People Who've Inherited Money Reveal The Worst Time Someone Asked For Money
Death is already difficult.
[rebelmouse-image 18357779 is_animated_gif=But the politics that arise from inheritance can easily make it worse. Legal battles ensue, and people show their truest colors.
u/treoni was curious and came to Reddit wanting to hear about their trials and tribulations with inheritance:
[Serious] People who won/inherited a lot of money, what are your horror stories from people begging for your money?
Here are some of those scary stories.
Drug Money
[rebelmouse-image 18348484 is_animated_gif=My grandmother had an education fund made for me and put money in it every month. I was pretty young and my mom was poor and wanted to use that money to buy pot and cigarettes and other stuff. She kept bugging me and bribing me with stuff. I told my grandmother who made sure my mom couldn't access the account.
Paper Route
[rebelmouse-image 18347104 is_animated_gif=My parents did something similar with my college fund, but mine came from paper routes that I had. I started at the earliest legal age, either 9 or 10, with only 30 customers at first, but the size of my routes grew over time. At my height, I was delivering 3 different papers to ~350 total customers across 3 different neighborhoods. A lot of people subscribed to multiple papers, so in total I was pulling down between $1000 and $1500 a month including tips.
My parents took half at the time for "room and board" and forced me to put other half into a college fund. I figured that was still a lot of money and the interest would help it grow for the future (I was naive about bank interest rates), so I kept at the job. This involved waking up by 3:30 AM every day to wrap newspapers so I could be out the door by 4:30 AM, where I would walk the route (it was too much weight for me to balance on a bike) and have them all delivered in three trips by the time the school bus arrived at 9:00. After school I walked around doing collections, and on the weekends I was going door-to-door offering subscriptions.
I don't know exactly when it happened, but some time after I started high school I called my bank to check on what I had believed to be a substantial savings account from ~5 years of work, and it had less than $20 in it. My parents had raided it and never told me, and then just started routing my money to their own accounts. I told the paper companies I was quitting that week.
I did start underreporting my tips after I found out my parents wouldn't let me keep anything any other way, so I did pocket $20-$50 a month. They caught me a couple times and took the money, but that just taught me to hide it better. Still doesn't seem like it was worth all the effort, though.
Restraining Order
[rebelmouse-image 18347276 is_animated_gif=Only child here, although I'm now in my 70s. I inherited a great deal of money from a bachelor great-uncle who I barely knew. We're talking 7 figures. I told no one, but my great-uncle's attorney did, the bastard. Long lost cousins, most of whom I hadn't seen since childhood began pestering, then hassling, then harassing me for money. Some of them would show up at my home at 3am and ring my doorbell for an hour. One actually broke into the house while I was there! I pressed harassment charges against three of them, had the one arrested for breaking and entering, and got a court order to have the other two stay at least 100 yards away from me. I legally changed my name and moved to a remote area of a southern state about ten months later.
Suit???
[rebelmouse-image 18346556 is_animated_gif=Family coming out of the woodwork threatening to sue for the money. Family have "surprise" visits and looked like they thought I hid the money in the house somewhere. No amount of telling them we inherited less than 500$ would make them go away. They did not believe it. Now they all just hate us and I no longer get invited to family outings.
Parents Ruining Things
[rebelmouse-image 18357780 is_animated_gif=I won around £5,000 on a football (soccer) accumulator a few years ago. Not a lot really, but a lot for a 23 year old.
To cut a long story short, because I didn't pay off my father's credit card debt with it he fell out with me and pretty much tried to ruin my life. He told my then partner I had a gambling problem (I didn't, unless spending £5 a week on football constitutes a problem), got my mother to call my work to tell them I had a problem which resulted in work getting a counsellor in to talk to me, and basically preyed on my family's love for me by making them all make me feel horrendously guilty for ever placing a bet in the first place. It all reached a head when I came home to my partner in tears and my mother and father sat comforting her on the sofa, proceeding to tell me if she didn't know if she could trust me, and 'why couldn't I just admit how long I'd been gambling for'. I physically removed my father from my house that night and told him to never darken my doorstep again. All over five grand!
