violence was fueled by alcohol and one man’s unhappiness at seeing a clown. Apparently, he had specifically paid for a cruise that did not allow fancy dress. The situation escalated quickly and groups attacked each other. When the ship docked, the Hampshire police were waiting with handcuffs.

4They Lead Police On Slow-Speed Chases

Everybody secretly loves watching a real high-speed chase on the news. Trust clowns to mess that up. In 2019, a man wearing a wig and mask led authorities on a slow chase through Los Angeles for nearly 56 kilometers (35 miles).

The authorities were alerted to a clown behaving recklessly and soon they were on his tail. While his accomplice drove (perhaps we should blame her), the clown stood up through the sunroof. There were moments when he actually sat with his feet on the roof of the black sedan, no doubt alarming the police behind him. The officers followed the speed-limit-minding pair while suffering the indignity of being shown gestures that some interpreted as mocking. You know, the clown shrugged at the cops, like “Sigh. Things like this happen, what can you do?”

The California Highway Patrol did do something. They doggedly followed the car and chased the clown when he jumped out near Venice Beach and started running. As expected, when the police caught up to him, things were not exactly normal. Far from being aggressive or afraid, the clown was busy burying a beachgoer in the sand (the beachgoer was okay with it). His motive for causing the chase remains unknown.

3 Clowns On The Run

In 1990, Marlene Warren made the mistake of opening her front door. Inherently, there was no real reason to be cautious. She lived in a small Florida community without a festering criminal element. And standing at her door was a fun-looking clown holding balloons. One balloon showed the image of Snow White and the other proclaimed “You’re The Greatest!”

The clown shot her in the face. Warren died two days later and for nearly thirty years, her killer was on the run. From the start, the police suspected that the individual, who wore an orange wig and a red nose, did not run very far. In fact, they were almost convinced that it was a woman named Sheila Keen. Not only did Keen live in the same town but she also later married the victim’s husband.

The problem was a lack of evidence. In 2017, however, DNA traces were sufficient to arrest Keen. Officials could not prove that the victim’s husband was involved in her murder but there was plenty of motive. Marlene’s life insurance was a King’s ransom and her death gave him sole rights to valuable property. By this time, Michael Warren was already in prison for an unrelated offense, but he appeared to have had an affair with the killer clown who then took matters into her own hands, murdering Marlene to enrich Warren as a wealthy future hubby.

2 Support Clowns Are Here

Individuals with anxiety problems sometimes find comfort in support animals. The movement is gaining worldwide recognition for its positive benefits and also for the often weird choice of constant companion (think peacocks and miniature horses). One man took strange support animals to a whole new level.

Some managers have a hard enough time laying a person off to their face. In 2019, a New Zealand man made the difficult moment even more awkward. Knowing that his company was canning most of the staff, including himself, he brought his support clown to help him through the rough meeting.

Whoever spoke to the unnamed staffer and explained why the company was letting him go also had to deal with the clown sitting nearby, prolifically making balloon animals. Worse, when the redundancy paperwork was given to the employee, the clown mimed sadness and weeping. Seriously. Awkward.

1 The Mother’s Day Killer

As far as clown dreams go, Kevin Lapeire had it all. He was a star in the reality TV show “Belgium’s Got Talent.” The 31-year-old also won awards as the best clown in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. He kindly entertained sick kids in hospitals as “Doctor Aspirin.”

Doctor Asprin hated his girlfriend’s kids. The three teenagers did not get along with him and this fact led to the couple’s breakup. Since the separation was her idea, Lapeire felt that some revenge was in order. He convinced another clown, “Dietwin the Yodeller,” (real name Dietwin Haegeman) to help murder his ex-girlfriend. To add more cruelty to the deed, they waited until Mother’s Day.

On that fateful day in 2018, the two men took the children hostage in their home. Aged between 12 and 17, they were terrorized for hours before being forced to watch Lapeire and Haegeman stab their mother to death. The yodeling clown was arrested without fanfare, but Lapeire was a different fish. He shot at police from a building’s rooftop, threw gas canisters and pretended to surrendered several times before he finally did.

Our lives are filled with ideas and inventions that we take for granted. What appears absolutely normal to us today might have once seemed strange or even dangerous to our ancestors.

10 Movie Concepts You Won’t Believe Exist In Real Life

Just like modern people are scared by the idea of self-driving cars, people in the past were scared by some things that they thought were crazy.

10 Passport Photos

What could be a more obvious idea than a passport photo? What better system could there be to identify someone than an actual picture and description of that person?

Well, if you were the British government in 1835, a better system was “no system.” The British foreign secretary found the suggestion of describing British citizens on their passports to be “degrading and offensive.” The government didn’t want their citizens to be “perused by foreigners.”

British passports remained without photos or descriptions until World War I. This was when they discovered that foreign spies could essentially enter Britain at will. Only then did the government make it mandatory for passports to contain both a photograph and a physical description.

