Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is based on a fake graduation speech

Conan's 2000 commencement speech offers comfort and humor to young Harvard graduates

In the spring of 2000, famous late-night talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien gave a hilarious, thoughtful speech to the graduating class at Harvard, where he graduated from in 1985. He warns that once adult life begins, any stupid mistakes made by a Harvard grad will be severely mocked. He also recounts his post-grad failures and how important they were in his success. The speech has been noted ever since as a classic example of both wisdom and foolishness.

David Foster Wallace's iconic commencement speech

David Foster Wallace’s remarkable 2005 commencement speech, This is Water, is a timeless trove of wisdom for living a meaningful life. Here is a full transcript along with audio.

Joan Didion's 1975 commencement speech at UCR encouraged graduates to think outside of themselves

Filled with many widely circulated quotes, the talk addresses people's tendency to focus only on their personal ideologies and perceptions of the world. Didion advocates for being an active participant in the world, rather than existing only in our own bubbles.

Author David Foster Wallace's 'This Is Water' speech provides guidance for adulthood.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Some allege that Dylan plagiarized his Nobel Prize lecture

The speech bore striking similarities to entries on SparkNotes, a summary site that's often used by students looking to skip assigned reading. Neither Dylan nor his management commented on the matter, though some critics suggested it was just another part of Dylan's career-long performance.

Bruce Springsteen was initially so unhappy with his album 'Born to Run' that he threw it in a swimming pool.

1984's 'Born in the USA' was a sensation, due in part to its music videos

The album was Springsteen's most pop-focused, with blaring synths and a pumping backbeat. It was a pop culture sensation, with five singles that reached the top 10, a massive arena tour, and several iconic music videos coinciding with MTV's rise. The record would eventually become one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Springsteen says 'Born in the USA' is his 'most misunderstood' song

In 1984, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection and referenced Springsteen at a New Jersey event, saying, "America's future rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire — New Jersey's own, Bruce Springsteen." Days later, Springsteen would make his opposition to Reagan clear at a Pittsburgh show. Years later, he'd call the song "one of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music."

'You can't be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.'

- Actress and comedian Tina Fey (1970-present)

Watch Bruce Springsteen's 1985 performance of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land,' which he calls 'the greatest song ever written about America.'

A high schooler accused Dylan of stealing the song

Newsweek once claimed he bought it from a high school student for $1,000. The story was false—Dylan wrote it in 10 minutes. Years later, the student admitted he had taken credit to impress his classmates.

The movie soundtrack that helped mainstream grunge

Cameron Crowe's 1992 film "Singles" coincided with the mainstream grunge explosion. The romantic comedy takes place in Seattle's music scene, making it a perfect Hollywood product for the time. It also featured cameos from some of the scene's stars, including Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.

'Defying Gravity,' from 'Wicked,' references 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'

The melody in a crucial part of the song uses the first seven notes of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," an intentional reference that composer Stephen Schwartz calls an "easter egg" that acknowledges the influence of the 1939 film.

Lisa Loeb was the first unsigned artist to top the Billboard chart

The singer-songwriter's single "Stay (I Missed You)" was included in the film "Reality Bites" and included on its soundtrack. Due in part to the success of the film, the song quickly raced up the Billboard Hot 100.

One pop-culture historian fooled the nation with a fake origin story of April Fools' Day

In 1983, Joseph Boskin, a professor at Boston University, was interviewed by the Associated Press to discuss the history of April Fools'. Boskin shared a made-up story about a jester who took over Rome for a day and proclaimed that April 1 would henceforth serve as 24 hours of silliness. AP published the fib about "King Kugel," creating buzz and confusion for news outlets around the country.

Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ set the template for hip-hop composition

This 1982 single is one of the most recognizable beats in hip-hop history, thanks to some inspiration from popular disco and new wave records. The song’s bigger contribution, though, is that it pushed lyrics front and center, turning the rapper from a party-rocking master of ceremonies into a truth-telling MC.

Steven Spielberg submitted his films 'Schindler's List' and 'Jurassic Park' for college credit when he reenrolled in school as an adult.