Parents are sometimes toxic and an awful influence on your life. I cut him out because of it (which sadly has meant my relationship with my mother has taken a hit) but it was honestly the best thing I ever did. Don't be afraid of doing so if they add nothing but negativity to your life.
Something For Nothing
[rebelmouse-image 18357781 is_animated_gif=My Great-Aunt and godmother was a lesbian. Her partner - my Auntie Kitty - had been with her since the 1950's, when my godmother moved to New York. Auntie Kitty was disowned by her family when it came out she was with a woman. My godmother died when I was 12 and left my Auntie Kitty everything in her will, which made things strained with my dad's family, though my dad and one of his brothers still talked to her.
I moved to New York at 18 for school and, knowing no one else in the city, we became close. She was thrilled that I wanted to have a relationship with her and spend time with her and didn't hesitate to think of her as my aunt, even though she technically wasn't. She was legit the greatest, and we spent holidays together and she would come to things I worked on and I knew all her friends and she knew mine. I basically spent a decade with her being like another grandmother to me.
She died a few months ago, and it sucks. I miss her a lot, to put it lightly, but she was in her 90's and lived a long life.
Thing was, she left everything to me. Now, I knew she had money - It was hard to miss - but I didn't know how much money she had. I ended up with a decent sized amount of cash and investments, a brownstone in the city, and a place in on the beach in the Carolinas.
Her family came out of the woodwork when she died, sniffing around for money and demanding I give them the beach house, or cash, or whatever. Her will states explicitly that they're not to receive anything from her estate, and it's all to go to me, but they're threatening to sue since 'they're sure she wanted to give them something' even though she hadn't talked to any of them in over half a century, and in some cases, had never met them.
On the opposite side of things, my dad's sisters and brothers are pissed they didn't get anything, because they'd occasionally send her a Christmas card. None of them view it as fair that I was given everything, when they were given nothing. None of them showed up to her funeral, none of them had properly seen her or talked to her in years except my dad. One of my aunts has gone so far as harassing my boyfriend since he's apparently only in it for the money, despite the fact that he had a better relationship with her than she did, and had to help me plan her funeral.
Ungrateful People
[rebelmouse-image 18357782 is_animated_gif=My grandmother has dementia and her husband is dying of cancer. They have over a million in assets that have been divided between 4 sons. One son is a mentally ill, junkie who has been in an out of jail. He has already been promised their house as his share of inheritance but he has been doing all he can to get more from his mother while her husband has been in the hospital slowly dying the last few months. He steals her credit cards, opens new ones in her name, and attempts to access their money through online banking.
My step-grandfather is trying to get her declared mentally incompetent to prevent my uncle from manipulating her finances but between his health issues and being in and out of the hospital it is proving difficult.
When her husband dies (which will unfortunately be soon), he plans on moving into their house (which he already sees as "his") and most likely milking my grandmother dry. The sad part is she has dementia and has no idea what is going on.
It Ain't Your Money
[rebelmouse-image 18357783 is_animated_gif=I had most of my college paid for through scholarships and a fund my parents set up when I was a baby. My roomate junior year would always bring this up as an excuse to not pay for things. Example: "well you have a college fund so you should pay for my dinner too" "I have to take out loans so you should pay for my rent this month." I ended up moving out and avoided her for the rest of my time at school
Wow
[rebelmouse-image 18357785 is_animated_gif=A few years ago we inherited some money from my husband's grandfather. My husband's brother & sister also inherited equal amounts. His sister, we had not spoken to in several years, emailed my husband and his brother asking for their portion of the inheritance because her part-time personal trainer job wasn't enough to keep funding her lifestyle. LOL.
Vultures
[rebelmouse-image 18357786 is_animated_gif=I'll share my current nightmare that started right before my Mom died. My mother was an alcoholic who ended up dying of liver failure last May.
After my mom died we opened the estate with the state of PA to begin the process of going through her finances and transferring the deed from her house to me.
As soon as my info was registered with the state, every realtor came out of the woodwork to harass me about selling her property. I got it phone calls, letters, people showed up and wouldn't leave. We had to call the police multiple times on one realtor. I luckily had a great estate lawyer who would hit the people with C&Ds and follow up with the police when they continued to show up.