This proved controversial. Bassett Digby, an explorer and natural historian, criticized the Foreign Office’s “high-handed methods.” He described his own face as “intelligent” and was outraged when the official form simply described it as “oval.”^[1]

9 Guide Dogs

After World War I, Europe was filled with blinded or wounded veterans. To help with the issue, guide dog schools were set up throughout the continent. In Germany, where the first schools were established, public reaction to the idea was largely positive.

However, some animal protection organizations did criticize the use of undertrained or misused dogs by beggars or people pretending to be war veterans. In Britain, however, guide dog users faced a much more hostile reaction.^[2]

Many were scandalized by the “torturous treatment” of the animals and the amount of work they were expected to do. Early trainers even encountered abuse by members of the public trying to stop them. Fortunately, this attitude quickly vanished once the benefits of the program—and the bond between dog and owner—became clear.

8 Cars

The humble automobile is arguably the most influential invention of the modern era. Most cities would collapse overnight without the fleet of cars, vans, and trucks keeping them supplied. Turn back the clock 100 years, however, and you’ll find that a lot of people hated cars.

The hatred partly stemmed from the fact that cars were entirely controlled by a single person. In 1896, Alfred Sennett of the British Association for the Advancement of Science issued a warning: A driver of the “horseless carriage . . . has not the advantage of the intelligence of the horse in shaping his path.”^[3] A horse would naturally stop or avoid obstacles, but a car couldn’t think for itself if the driver was distracted.

In Pennsylvania, the Farmers’ Anti-Automobile Society suggested some extreme rules for motorists. These included sending up flares every mile at night as well as constantly blaring your horn to make your presence known. If horses refused to pass his vehicle, the driver was to immediately dismantle his car and conceal the parts in the surrounding bushes.

Britain passed the Locomotives Act of 1865, which required a pedestrian to walk 55 meters (180 ft) ahead of any moving locomotive. That person had to carry a red flag to warn people that the vehicle was coming. This law was significantly loosened in 1896, allowing cars to go up to 19 kilometers per hour (12 mph)!

To understand the fear, you have to imagine how different city life was at the turn of the 20th century. In the late 1890s, pedestrians dominated the roads and children would freely run across busy intersections. People were not prepared for the deadly speeds of a car.

By 1925, auto accidents accounted for 67 percent of the death toll in US cities. Major newspapers like The New York Times wrote editorials disapproving of “the homicidal orgy of the motor car.” Tens of thousands marched on the streets to protest.

The car’s reputation was only saved by lobbyists, who invented the term “jaywalker.” They successfully convinced the public that the deaths were the fault of irresponsible pedestrians.

7 Nostalgia

From Stranger Things and constant film reboots to “Make America Great Again,” nostalgia is fashionable right now. Cut to a few hundred years ago, however, and anyone caught reminiscing about the “good old days” could have been hospitalized or even killed.

During the Thirty Years’ War, six nostalgic Spanish soldiers were discharged with el mal de corazon. It later became known as “Swiss illness” after Swiss soldiers were put to death for singing a nostalgic folk song.^[4]

In 1733, a Russian general told his troops that the first one to be afflicted by “Swiss illness” would be buried alive. It was believed to be dangerous for soldiers to reminisce about home or their loved ones. Their attention should be fully focused on the task ahead. In the 19th and 20th centuries, nostalgia came to be classified as an “immigrant psychosis” and a “mentally repressive compulsive disorder.”

The cure for Swiss illness varied considerably. French doctor Jourdan Le Cointe recommended “pain and terror” as an effective treatment. In the US, the approach was a little more humane. Military doctor Theodore Calhoun preferred shame as a treatment, subjecting afflicted individuals to public ridicule and bullying. Thankfully, mental health care has moved on a bit since then.

6 Potatoes

The potato is one of the most versatile and loved foods on the planet, but it wasn’t always this way. When the potato was first introduced to Europe from the Americas, the majority of the population viewed it with suspicion and distrust.

King Frederick the Great actually had to order his starving populace to eat tubers during a famine in 1744. A group of English farmers, who associated the potato with Roman Catholic excess, helped popularize the 1765 election slogan “No Potatoes, No Popery!” French people in the late 16th century regarded the potato as fit only for cattle, and some alleged that eating it might cause leprosy.

The potato’s savior was Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (of Parmentier potatoes fame), who organized elaborate pro-potato publicity stunts for high-profile guests and foreign dignitaries. The legend goes that Thomas Jefferson was present and this is how America got french fries.^[5]

Parmentier convinced the French nobility to wear potato blossoms in their hair and to plant tubers on the outskirts of Paris. Allegedly, Parmentier surrounded these potato crops with armed guards to give them the illusion of great value. Then he withdrew the guards at night knowing that the starving populace would steal some potatoes for themselves and increase the potato’s popularity.

