Disturbing Backstories Behind Seemingly Wholesome Things

Does the truth really set us free?

I believe one would like to think so.

But the truth can be more than we bargained for.

It has the power to ruin everything, especially illusion.

Once we know the sordid details behind so much of life's prettier things, we may never be the same.

I, for one, am someone who has to know the tea.

No matter how scalding.

Redditor Drakeskulled_Reaper wanted to expose the salacious history behind stories that seemed innocent, so they asked:

"What is the disturbing backstory behind something that is widely considered wholesome?"

Trauma

"Sherman Kelly wrote the lyrics to Dancing in the Moonlight while recovering from a violent assault carried out on him and his girlfriend by a youth gang. He envisioned an alternative reality where people just dance and be happy all the time. It was his way of dealing with the trauma."

- TheBoomExpress

Calm Down New England GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

Disney Tales

"I met a writer named Thomas Disch when I was in college. He wrote 'The Brave Little Toaster.' He told us Disney hired him to write a movie about lions."

"He wanted to do King Lear with lions bc the plot mirrored how lion pride operates: old lazy but powerful male, dangerous daughters. But Disney said they wanted a young hero. So he changed it to Hamlet with lions: uncle kills father, kid runs away, ghost of dad visits and calls for revenge, etc. but with a happy ending. (Timon & Pumbaa are Rosencrantz & Guildenstern)."

"Wrote [a treatment] and turned it in. They said thanks but no thanks and fired him. The movie comes out: they took his idea and didn’t pay him. He said Disney was notorious for doing this to creators."

"Never think of the Lion King without thinking about him. They made so much money off his idea and he got nothing."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Disch

"Edit: Apologies for using the word 'script' in my original post. There’s a 9-page treatment online that I had never seen until it was linked here."

"Disch’s story that he told our class was his perspective, and I tried to relay it the best I could remember. I’m not diving deep into big authorship questions, just passing on the story of how I remember it as he told it to us (it was 25 years ago). All movies are collaborations."

"I don’t think this defined his life or was an outcome of Disney’s poor treatment of him. He told my creative writing class that story to teach us about the perils of writing creatively for corporate clients. He wasn’t super angry about it, just annoyed. He was a great writer and was still struggling financially."

"The larger point is that he felt exploited, and it sucks when big corporations don’t share their profits with those who contribute."

- n8ertheh8er

For Me...

"The song 'Save the Last Dance for Me' by the Drifters was written by a man who was crippled by polio and in a wheelchair watching his new wife dancing with other men at his wedding to her because he couldn’t."

ETA: Did not expect this to start such a discussion! As was mentioned below, in the song he’s saying that he’s the one taking her home, not them. I don’t think he’s angry, he’s just saying that no matter who she dances with, she’s his wife, and will be taking her home at the end of the night."

- gottriplets

Ready for War

"Free school lunches in America started because the military complained that during World War II many 18-year-old Men were too skinny to serve in the military. Free school lunches were added afterward to make 18-year-old men strong enough to be drafted into the next war."

- imaxstingray

"Everything about school in America seems to be about the war. Same thing with the gym. The only reason phys ed exists in the first place is because they wanted to train people to be fit for going to the military."

- Just-a-random-Aspie

Just for Fun

"Candyland was invented during the polio epidemic by retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott who herself was recovering from polio. she invented the game to keep children entertained during their hospital stays who themselves were affected."

- sheerduckinghubris

"Candyland is Snakes and Ladders with different graphics. Snakes and Ladders was invented in India many hundreds of years ago and came to England in the late 19th century. It has been published many times, with many names, and many graphics."

- Purple_Haze

Happy Birthday

"Canonically, Chuck E. Cheese is an orphan who never knew when his birthday was, so he celebrates other people’s birthdays to fill the terrible, painful void of his abandonment."

- PoppinsFresh

Chuck E Cheese Wink GIFGiphy

Tragic

"The kid's book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (As Long as I’m Living, My Baby You’ll Be) was written in the wake of the stillbirth of the author and his wife’s two babies."

- sloth-nugget

"I’m studying to be a funeral director."