My mom had a townhome is a very very desirable neighborhood. It's an easy sale for any realtor but I was still surprised on the sheer number of realtors who harassed us about it.
We still have two realtors who stop by our house every once in awhile thank leave a business card. I have a sign stating that we are not selling taped to our door.
Being Used
[rebelmouse-image 18357787 is_animated_gif=My mom doesn't call me anymore unless she wants something. Her requests vary: a house, a car, travel date, food money. If we don't give her what she wants, she sulks and has big, passive-aggressive tantrums. I wouldn't mind helping her every now and then, but she just uses people. It's never enough. Now that I'm no longer poor, I'm not her daughter, just another source of cash.
Good News For Once
[rebelmouse-image 18348557 is_animated_gif=I do estate valuations for various attorneys and such, just as a sideline, and for fun. Got a call to do one, there were two brothers, etc. The way I do it, you pay me up front (usually about $500 for small stuff), and I come in, make baseline valuations of personal property (not real estate), and give estimates based upon what the goods would (probably) realize at auction. Usually the big stuff is liquidated and divided monetarily, so I don't fool with that.
Went in with my usual blather about "If you people have one uncivil word, I will walk and your money will be forfeit" speech, and proceeded to do a round-the-grounds listing/eval with one of my people. They were following us around, smiling and making small talk. One of them had a wife, the other had a girlfriend, they were all very amicable. When we got done, they asked if I would look and see if their division of property was fair, as they had done it prior to our arrival. They indicated that Salarmy was coming the next day to pick up everything else. I looked at their lists, and they were each for things that the other didn't want, and the lists were equal to within exactly $10 of my estimates. The brother who had the $10 advantage got out his wallet and gave his brother two five dollar bills. The other brother said "I owe you $5 from lunch last week", and he gave one back. Then they told me that it was worth $500 to know that they were even and it wouldn't mess up their relationship. They called me about 2 weeks later, asking if I had cashed their check, as they were closing out the estate. I had torn it up, and told them so. They sent the money to the Wind River Tribal Youth Program. Haven't thought about that in years. Thanks, Reddit.
Selfish Squandering
[rebelmouse-image 18347141 is_animated_gif=When I was diagnosed with cancer, my job took up a collection for me. They were very generous and it grew to a fair amount of money. Which we used through out my treatment so that we didn't worry about bills and what not. My sister found out about the money and began to ask for money, never once offering help. But always having a sob story about why she needed the cash. When lied and said the money was gone. She stopped calling altogether. Oh and when I was a toddler, my mom passed in a car accident. I had bonds given to me from family friends to help me later in life. My Aunt who adopted me cashed all the bonds before I even finished elementary school, leaving me with nothing.
Revenge
[rebelmouse-image 18357788 is_animated_gif=My dad has two sisters. One of them was an out of control mess that after stealing and making her parents life hell they finally had to cut her out of their lives. My grandma died and she didn't even bother coming to the funeral. My grandpa ended up in a memory care facility which blew through the last of what they had saved up and then my dad and his other sister took over the payments. When he passed away they had paid over 70k combined for him to live in a nice facility for the last years of his life. After he died the mess of a sister suddenly showed up demanding her share of the inheritance assuming that it would be a large sum of money. They sent her a bill for 1/3 of the 70k.
Ruined Family
[rebelmouse-image 18357789 is_animated_gif=My grandpa was pretty well off and he suddenly died of undiagnosed prostate cancer a decade or so ago. The kids from his second marriage immediately swooped in and started claiming everything as their's, despite us being just as close to him as they were. It ended with a lawsuit and the family being split in half, with us not regarding them as family anymore. We ended up getting basically nothing and I'm frankly not impressed with how it was handled by either side. It's really sad seeing people you've known your whole life acting like that and ruining decades of being family in a couple weeks.
