19 Things That Seem Wholesome But Actually Have Some Reaallly Disturbing Backstories
Recently, Reddit user Drakeskulled_Reaper posted to the Ask Reddit page, "What is the disturbing backstory behind something that is widely considered wholesome?" The answers range from strange to awful to heartbreaking. Here are just a few:
1."Candy Land was invented during the polio epidemic by retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott, who was recovering from polio herself. She invented the game to keep affected children entertained during their hospital stays."
—sheerduckinghubris
2."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
3."Free school lunches in America started because the military complained that many 18-year-olds were too skinny during World War II 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."
—u/imaxstingray
4."Nintendo started as a card company in the late 1800s and probably would have gone defunct were it not for the Yakuza."
—Alternative_Fill2048
5."St. Valentine was a priest who was supposedly killed for... marrying people so men could get out of war. For this, he was beheaded."
—UrMomsSideDish
6."The man who started the black and blue/white and gold dress debate from 2015 was charged with attempted murder after trying to strangle his wife."
—Any_Acanthocephala18
7."Bananas. You thought cocaine was a blood-soaked, cartel-backed, war-driven commodity? The banana trade makes cocaine look like a farmers market."
—u/WaterChestnutII
8."Henry Ford promoted square dancing in public schools, starting in the 1920s. Sound wholesome? He did it because he hated Jewish people and thought they invented jazz. He wanted to get America back to 'traditional' (white and Christian) music and dancing."
—copperdomebodhi
"Hitler looked to Henry Ford's assembly line method of making cars and separating the tasks so that each person only did a single part of the task and applied that to his methodical extermination program where tasks were divided along the way so no person was involved in, or ever saw, the full process to make it easier to dehumanize and carry out the tasks they did."
—PrimarySquash9309
9."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
10."A.A. Milne based the Winnie The Pooh stories on his son, Christopher Robin, but the real Christopher grew to resent the fame it brought him."
"Bullied and feeling exploited, he distanced himself from both his father and the beloved books. A tale of innocence, built on a child's unhappiness."
—Low_Place5917
"Everyone always leaves out the fact that Christopher eventually came to terms with his father's work and the fictionalized version of himself and that he and A.A. Milne ended up being incredibly close during the latter's final years."
—SexyAcosta
11."I think Tina Fey is a pretty wholesome woman. She has a small scar on her chin. When she was 5 years old, some random psycho went into her yard and slashed her face with a knife."
—Clownfishsoup
12."I know Bob's Burgers isn't SUPER wholesome, but it's generally agreed that it's pretty wholesome and tear-jerker-y for an adult cartoon. It started out being pitched as a burger restaurant run by a cannibal family. 😂"
—TheNeverEndingPit
"Hence the pilot episode: the restaurant being shut down for being suspected of selling human meat."
—PrimarySquash9309
13."Corn Flakes were created to stop boys wanking."
—Hyperbolicalpaca
14."The Kennedys. JFK's sister, Rosemary Kennedy, was forced to undergo a lobotomy that damaged her brain so badly she was disabled for the rest of her life."
—sithmaster297
"What's worse is her own father ordered it done."
—Ms_Schuesher
"The brain damage is the goal of a lobotomy. It's a horrific procedure."
—PrimarySquash9309
15."Mel Blanc, a voice actor for Looney Tunes and a whole bunch of other things, was in a really bad car crash that put him in a coma for a while."
"He was unresponsive when the doctors tried waking him up. One of his doctors started asking his characters — Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird —if they were 'in there.' Mel started responding as the different characters.
Anyway, while he was recovering in bed, he was recording Barney for The Flintstones (parts of Seasons 2-3, if I remember correctly). His son filled in on a few episodes.
Now, if I see The Flintstones, I think about how he was doing some of it in bed, recovering from a bad car wreck."
—ZoeKitten84
16."Judith Barsi, who voiced Ducky in The Land Before Time, was murdered by her own father at the age of 10. She never even got to see her own film and the joy it brought so many children. After I learned that, especially now that I'm a parent, I can't bring myself to watch the film."
—jscarlet
17."Teddy bears. They were originally inspired by President Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. It sounds cute until you realize the bear was already injured and had to be put down anyway."
—Danniedear
18."Sir Alan Turing is regarded as the father of modern computing and is, of course, known for cracking the Enigma code."
"After his contributions to ending the war earlier, saving lives, and contributing towards the invention of the computer, he was chemically castrated because he was gay. Two years later, in 1954, he died by suicide through cyanide. His work was mostly sheltered during his life because of the Official Secrets Act.
He got an official pardon from the Queen in 2013."
—Klor204
19.And finally, something tongue-in-cheek: "OJ Simpson, the beloved football player and actor, was surprisingly problematic. Go ahead, look it up."
—u/Enky-Doo
I want to hear alllll your thoughts on these down in the comments below!
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
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