10 Strange Architectural Concepts Of The Modern World

5 Movies With Sound

In the modern era, films are often defined by their audio. Would Star Wars be as iconic without its bombastic score or Marvel without its quick-fire banter? Most audiences would be put off by a silent film being released in theaters today. At the start, however, a lot of industry professionals were skeptical of this “audio” nonsense.

In the 1920s, Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Bros., was shown Vitaphone (an early sound system). He was very impressed by it and remarked that it could save theaters the cost of hiring a live band.

When told that it also let actors talk on-screen, Warner replied, “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? The music—that’s the big plus about this.” Film executive Joseph Schenck thought similarly, once remarking that “talking doesn’t belong in pictures.”

Silent movie stars hated these new “talkies” even more than the executives. Clara Bow, a 1920s sex symbol, said, “I hate talkies. They’re stiff and limiting.”^[6]

Actors were indeed physically limited by the bulky microphones they now had to wear, but many of them were also emotionally limited. They were trained to make large, exaggerated facial expressions and movements to convey their emotions. With sound, the old-school actors just looked silly and theatrical.

Even Charlie Chaplin was initially resistant. In 1931, he wrote that the “silent picture . . . is a universal means of expression. Talking pictures necessarily have a limited field.”

4 Library Books

Libraries are one of the miracles of the modern age. Anyone can read books for free there or even take the books home! If libraries were introduced today, everyone would ask what the catch was. That’s exactly what happened in the late 19th century when the US and Britain were gripped by the “great book scare.”

Diseases like tuberculosis and scarlet fever were rife in the 1800s, and library books were widely believed to be vectors for disease. Public libraries were a relatively new idea. It was easy to wonder about the people who might have last handled a book and what illnesses they may have had.

The United Kingdom’s government entertained the idea and launched a wave of legislation aimed at preventing people from borrowing books or using libraries if they were ill. Libraries across the English-speaking world were expected to disinfect their books, and in 1900, Scranton, Pennsylvania, ordered its libraries to stop all book distribution.^[7]

By the 1910s, the great book scare had mostly calmed down after it became clear that librarians weren’t showing higher illness rates. Readers will be happy to know that modern studies have shown that library books “do not serve as a potential source of transmission” for bacteria.

3 Shopping Carts

On the surface, the shopping cart seems boring. It’s a big basket on wheels in which you can put your shopping items, so what’s the controversy?

In fact, the shopping cart marked a major shift in the way people used stores. Before the 1920s, most shops didn’t let you pick your own goods. Instead, a store employee did it for you behind a counter.

This changed with early shopping magnates like Sylvan Goldman, who pioneered the revolutionary “self-service” concept. This was a lot cheaper than having employees do it, but it was limited by how much a customer could physically carry.

To increase the amount a shopper could carry, the humble shopping trolley was born. Goldman sent them to all his stores. He hired actors to hype up the newfangled shopping carts, stationing “an attractive girl” near the store entrance and planting actors around the store to show how they worked.

Even with this marketing push, the idea didn’t take off as easily as Goldman had hoped. In a 1977 interview, he claimed that women refused to use the carts because the ladies were sick of pushing baby carriages around all day. On the other hand, men took offense at the idea that they weren’t strong enough to carry all their shopping in a basket.^[8]

2 Coffee

Since it was first grown and traded, coffee has been controversial. Religious authorities in Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul made many attempts to ban it. Some religious officials argued that the physical effects of coffee could be compared to alcohol, which Muslims are forbidden to drink.

Perhaps more importantly, coffee meant coffeehouses. They were seen as dangerous gathering places where people could openly discuss topics like religion or politics.

A couple of hundred years later, coffeehouses were seemingly still hated in England. In 1674, “The Women’s Petition Against Coffee” was a comedy pamphlet supposedly published by a group of annoyed women. They claimed that coffee made their husbands too talkative, writing that “they sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at gossipping.”

They also complained that coffee reduced their husbands’ sex drive: “[S]he approaches the nuptial bed, expecting a man that . . . should answer the vigour of her flames, she on the contrary should only meet a bedful of bones.”^[9]

Or did they?

Instead of being written by actual women, this pamphlet was probably made as part of King Charles II’s attacks on coffee and coffeehouses. Much like Arabian cultures, he saw coffee as a seditious drink that made his subjects rebellious. His father being executed by rebellious subjects probably didn’t help his paranoia, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he tried to ban coffeehouses a year later.

1 Comic Books

Whether you like it or not, we live in a world where superheroes and comic books dominate pop culture. Go back to the post–World War II era, however, and there was a genuine fear of comic books. The 1940s were the height of what is now called the Golden Age of Comic Books, with almost 60 million comics being sold a month in the US.

