› added 13 years ago

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TIL before “Billie Jean”, MTV did not air videos by black artists because they were not perceived as “rock” enough.

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VB0Z4 TIL that Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent made a funk song in the 1970s
6E9VZ TIL the Lyrebird can mimic the sounds of other animals as well as unnatural sounds, like chainsaws.
5VPJP TIL Simpsons writer Brent Forrester went to Lollapalooza as research for the episode Homerpalooza. He had a horrible experience which inspired several jokes for the episode: cameras being siezed and thrown in the trash, a freak show, and at one point a stranger asked him, "How's it going, narc?"
b6YlZ TIL about the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) an epic poem of 50k couplets considered to be the touchstone of Persian (Iranian) culture.
gMOKA TIL In 1906, A Congolese man called Ota Benga from a Mbuti pygmy tribe was held in a human zoo exhibition in Bronx, as a display of "earlier stage" of human evolution. In 1916, after getting out and unable to return to his homeland, he shot himself in the heart with a stolen pistol and died at 32.