31 Intriguing Pop Culture Origin Stories

While watching your favorite movies and shows or playing your favorite video games, at some point you probably wondered how exactly these projects came about. Sometimes, you spend years meticulously crafting your masterpiece. Sometimes, lightning just strikes in a bottle. Sometimes you meet a fan you want to give a special shoutout to. And sometimes, you just want to get back at an ex.

The artistic process is a multi-layered endeavor, is what we're saying. Lotta ins, lotta outs. Adaptations change characters for better or worse, and we end up like iconic baddies Hans Gruber, for instance. We here at Cracked never tire of these stories, always looking to peek behind the vinyl siding of the walk-in and see how the sausage is made.

Turns out, not nearly as gross as real sausage. There are cool origin stories behind a lot of your favorite movie characters, actors, and even catchphrases. Like:

31

Geordi LaForge was based on a disabled Star Trek superfan. His name was George LaForge, he'd suffered from muscular dystrophy, and he showed up all the time at fan conventions. Не made friends with Gene Roddenberry, and Roddenberry remembered him when he was creating characters for The Next Generation. CRACKED.COM — To Boldly Go: Essays on Gender and Identity in the Star Trek Universe

30

Bono CRACKED.COM PAUL DAVID HEWSON wanted to pay homage to his hometown... 's hearing aid shop. Bonavox Shop is a sporty little hearing aid store in Dublin. — Biography.com

29

CRACKED.COM Die Hard HANS ANTON GRUBER had noble intentions in the book. Unlike Hans, who was in terrorism only for the money, Anton Little Tony the Red Gruber was trying to expose a corrupt corporation's dealings with the Chilean dictatorship. — Screen Rant

28

Jyn Erso's (from Rogue One) father and Oson Krennic were basically BFFs. They were really close Ф and, when Krennic saw little Jyn for the first time, he happily told her dad She looks just like you! CRACKED.COM — The Hollywood Reporter

27

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST SURE IS A HAPPY LITTLe SPOOK. BUT in HIS eARLY YEARS не WAS SUICIDAL. HowtoWin YE FRIENDS and Love YE PEOPLE In his first appearance, Casper repeatedly tries to make friends and fails. Не becomes so despondent that he tries to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. Most of his early cartoons and comic books follow the same formula. Не tries to off himself by jumping off a cliff, tying a rock around himself and jumping into the ocean, and so on. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/tw7AipHHBXE — 21 Horrifying Origin Stories Of Famous Characters

26

Solid Snake is a blatant ripoff of Escape From New York's Snake Plissken. But John Carpenter thinks Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is a nice guy, so he didn't sue him into oblivion. CRACKED.COM — The Surprising Origins Of 12 Iconic Video Game Characters

25

Giggity Seth MacFarlane and stand-up friend Steve Marmel had a running Jerry Lewis impression that turned into just repeating the word giggity that made its way onto Family Guy. CRACKED.COM — CraveOnline

24

Liv Moore IZOMBIE CRACKED.COM Olivia Liv Moore from iZombie is your classic protagonist: a zombie who eats victim's brains to solve crimes. Yes, she's a zombie named... Live More. Though a pun name is kind of perfect, since zombies are known for loud groaning. — PopSugar

23

Marge Simpson has huge hair because she was originally going to be secretly a rabbit. Matt Groening had planned to reveal that Marge was hiding rabbit ears - like the ones characters in his comic book Life In Hell had-at the conclusion of the series. GRACKED.COM — 26 Origins Of Characters' Signature Traits

22

LICKITUNG IS AN AKANAME GRACKED.COM With its acidic saliva, the akaname, or filth licker, tongue-massages dirty bathrooms clean, making sure to slop over every grimey corner. It's said to have been invented as a story to incentivize children to keep a tidy bathroom, assumedly because a tedious chore is nothing compared to a visit from the toilet demon. — CBR

21

MADMAX FURY ROAD COMA the DooF WaRRiOR was discovered in a cave with his murdered mother's severed head as his only company. Now he pays respect to her by wearing her skin over his own, in battle. We suppose that's something of an improvement. CRACKED.COM — Origin Stories That Are Over-The-Top Dark (For No Reason)

20

The Scooby Gang was based on the characters in a 1960s TV show. It was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and it was a teen sitcom that the creators of Scooby-Doo basically just lifted the main characters from. CRACKED.COM — Snopes

19

Jamie Foxx CRACKED.COM Up-and-coming comedian ERIC MARLON BISHOP thought he needed an edge, so he called himself Jamie, in the hopes that he'd be mistaken for a woman. Не claimed that female comics got earlier time slots. — Yahoo

18

CRACKED.COM WandaVision AGATHA HARKNESS was Wanda Maximoff's mentor, not her foe. In the comics, Agatha is a generally benevolent witch who trained Wanda in magic. The show turned her into a villain mostly because they needed one. — Screen Rant

17

Maz Kanata from The Force Awakens has a very long history as a pirate. Kanata has been alive for over 1,000 years, and she's both had a long stint as a pirate and has operated her extremely weird bar for a century. CRACKED.COM — Entertainment Weekly

16

THE TIN WOODSMAN IS A BeLOVeD WIZARD OF OZCHARACTER. AND He's MADE OF TIN BECAUSE не CHOPPED OFF HIS own LIMBS. Не started out a flesh-and-blood woodcutter, but a witch enchanted his axe so he kept hitting himself. Each time he lopped something off, he'd have a tinsmith replace it with tin. Even when he chopped off his head, he simply replaced it. Eventually he was all tin. CRACKED.COM L. Frank Baum, 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — 21 Horrifying Origin Stories Of Famous Characters