Grandma's Valuables
[rebelmouse-image 18354494 is_animated_gif=Even more pathetic because it was so little money: Grandma lived off her pension after selling her house way cheap to Aunt. After she died, Other Aunt divided up her money and stuff, I think each grandkid got $1000, one piece of her inexpensive furniture, a few little things, none of it worth any money. But Cousin K, whose parents got a super cheap house that she keeps saying she wants, carried on about how she was promised everything. She wanted the ten year old freezer her sister with little kids got, she wanted the dishes, she wanted wanted wanted. Ten years later, I avoid talking to her because I'm sure I'll still hear about all of grandma's valuables that Other Aunt threw away. I think the rest of us should have just gone in together, said, "take one thing then someone else's turn" and we all would have left after round two and left the rest for Cousin K to take everything else and saved ourselves a lot of accusations.
Disappear
[rebelmouse-image 18345616 is_animated_gif=A few years ago a family member was killed, my parents secretly sued the persons/company responsible and we were awarded millions in a settlement. To this day I haven't shared this info with anyone because it's very personal. We don't want anyone to think we profited from their death because that wasn't our intention. We wanted to make sure the spouse was cared for financially.
After about 2 years of my parents being involved in court, the settlement was finalized. During this time, my siblings spouse was cared for emotionally and financially by my family. After the case was settled, the spouse was awarded several million as one of the stipulations my parents set. Immediately after, they disappeared from our lives entirely. It was extremely disappointing to my family when that happened, especially considering all we had been doing to keep them going. Imagine having a son or daughter suddenly die and having to fight lawyers for years to give their spouse a happy life, only to have them take the money and run once it was all finished.
Yes my family did receive a rather large sum and we had a dinner on his birthday to which this news was shared with all the siblings. It was a shock learning why the spouse had completely cut us off, and that I'd suddenly become "rich" as a result of everything. It feels wrong and slightly embarrassing, but i'm sure my sibling would be proud that they could help the family after their death. Still, I'll never tell anyone what happened because I don't want my sibling's life story tarnished any further. I think everyone in my family feels the same, nothing has changed in our lives afterward. At first I felt extremely guilty spending a dime of that money, but over time I've learned to appreciated the opportunities that it has given me. All of us have continued down the same path as before, although my parents have been traveling a lot and I don't blame them one bit
No More Of This
[rebelmouse-image 18346813 is_animated_gif=I won a lawsuit settlement after almost dying in a fire. I was under 18 at the time of the incident but was 18 when it finally settled. My mother told me unless I gave her half of my settlement, I would have to find a new place to live. I was in my senior year of high school when this happened. She said she deserved it because she was the only one in my life who was always there for me. I didn't give her the money, she kicked me out and tried to keep some of my personal belongings not like I had much since everything was lost in the fire. We didn't talk for months until she randomly showed up at my house one day. She asked me for rent money and gave me some BS sob story. I wrote her a check for $5k hoping it'd maker her go away. It did for a time - she and I barely spoke until years later when I was pregnant. A few years ago I was in a bad car accident (hit by an 18 wheeler) and got some money. I told no one - especially my mom. She has insisted numerous times I was entitled to a settlement for it and should speak to a lawyer she found. She took it upon herself to talk to lawyers on my behalf - or tried to. I just ignored her for months until she finally gave it up.
Bridge Burning Smoke Signals
[rebelmouse-image 18355470 is_animated_gif=My aunt stole a large sum of money from me. When I turned 18 I was to get a check for 18 years of percap with interest. Six months before my 18th, she quit her job and started working at a small 5 location credit union. She asked me to move my accounts there to help her meet quotas since she just started and would do joint accounts so I could get the benifits too. Ten months later I thought she had a better job and was reaping the benifits when she started to remodel her house and spend her nights at the bar. I didn't think anything of it because she was my aunt and had a decent job. When I went to change banks because I was moving across the country she told me she already withdrew the money and I couldn't get it and since it was a joint account there was nothing I could do about it. While not fine the worst thing about it was that she claimed it was what my mother wanted and was in her will. Then when disproved said she deserved it more than me, and then eventually that because she did it in a legal way it was hers now. She convinced her boss that I was trying to ruin her life so I couldn't even go to them for help.
Eventually I got 60% of it back from a settlement but she burned all the bridges she could in the family. She would cut off any contact with people who asked what the problem was. Or would threaten to if they talked about it. Since she was getting free child care from her mom she said she would rather pay for childcare than listen to her mom talk about me. So my grandmother had to keep quiet or she would lose her other two grandkids and her last living daughter along with me because I was moving across the country. Total blindside.