'Blowin' in the Wind' became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement

The song is based on a spiritual titled "Many Thousand Gone," whose melody Dylan reworked. The result was popularized by the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary and from there became an anthem for the growing Civil Rights Movement, culminating in Dylan's appearance at the March on Washington.

How ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ rewrote the indie movie marketing playbook

"Napoleon Dynamite" was a phenomenon when it was released in 2004, but the excitement around the film was the result of a carefully executed, outside-the-box PR strategy that featured free screenings, endless merch, and an early form of stan-centric social media. This deep dive into the film’s inventive marketing tactics explain how a film with a modest budget was able to become a cultural sensation.

The 'Movie Brats'—the nickname given to 1970s film directors like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and others—ushered in a new era of Hollywood.

The time Bob Dylan was accused of plagiarizing ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’

“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a defining song of the Civil Rights Movement, one that Dylan openly acknowledged was based on a traditional African spiritual. But when Newsweek accused Dylan of stealing the song in 1963, they weren’t talking about influence. They suggested he’d jacked the tune from a helpless high school student. This article breaks down the falsehood and why it was given so much attention while Dylan was becoming a household name.

The band Real Estate was almost called Law School

When Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney was deciding what to call his band, he debated naming it “Law School,” given that the musical endeavor was what he and his bandmates had decided to pursue after college. He also happened to be studying for his real estate license at the time.

'Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.'

-Author Arthur Miller (1915-2005) in "Death of a Salesman"

In 1984, Apple ran an award-winning Super Bowl commercial

Directed by Ridley Scott and a winner at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the clip features a heroine flinging a sledgehammer at a Big Brother-style figure delivering a speech. As the screen shatters, a voiceover proclaims that Apple's release of the Macintosh will ensure, "1984 won't be like '1984.'"

Teen who walked 6 miles to graduation receives college scholarship on the spot

Xavier Jones, a 14-year-old boy, set out to attend his eighth-grade graduation ceremony at Harris-Stowe State University, walking six miles in the hot sun. Inspired by his perseverance, LaTonia Collins Smith, the university's president, awarded him...

Sylvester's 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' is a definitive LGBTQ+ anthem

The 1978 dance hit was all about self-acceptance, inspired by the artist's difficult experience growing up gay in a Pentecostal church. The song has influenced numerous contemporary artists and inspired an off-Broadway musical.

A theory about Pink Floyd and 'The Wizard of Oz' was popularized by a 19-year-old

Pink Floyd’s seminal album “Dark Side of the Moon” eerily synchronizes with “The Wizard of Oz,” offering a psychedelic soundtrack for the movie. Journalist Charlie Savage popularized the phenomenon when he was 19. He’d go on to write for the Boston Globe and New York Times winning a Pulitzer Prize.

'Because of phones, we always have the ability to jump out of ourselves. But unless you learn how to be in your head, you’ll never learn how to create.'

- Songwriter and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980-present)

In 2026, Timothée Chalamet suggested 'no one cares' about opera

In a February 2026 conversation with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet noted that he wanted movie theaters to remain vital and commercially relevant, unlike other areas of the arts that he felt had become charity cases, specifically mentioning ballet and opera. The comment sparked a backlash from other celebrities and artists working in ballet and opera, who said he was out of touch.

Watch a 1965 press conference with Bob Dylan where he mocks the media's focus on celebrity.

Shakespeare's American productions have often reflected the state of the country

Shakespeare's works have been used to interpret moments in US history, from the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and Lincoln's frequent quotations of "Macbeth," to the use of Shakespeare in nationwide classrooms today.

'Idiocracy' film clad extras in Crocs for cheap, unintelligent look

Lore around the 2006 film—imagining a future where the not-so-smart have taken over—arose that the "dumb" extras were given Crocs to wear (before they were popular). Movie makers attest it's true: at the time, they were cheap and looked futuristic and odd to contemporary tastes.

Jean-Michel Basquiat made a last-minute cameo in Blondie's 'Rapture' music video.