However, popularity brought greater scrutiny. The war had made violence in comic books more acceptable, and there were even popular violent comics written by women and black people!

Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham started a crusade against comics by arguing that comic book readers became “sexually aggressive.” He made several unsubstantiated claims, such as suggesting that Batman and Robin represented “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.” His ideas eventually made their way to a Senate subcommittee where Wertham said, “I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic book industry.”^[10]

To appease the growing fear about comics, several publishers formed the Comics Code Authority, which cracked down on violence, cursing, anti-authority story lines, and any comics dealing with racial or religious prejudice. Even with these extraordinary measures, the public wasn’t happy. The 1940s and ’50s saw public comic book burning across America. Tens of thousands of comics were destroyed.

10 Brain-Breaking Scientific Concepts

It is a very easy thing to hate the United States of America right now. But why? We stormed the beaches at Normandy, saved Europe from economic ruin with the Marshall plan (thanks for paying off the loan, Norway. Anybody else? Anybody? Bueller?), invented the Internet, uprooted tyrants, and give foreign aid away like it was candy. We want to be the good guys and thought we were. Yet we just can’t seem to get any love these days. How’d we get here? Well… [JFrater: as the representative of , I would like to say that we don’t hate America – in fact, I had one of my greatest holidays there. This list will no doubt cause a storm – be calm and debate nicely!]

The first reason: we act like the world revolves around us. America presumes much for a country generously dated at 300 years old. China has latrines ten times older than that. A quick example: many countries play baseball, but only we have the “World Series”. We’re getting better about our egocentrism, but it’s been a loooong time coming. And don’t get me started about our tourists. Just smile and take the money- they’re loud, but they’ll be gone in a week.

Okay, I’ll concede Vietnam, tennis (but we don’t care) and Kenyan marathon runners. But we win damn near everything else, eventually. The Space Race. The Cold War. Tour de France. The list goes on and on. Even we hate the Olympics now that our professionals are allowed to participate straight up with the underaged/doping communist nations. It’s boring for us, but as a Red Sox/Bolton Wanderers fan, I know the angst that chronic losing against bigger and better funded opponents generates. And if we don’t have the best athletes/scientists/entertainers, we’ll make sure they get a chance to immigrate while others wait in line. That’s gotta sting. Oh, Yao Ming and Ichiro say “Hi”.

Why? Because we can. Americans are the second fattest industrialized nation per capita (sorry, Australia). But as always, we make up for it in volume. We can afford automobiles so we don’t ride bikes or walk anywhere except for fun, and thanks to abundant agricultural surpluses, ANYTHING we want to eat is readily available from takeaway restaurants and convenience stores. Some of our refrigerators could hide an entire human body. And we like the fatty stuff, because fat tastes good. This is NOT a good thing, and our global franchises (KFC, McDonald’s) are already infecting nations that traditionally had healthier diets (are you listening, Japan?)

The United States is the inventor and only wartime practitioner of nuclear weapons (never mind that using them prevented an invasion that would make the Iraqi insurgency look like a blowjob. “Operation Downfall”, the now-declassified US plan to invade Japan, estimated 1 Million American casualties alone). Lax security protocols (and clever spying) spread the secret to the USSR and after that the genie got out of the bottle. Many countries now have atomic weapons, and with no clear Cold War counterpart to US supremacy, the balance has shifted, and the peace dividend has not been kind post 9/11.

Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world’s energy. (American Almanac), and we are the world’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting for 23 percent of energy-related carbon emissions worldwide. (U.S. Department of Energy). This, while worldwide, some 2 billion people are currently without electricity. (U.S. Department of Energy). The good news is that among industrialized and developing countries, Canada consumes per capita the most energy in the world, and the United Sates is only second. Italy consumes the least among industrialized countries (that’s because they still drive Fiats, which “conserve” energy by breaking every other day).

The United States has the most advanced army in the world. We station our military in other countries at their “request”, which is a source of much seething and hurt national pride. From Banana Republics, to the Cold War, to the War on Terror, we routinely interfere in the business of other countries to make the world safe for our interests, whether anybody asked for it or not. Even if the intentions are both right and good, many countries resent our involvement in their affairs on sheer principle: they’d rather f*** it up themselves. Are you listening, North Korea?

A thriving market economy and near total freedom of expression liberate Americans to pursue almost every endeavor imaginable, resulting in some of the greatest discoveries and inventions in the history of man, from the first practical light bulb to powered flight, polio vaccines, radio and TV, space exploration, the Internet, and unfortunately, everything in between. So that means ubercrap like Jerry Springer and Britney Spears gets exported worldwide. No, I’m being too kind there– “force fed” worldwide. Other cultures despise this with a mix of dread, envy, and loathing. They can’t figure out how to cull the good from the bad out of this torrent (neither can we, btw)—but once it takes hold, it won’t let go. This what the Islamic world fears most. Tanks, they understand. An educated, employed woman horny and clubbing on Friday night they simply can’t fathom. And it scares the crap out of them.