"Had a family bring that specific book to a graveside and take turns reading from the pages over the grave while sobbing. Apparently, the father (who died) had read that book to them when they were children, so now they wanted to read it to him to say goodbye."

"Great book. Sad, but good."

- prettyxlittlexpeach

Oh Peter

"Voice actor for classic Disney Peter Pan died alone of a drug overdose in an abandoned warehouse after years of being unable to get work in Hollywood later in life."

- FunctionBuilt

"It's even more tragic. Bobby Driscoll couldn't get work as an actor after puberty, so slid into drugs. It really seemed like he tried to continue his acting career, he kept getting small parts, but just couldn't shake the 'child star' image."

"He got into drugs fairly early on apparently because after moving to a public school, would be bullied for being a child star and couldn't shake that."

"His body was found in an abandoned warehouse and when his photo was shown to neighbors to identify him, nobody could, so he was buried in an unmarked grave."

- MyDogIsDaBest

Yakuza

" Nintendo started as a card company in the late 1800s. It probably would have gone defunct, were it not for the Yakuza."

- Alternative_Fill2048

"Hey, I live in Japan!"

"Whenever I have the opportunity - I take people by the OG Nintendo headquarters in Kyoto. It still exists but was refurbished as a hotel around COVID. They still have a lot of the Nintendo fixtures and stuff from back in the day but you have to be a guest to enter and see them."

"As in there are pretty clearly signs telling you to F off (In the most Japanese way possible) if you’re not a guest. Twice in my experience, there's also been a pretty large and intimidating guy watching the door who makes a certain kind of threat-on-it’s-own eye contact with you."

"The Yakuza thing is rumored to be why - but it might also be that Kyoto is just f-ing fed up with a certain kind of tourist."

- ValBravora048

Jason Helps

"The snake that’s killed in Friday the Thirteenth was a real snake. To make matters worse it wasn’t some wild snake they found in the woods. It was somebody’s pet snake that had to watch his snake get killed. He apparently had no idea and had to be held back from punching the director."

- AltruisticAbroad709

"There were a few shady things that went in with the production of those."

"At one point a director kept making an actress film in freezing water over and over again and was only stopped because the actor playing Jason in that one refused to keep filming unless he gave her time to dry off and warm up."

- CyptidProductions

Down with the Queen

"Dole (the company) overthrowing the queen of Hawaii."

- SuttonSmut

"There's a domino effect with them that almost pushed us into nuclear Armageddon. The company's exploitive acts in South America were one of the radicalizing elements for Che Guevara, and it pushed him into becoming a revolutionary Marxist and describing them as 'Capitalist octopuses.'"

"He would later go on to become a very pivotal figure in the Cuban Revolution which soured relations between the US and Cuba and made the Cuban Missile Crisis possible. There are of course many other variables that got us there, but this is one of them."

- Moontouch

Happy Dance GIF by PLAYMOBILGiphy

Greed is Bad

"The creator of Monopoly actually intended it as a warning about the dangers of capitalism, not a celebration of it."

- EsmeFlashor

"The landlord’s game was patented in 1904 by Lizzie Magie. She created the game with two sets of rules one that rewarded being monopolistic and one being anti monopolistic. She did this specifically to help teach the dangers of monopolies. She personally was anti-monopoly. Charles Darrow, who ended up selling Monopoly to the Parker brothers, played the original landlord's game with a friend and later stole the idea from Magie and patented it."

- surefirerdiddy

Back to Business

"Went to a community event last night, and 32 years later, Macarena still fills the dance floor. A bunch of teens learned the dance for the very first time."

"The lyrics are, of course, in Spanish... and about the titular Macarena having a threesome with her boyfriend's friends while he's swearing off swearing his military oath."

"Also interesting is that the band played traditional music primarily and this was their first pop release, in their 50s. They went back to traditional music after."

- 314159265358979326

Wake Up

"The company that makes Sleepytime Tea, Celestial Seasonings, was invented by a weird cult that promotes racism and eugenics as a science, and has integrated their teachings into the branding and marketing strategy of said teas… it’s real weird lol."

- wokeupinapanic

Well, the more you know, am I right?

And I always like that Macarena song had some sinister feeling to it.

Those old guys in the video were creepy.

What other backstories should we know about?