'A Complete Unknown' misrepresented some aspects of Dylan's life

Dylan scholar and Princeton professor Sean Wilentz said the 2024 Dylan biopic had several inaccuracies. According to Wilentz, “The facts are all true … but none of it happened the way that the film depicts it.”

Kurt Vonnegut's letter to the school board that banned his book

In 1973, a high school English teacher in North Dakota taught Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," the classic time-hopping novel about World War II and the bombing of Dresden. The head of the school board was outraged by what he considered to be obscene material in Vonnegut's novel and ordered all of the students' copies of the book burned. When Vonnegut caught wind of those plans, he wrote this letter to the school board, protesting the decision.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume

How a Seattle scenester pranked The New York Times with ridiculous grunge 'slang'

In 1992, The New York Times was eager to report on the grunge phenomenon. When a Times reporter called Megan Jasper, who'd previously worked at Sub Pop, she decided to have some fun, feeding him a fake "Lexicon of Grunge."

'After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works.'

- Musician Gwen Stefani (1969-present)

The Marc Jacobs grunge fashion collection

After Nirvana's breakthrough, the grunge aesthetic became a marketable commodity. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs created a collection for Perry Ellis that featured grunge fashion, incorporating thrift store clothing typically worn by grunge bands onto the runway, accompanied by the music of Nirvana and Sonic Youth. Jacobs sent samples of the collection to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, but the couple burned them. "We were punkers," Love said in 2010, "we didn't like that kind of thing."

'Nebraska' was a sharp pivot inspired by proto-punk band Suicide

After "Born to Run," Springsteen's songwriting turned darker on subsequent albums "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River," as he began exploring the harsher realities of adulthood and working-class life, but "Nebraska" was his most gothic, featuring haunted songs partially inspired by the abrasive proto-punk duo Suicide.

The landmark opera 'Einstein on the Beach' was around 5 hours long with no intermissions, and the audience was encouraged to come and go as they pleased.

A research study found that Springsteen's popularity is due to his lyrics' authenticity

The Penn State study compiled lyrics from 18 albums and analyzed the words that "convey genuineness and honesty" and those that suggest cognitive activity. They found that Springsteen's songs are often focused on the present and "tend to express positive emotion," which they believe might explain why his fans are so devoted.

Soaps launched the careers of countless Hollywood A-listers

Soap operas may not be considered high culture, but many actors who would go on to win television and film’s highest honors got their start with soaps. That includes Julianne Moore (“As the World Turns”), Morgan Freeman (“Another World”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Santa Barbara”), and Michael B. Jordan (“All My Children”).

Broadway's 10 biggest flops

For every "Carousel" or "Cabaret," there's a "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark"—a show that never found its footing, sometimes in a public and disastrous way. Here are 10 Broadway musicals the producers and stars would probably rather we forget. Some, like "The Rocky Horror Show" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," were eventually revived and relatively well received. Others, like "Into the Light"—which involved mimes, metaphysics, and the legend of the Shroud of Turin—have rightfully stayed buried.

The surprising and strange sources behind 12 famous songs

Britney Spears's "Toxic" borrowed strings from a 1981 Bollywood film, Billie Eilish sampled The Office, and one duo made an entire album using only the sounds of their Whirlpool washing machine. Explore how sampling can pull from pretty much anywhere.

Watch an early performance by Bruce Springsteen at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse in 1972.

Liza Minnelli's energetic performance in 'Liza with a Z' landed her an Emmy

Directed by one of Minnelli's most famous collaborators, Bob Fosse, "Liza with a Z" became a hit. The concert features sparkling outfits, eye-catching dance moves, solo ballads, and fun-loving songs that each helped define Minnelli's persona in the industry.

Watch Springsteen rip through ‘Because the Night’ backed by the Roots

The song may have been made famous by Patti Smith, but Springsteen co-wrote it, and it's since become a staple of his live shows. This 2010 performance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” features some help from the Roots, who push the song to a new level.

Largely considered to be the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street,' Ivan Boesky was one of the most high-profile white-collar criminals and faced a $100M fine for insider trading in 1986.