Despite the hyperbole bandied online, strong political opinions won’t get your door kicked in at 3 AM like in the Gulag Archipelago. There are no Stalinist purges or killing fields here. And the FBI/CIA/ATF/DEA/PTA will not shoot you on sight simply because you speak against The Surge or march against the Economic Stimulus Plan. But it’s certainly fun to claim a fear of it! You become an instant radical and feel intellectually enlightened to boot– patriotism is an uncritical, reflexive act, right?– only a deep thinker would hate his country (yet stay on to enjoy its privileges). And don’t worry about proof, because all that matters is the accusation. Volume and conviction win the day, so toss that bibliography—grab half the story and make the rest up. If you get caught in a logic box, claim satire. Other countries see this lack of consequences and pile on.

From Vietnam to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski to “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq to finding Osama Bin Laden, we seem to do most of the work, but keep a lot of things hanging on, never quite finished. Eventually the answer makes itself known, but it usually takes time, and involves help from others after a lot of (necessary) heated discussions. Maybe we should try this as as a first course of action more often…

We are a nation of doers, and our errors (when they occur) will be from acts of commission, not omission (Hypocrisy Alert: Darfur). Sometimes that’s a great thing, like sending Kruschev’s missiles back home, breaking Gaddafi’s/Qaddafi’s/Kaddafi’s nuclear ambitions (his nukes are now safely tucked away in Oak Ridge, Tennessee), or winning the Cold War. Other times, it blows up in our (and often, YOUR) face. Our attempts to spread democracy worldwide, intended to let others enjoy the same freedoms and advantages that we have, sometimes result in innocent people dying. We must stop to remember the Somalia embassy, Madrid and Fiji and Lockerbie 101 bombings, along with the millions of nameless others who suffered and died in countries that are not free. The US is the biggest face opposing these things that actually does anything (not just talk, FRANCE. You railed about Guantanamo but when it came time to release prisoners you took ONE.), but our allies often bear the brunt of our “foreign” wars, because the enemy cannot reach us. That has changed recently, and while it has altered our perspective, it has not altered our resolve.

I think everyone has been in a similar situation; your enthusiastic best friend/colleague/sibling is ranting and raving about this amazing film that “you need to watch. Right now!” You have no intention of watching it, especially given that the last recommendation they gave you was rubbish. More to the point, this film features what? Figure Skating?

So, you put it off, and off, and off, until you finally give in and give it a go! And, begrudgingly, that’s right: Margot Robbie smashes it out of the park with a fantastic performance of a disgraced figure skater.

My knowledge of figure skating could be written on the back of a stamp…five times, with enough room to include the script of I, Tonya. But that got me thinking, it can’t just be me that has avoided a great film due to the sport it depicts. I present, in no particular order; 10 Sports Films You’ll Enjoy Even If You Hate Sports.

Disclaimer: I have no doubt I have left out some classics and someone’s favorite film, but I tried to get a nice, wide range of sports and movie genres at the expense of some obvious choices (Sorry, Rocky).

Related: 10 Sports Superstars Who Ruined Their Careers

10 Slap Shot

Hockey is a sport I know little about. Slightly more than figure skating, in so far as they carry a big stick, right? But I have been made to watch Paul Newman’s films for as long as I can remember, and I have enjoyed them for as long as I can remember. So, it was no surprise he put in as charming and funny a performance as usual in this movie.

The plot of Slap Shot (1977) centers on a declining town and its failing ice hockey team, who in desperation turns to violence on the ice to boost ticket sales and popularity. Special mention has to be made of the brutal Hanson brothers, who provide a lot of the laughs (and winces) as they crash, bludgeon, and batter most of their opponents. IMDb trivia states this was one of Newman’s favorite films, and it comes across on screen. He must have had a ball filming it as many parts, especially those involving the Hanson brothers, were unscripted and improvised on set.^[1]

9 Million Dollar Baby

Okay, so most of the films on this list I have watched two or more times. Not with this one. Please understand, that is not reflective of the quality of the film: It is a great film, worthy of the Oscar it received, and proof, if needed, Hilary Swank is an amazing actress and can more than hold her own against screen veterans like Morgan Freeman AND Clint Eastwood!

In the 2004 film, an old boxing trainer reluctantly agrees to train a female boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald. Despite odds stacked against her, Maggie shows endless determination and heart as she rises to every challenge put in her way.