15

Kirby's relatively unimaginative round body was supposed to be a temporary placeholder. Nintendo KIRBY'S DREAM LAND Nintendo - - ABOUT KA GAME BOY But, like a kid who found a stray puppy, designer Masahiro Sakurai fell in love with it after naming it. His original name - and a great name for a puppy - was Popopo. CRACKED.COM — The Surprising Origins Of 12 Iconic Video Game Characters

14

Bazinga! The line doesn't appear in the Big Bang Theory until Season 2's finale. It was originally the catchphrase of show writer Stephen Engel, who would say the word after pulling a prank on another writer. CRACKED.COM — HuffPost

13

Joey DAWSON'S CREEK CRACKED.COM Joey (short for Josephine) from Dawson's Creek is named for Jo from the Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women. Dawson, of course, is named for his creek. — Business Insider

12

Janine Melnitz's sassy glasses were a last minute addition. GHOSTBUSTERS Without much warning, Annie Potts was thrown into a scene on her first day of filming Ghostbusters. To feel more like the character, she quickly made the decision to borrow the glasses of a woman working on wardrobe. Potts had to borrow them from the dresser before every take. CRACKED.COM — 26 Origins Of Characters' Signature Traits

11

RAICHU IS A RAIJŪ CRACKED.COM The Raijū, or thunder beast, is a legendary creature in Japanese mythology. Though their bodies are made of lightning, they take the form of a variety of woodland mammals like rabbits and badgers. They might also curl up for a nap in your bellybutton if you sleep outside during bad weather. — Yokai

10

Rocket Raccoon's comment about unethical experiments on animals makes more sense if you read the comics. Guardians of the Galaxy His ancestors were basically lab rats. The robots that were entrusted with helping the patients at the Keystone Quandrant Asylum began to tinker with genetics, giving animals human intellegence and prosthetics to mimic human movement. CRACKED.COM — Origin Stories That Are Over-The-Top Dark (For No Reason)

9

Street Fighter's M. Bison got that name kind of randomly. The original M. Bison M. Bison The character was originally called Vega in the Japanese version of Street Fighter II, and M. Bison was the name of a boxer character who was a pretty clear homage to Mike Tyson. When the game was released outside Japan, Capcom just gave the M. Bison name to another character out of fear of a lawsuit from Tyson. CRACKED.COM — Kotaku

8

David Bowie GRACKED.COM This town ain't big enough for two Joneses... that's okay, I'll leave. - David Bowie, maybe. Originally named DAVID JONES, he changed it to Bowie (inspired by American pioneer Jim Bowie) so he wouldn't be confused with The Monkees' Davy Jones. — 29 Celebrity Names With Insane Backstories You Never Knew

7

CRACKED.COM The Little Mermaid URSULA was originally an honest witch. In Hans Christian Andersen's story, the (nameless) Sea Witch is a scary but fair provider of magic services. She has no hidden agenda, and even warns the mermaid she's doing a stupid thing. — *The Little Mermaid*, by Hans Christian Andersen (via the Hans Christian Andersen Centre)

6

In the Captain America: Civil War novelization, Natasha's backstory is super bleak. At one point, she and dozens of other girls were left in the tundra, two weeks' worth of walking from home, with enough supplies for one of them. CRACKED.COM — SlashFilm

5

YOU PROBABLY know SPIDER-MAN'S RADIOACTIVE SPIDER STORY. BUT DID YOU know не WAS MOLESTED AS A CHILD? THE YOUNGER COME ON. EINSTEIN! LET'S BOY WAS CONDUCT A LITTLE EXPERI- SHOCKED BY MENT OF OUR OWN! LET'S WHAT HE SAW SEE IF WE CAN TOUCH EACH IN THAT OTHER LIKE THE PEOPLE IN MAGAZINE! THAT MAGAZINE! JUST LIKE YOU, HE DID THE RIGHT THING! WHEN SOME- THING YOU CAN'T HANDLE BY YOURSELF HAPPENS, YOU MUST TELL AN ADULT! I KNOW, TONY! THAT YOUNG BOY WAS ME! PLEASE, SKIP, DON'T! I'VE GOT TO GO NOW BUT THE YOUNG BO WAS TOO FRIGHTENED TOL — 21 Horrifying Origin Stories Of Famous Characters

4

It's no coincidence that Johnny Cage is a cocky pretty boy movie star who can do a split. Mortal Kombat was designed to be a vehicle for Jean-Claude Van Damme. CRACKED.COM — The Surprising Origins Of 12 Iconic Video Game Characters

3

31 Intriguing Pop Culture Origin Stories — 26 Origins Of Characters' Signature Traits

2

FROSLASS IS A YUKI-ONNA YOKAI GRAGKED.COM As a ghost, Froslass has some dark Pokédex entries, and an even darker inspiration. The legend of the yuki-onna yokai, which Froslass comes from, tells of ghostly women who make their home on the snowy mountaintops, known for stealing children and feeding on their life-force. — The Gamer

1

You may remember The Chipettes as the adorable female counterparts of ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS Did you know they grew up in an orphanage? They were abused and compelled to hide their singing talent because the owner forced the children to sing. CRACKED.COM — Origin Stories That Are Over-The-Top Dark (For No Reason)

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