That is where I’m going to stop talking about the story as I remember the reason I have never watched it again. The injustice of what happens will be etched firmly in the memory of the people who have seen it; it is heart-breaking. Seriously, no spoilers, but keep some tissues close by and maybe treat yourself to some ice cream—lots and lots of ice cream.^[2]

8 The Wrestler

If you are wanting the glitz and glamour of WWE (WWF for those of us past a certain age), avoid this film. The Wrestler (2008) follows an ailing wrestler at the tail end of his career as he travels between small venues and tries to survive. But not in stretched limos or flown in by helicopter. Instead, he travels with all his possessions stuffed to bursting in a car that, much like himself, has seen better days. It is a gritty tale of a man who is too old to adjust to life outside the ring, struggling with menial jobs and an alienated family.

There is a surprisingly convincing performance from Mickey Rourke as Randy the Ram, and many people have drawn parallels with his and his character’s careers. The real star of the show for me, though, is the (channeling my inner Costanza here) wonderful and understated Marisa Tomei, whose self-aware and worldly, past-her-best-days stripper makes this a great watch.^[3]

7 The Blind Side

I was going to pick Any Given Sunday for my American football choice, but you are more likely to need at least a passing interest in American football with that one. With The Blind Side (2009), you just need to be human.

This touching true story of Michael Oher is a heart-warming tale with laughs and tears in equal measures. There is a bit about American football in there, too, I guess…if that’s your thing. I am under no illusions this story may have been embellished, and some events and people might have been romanticized, but I think it is wonderful.^[4]

6 Seabiscuit

Like a lot of people in the UK, my interaction with horse racing happens once a year at the Grand National. Yep, apologies to everyone in the bookies; I will be the one holding up the line trying, poorly, to fill out a betting slip. So, what reason could hold my interest in a two-plus-hour film about horse racing?

Well, I’ll give you three reasons: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, and Chris Cooper. Seabiscuit (2003) offers flawless performances and a tale that covers loss, redemption, and overcoming adversity. This is what makes these two hours and twenty minutes fly by. Side note, I think this is one of the best performances of Chris Cooper, second to his July Johnson in Lonesome Dove.^[5]

5 Purely Belter

One of the two football films that made this list. And, as it happened with I, Tonya, another example of me being proved wrong.

One night I was coerced into watching this 2000 film by a friend who supported, of all teams, Sunderland. It puzzled me why a Sunderland fan would want to watch the struggle of two young kids trying to score tickets to watch their beloved Newcastle United. Not long into the film, it becomes clear; genuinely hilarious, affectionately made, and good acting from the child stars make a feel-good film you won’t be sorry you watched.^[6]

4 The Boxer

Less to do with boxing and more to do with the Troubles. Daniel Day-Lewis is a newly released prisoner who shuns his old world of violence to open a non-sectarian boxing gym in a divided Belfast.

Watching this 1997 film again, I was reminded of the absolute, heavyweight cast of Daniel Day-Lewis, Ken Stott, Brian Cox, and Emily Watson, who proves she has always been able to act in tough, challenging parts the entire length of her career.

Boxing legend Barry McGuigan was on set and had the job of training Daniel Day-Lewis to look and move like a fighter. Day-Lewis immersed himself fully in the role and committed to the training so sincerely that McGuigan stated he could fight professionally.^[7]

3 Looking for Eric

I love this film, and for the life of me, I cannot understand why more people have not seen it. Regardless of your preference of sport, allegiance to a football team, or locality in the world, there is something for you to enjoy in this film. People might be put off by the main character being an obsessive Manchester United fan; however, this film has very little to do with football and more to do with love, friendship, poverty, class, loneliness, family, mental health… Trust me, there is no way this can be pigeonholed as just a sports film.

Naturally being set in a poor community in Manchester, the 2009 film drew a comparison from critics to other northern dramas such as Brassed Off and The Full Monty. However, Looking for Eric is in a league of its own (I know, I’m sorry) and isn’t scared to touch on the subject matter the previous films mentioned shied away from.

Steve Evets doesn’t put one foot wrong in the lead role and delivers some cracking lines: “I’m up to here with your philosophy. I’m still getting over the f**king seagulls!”^[8]

2 The Big Lebowski

I know, I know, tenuous at best to call this a sports film, but it does feature bowling and a bowling ball features on the cover… So, I guess we’re okay? Full disclosure on this one, I have not seen the film in years, and I only saw it once, so I am hoping it is as good as I remember. If not, please go and watch Looking for Eric instead.

It’s kind of hard to explain the plot, but in short, a guy named Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges’s second showing on the list) is mistaken for a millionaire who wants to get reimbursed for a rug that got ruined at the same time as retrieving his namesake’s missing wife. As one reviewer explains it, The Big Lebowski (1198) is a “stoner crime comedy about bowling, Vietnam, and the critical importance of having that one interior-design element that ties the whole room together.”

As I remember, it is as bizarre as it sounds, and one thing I do remember is a foul-mouthed John Turturro stealing the scenes in the bowling alley.^[9]

1 The Descent

Okay, okay, I know! And you thought we were stretching it with the last one. I did want another obscure sport, and I did want to add a horror movie to the mix; we have covered a lot of sports and genres so far. Now, let’s all agree caving/spelunking/potholing is a sport for this list. Or at least sport-adjacent!

In this 2006 film, a group of friends decides to go caving. Unfortunately, things are not good from the start as betrayals start to surface, accidents happen, and it ultimately seems the group is not alone in the darkness.

I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of being stuck in small spaces, in the dark, with potentially deadly creatures. Goodness knows why I watched this in the first place, and I’m not too sure why it is on this list. But, now and then, I do like a good scare, and this certainly fits the bill.

I am led to believe the U.S. and UK versions have different endings; however, not wanting to watch this in a hurry, please can someone add the difference in the comments.^[10]

If there’s one thing pop culture fandom loves, it’s hate. People can’t get enough hate watching, hate listening, hate whatever else you can think of. Just look how people react to any new installment of Star Wars, Star Trek, the MCU, or the DCEU. Sure, there’s lots of love but there’s plenty of negativity to go around. It’s been that way for years, too. And it’s not always limited to people posting angry messages on social media. Let’s take a look at some of the most shocking examples of pop culture hate pushing the envelope. 

10. Richard Donner Got Death Threats for Superman

People losing their minds over comic book movies is by no means a modern phenomenon. Way back when Richard Donner was putting Superman on film for his first blockbuster in 1978, your grandparents were just as angry as some fans are today. 

Donner spoke in 2020 about his experience making Superman back in the 1970s. Part of that involved dealing with “fans” who didn’t want to experience the Christ allegory which is fairly obvious though not overly involved that takes place in the film. Basically, Donner acknowledged that a powerful being from afar sending his only son to live among humans and maybe save them from themselves could be regarded as a Christ allegory and people were not having it. A woman even told him his blood would “run in the streets.”

Keep in mind, this is 1978, so this was not an off the cuff, anonymous missive Tweeted to a filmmaker in a moment of passion. This lady had to get a pen and paper, write it out, find Richard Donner’s address, get a stamp and then send it to him. That’s commitment to a death threat. 

Also of note is that, in telling the story, Donner mentions threats and multiple people, so this lady was not alone. 

9. Gene Siskel Doxxed Friday the 13th Filmmakers

Before the internet made one million people into film critics, there was only Leonard Maltin and Siskel and Ebert. Gene Siskel and Robert Ebert were both intelligent men, but they managed to distill film criticism down to a thumbs up or thumbs down, the prototype for our modern Fresh or Rotten rating over on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The two men did give more in-depth film reviews and sometimes they became shockingly off the tracks. Though Ebert was more often known for going on wild tangents and ripping apart films and filmmakers he disliked. Gene Siskel may have taken the cake with one of the earliest examples of doxxing in film critic history. 

Back when Friday the 13th came out, it was not a critical darling. Gene Siskel didn’t just dislike the movie, he hated it with enough passion that you’d think Jason Voorhees and his mother may have killed Siskel’s own family. In his review of the film, he devotes space to telling readers the address of the parent company of the film studio and advising people to send hate mail. 

In addition, Siskel ruins the movie’s twist ending in the second paragraph of the review and then gives the hometown of the actress recommending people send her hate mail as well. It’s hard to imagine something like that working out for a film critic today but if it happens, you know there’s precedent.

8. Pro-Hitler Fans Threatened to Makes of Captain America #1 

Captain America is one of the longest running and most well-known comics in history. The first issue of the comic came out back in 1941, smack dab in the middle of the Second World War, and the cover of the book featured Cap socking Adolph Hitler square in his Nazi mug. You’d think people back then would have been as happy to see that as they are today and you’d be right. But just like today, there were also a few people back then who were really into the whole Nazi way of life and they were less than amused.

Writer Joe Simon once shared in an interview that he and artist Jack Kirby had to field death threats from Nazi supporters state side in the form of both letters and phone calls. And while those may have been easy enough to ignore at first, things went from bad to worse. Men started showing up at the office and it became bad enough that they had to call the police to report it. An officer took up a regular patrol of the halls to guard the Marvel office against the angry Nazi element who had become enraged by a comic book. 

Of course, this would not be Captain America’s only brush with an angry public. More recently, in 2016, Cap switched allegiances and became a Hydra agent for a storyline that sent fans into a fury, some of whom sent writer Nick Spencer a number of death threats as well. 

7. Sherlock Holmes Fans Greatly Overreacted to The Character’s Death

Further proof that overreactions aren’t new to pop culture comes from the world of Sherlock Holmes. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed his famous detective, the fans revolted. The tales, which were printed in Strand Magazine, came to an end and so did the subscriptions of 20,000 readers who dropped the magazine in anger. Others wore black armbands and sent hate mail to mourn their hero, and all of this back in 1893.

Rumor has it that Doyle received hundreds of pieces of hate mail, Strand received bags of it, and people were even seen crying in the streets as they read the final story. 

6. White Supremacists Sent Death Threats to Johnny Cash

In the history of music, few singers have the reputation of being a tough guy that Johnny Cash has. The man was an outlaw. He was reckless and had run-ins with the cops and sang the “Folsom Prison Blues”! Though he never actually did hard time himself, he was arrested a few times and spent the night in lockup. But he did have the air of a dude you don’t want to mess with. Despite that, white supremacists were not fans of the man in black and he was threatened, boycotted and was forced to cancel shows in the 1960s, all thanks to hate.

After one arrest for drug smuggling, Cash was photographed leaving the courthouse with his wife Vivian Liberto. Vivian, an Italian with a dark complexion who had one African-American ancestor several generations back, was deemed to be Black by racists and that, in turn, made Cash a target.  Shows were canceled, and the couple endured a number of threats as a result. 

5. The Clown Lives Matter Organizers Got Death Threats

Not so long ago in much simpler times, one of the biggest things people worried about from day to day was clowns. There was a general clown panic based on nothing, but it did generate some headlines. And for real life clowns it seemed to be a bit of a nightmare thanks to all the hate that came their way.

With unfounded rumors of clowns trying to abduct children coming from many states, people were angry and scared. It didn’t matter that the stories weren’t true; the flames were being stoked by people who would just walk around in public dressed like creepy clowns and the internet did the rest.

So bad was the backlash that a planned Clown Lives Matter walk, in which real clowns wanted to have a walk to show they’re just normal people who want to entertain you, was shut down amidst threats. 

People took issue with the name of the walk, a parody of the much more serious Black Lives Matter, but when the organizer started getting death threats, the whole thing was shut down making you wonder who was the real danger. 

4. Bridget Loves Bernie was Canceled After Protests and Threats

In 1973, CBS aired a sitcom called Bridget Loves Bernie. It depicted a Catholic woman married to a Jewish man and Jewish groups in America hated it. There was some reference to negative Jewish stereotypes but the main reason was they disapproved of the interfaith marriage. Both Conservative and Orthodox rabbis spoke out against the show claiming it “mocked the teachings of Judaism.” 

Boycotts of the network and sponsors were organized, but things got worse. Meredith Baxter, mom from Family Ties and star of the show, said the show got a bomb threat one day and members of the Jewish Defense League showed up at her house. The producers received threatening phone calls which led to at least one arrest as well. The show, despite being highly rater by critics, was canceled after a single season 

3. The Creator of Attack on Titan Received Numerous Death Threats

If you’re a fan of anime, you’re probably aware of Attack on Titan, a series based on the manga of the same name that dates back to 2009. In 2013, creator Hajime Isayama was getting buried in death threats on his personal blog, reportedly as many as 1000. And these weren’t just “I wish you’d die” threats, they were explicit “I’m going to kill him on this specific date and get away with it” threats. 

It was guessed that the threats stemmed from a character in the series being based on a real figure from the Imperial Japanese Army. Years later a voice actress from the show also got death threats, though the perpetrator in that case was at least arrested. 

2. Rebecca Black Was 13 and Getting Death Threats Over a Song

In 2011, the biggest thing on the internet was a goofy music video made by a teenage girl. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” was not a good song, and that’s okay. And people online made fun of it and, to some degree, that’s okay too. The song was very simple and childish because of course it was; it was made by a child. Black was an aspiring singer and her parents had funded the video to help make a dream come true. Sadly, it turned into something of a nightmare. 

The internet, as it is wont to do, took things way too far. The song was huge, and it was viewed millions of times and people deluged Black with hate. Her parents shielded her from some of the threats but police had to get involved. People told her to cut herself or they hoped she’d get an eating disorder. She was bullied so badly her parents began to homeschool her. 

The tale does have a happy ending, at least, as Black persevered and spoke out against bullying while continuing to pursue her musical dreams even today. 

1. Malcolm McDowell Got Death Threats for Killing Captain Kirk

Star Trek: Generations was supposed to be the greatest of all the Trek movies, merging the cast of the original series with the cast of the Next Generation. Fans got to see Captain Kirk and Captain Picard on screen as the baton was passed and the original cast finally retired from the big screen. Part of that involved the on screen death of Captain Kirk.

The film fell a little flat. It has a 47% of Rotten Tomatoes and is generally considered a pretty middle of the road and forgettable entry in the pantheon of Trek movies. But at least one actor walked away with more death threats than the average Trek movie engenders, and that was Malcolm McDowell.

McDowell played the movie’s villain and the man responsible for the death of Kirk. According to McDowell his nephew, who played Dr. Bashir on Deep Space Nine, called him to tell him the news – people on the internet wanted him dead. He didn’t take the threats seriously, but the studio still gave him security.