Uncle Buck$
[rebelmouse-image 18357790 is_animated_gif=I am fortunate that my father's family is well off. Everything is locked into trust funds since my grandparents death. Now my father has died I have control over my father's share. My uncle who is a weed dealing/smoking-in and out of jail- never held a job-dropkick-son of a loving women who always have him hand and brother to my father who tried to help support him even though he was sick for many years.
Anyways, I have withdrawn my share because that family sucks at financial management and I have reinvested it in my own trust, well uncle has started calling me monthly from jail asking for help with lawyers or to pay for something. He still has living brothers, but he thinks a girl three times younger than him should be supporting him because 'he can't get a job and I am family'. I feel nothing for the man who has thrown his life away and leeched off my father in his last years. I am glad though, better than him harassing my mum.
The Worst Cases Of Mass Stupidity People Have Ever Witnessed
"Reddit user AdmirableFlow asked: 'What's the most severe case of mass stupidity you've ever witnessed?'"
Humans seem to get swept up in group mentality and ignorance far too often.
Just because 10 of your neighbors jump off of a bridge, should you?
Celebrity fads, diet fads, Black Friday sales...
The masses love to blindly join in on the crazy.
Or the fun. it's a coin toss.
Redditor AdmirableFlow wanted to hear about group mentality that wasn't too bright, so they asked:
"What's the most severe case of mass stupidity you've ever witnessed?"
There is no greater group of followers than people who run every time Apple puts out a new product.
Same phone, just a thousand dollars more.
The Dodge
happy tom cruise GIF by South Park Giphy"Scientology."
Supersaiajinblue
"The rich ones at the top are just in for the tax dodge. A lot of the ones below them are in it thinking they can shmooze with the rich ones at the top and become one of them some days. So yeah dumb but with a layer of greed involved."
Doright36
Bad Socials
"Before social media, I just assumed people were mostly educated. Boy was I f**king wrong."
"Not only was I wrong, but now I myself feel stupid for believing that for so long."
Vitzdam-
"Up until my early 20s I felt like I was smarter than 90% of the people around me, being generous. It seemed like so many people were just complete morons, and I had this massive smug sense of superiority feeling that I was just more intelligent (and thus better) than most people."
"As I aged, I began to realize how far I'd shoved my head up my own a** and I understood that while I might have been naturally gifted in some ways, there were others in which I was the 'idiot' and other people were capable and intelligent. I felt like a real a** for feeling so much better than others, and I felt humbled."
"And then everything since about mid-2015 happened and I've really started to wonder if maybe I was just right for the wrong reasons before..."
TypicalAd4988
Without Fail
"Maybe not the most severe, but one that everyone here has personally seen at least once in their lives. When at an airport and the gate agent says 'We're about to commence boarding. Please remain in your seats until your group has been called.' And then half the people were waiting standing up and crowding the gate in a scene of utter chaos. Every time, without fail."
-Dixieflatline
Rushed
"The great toilet paper rush at the start of COVID. There was nothing about COVID that threatened the global toilet paper supply, and yet people just started panic-buying it and artificially creating a huge shortage."
"(We would eventually realize that there was a small uptick in toilet paper sold for private use, as many people were going to the bathroom at home more than at work, but no one realized that at the time and it had nothing to do with the panic - people just started buying more because people were buying more)."
Notmiefault
Seriously?!
Skin Care Girl GIF by Lillee Jean Giphy"Thousands of people during the pandemic thinking the vaccination made their skin magnetic. What in the actual hell."
MonParapluie
Everybody thought they were about to become a member of the X-Men with the Covid vaccines.
Still waiting on that proof.
Celebrity
"People waiting in Dealey Plaza for JFK Jr. to show up."
ggrandmaleo
"That's the first thing that popped into my mind. and they stayed there for days, didn't they? someone was interviewing people in the crowd and lots of people seemed to think other celebrities were also coming back/out of hiding. Someone was looking forward to seeing Robin Williams."
chrisgee
"You could simply declare the entire MAGA and QAnon movements to be mass stupidity and you'd not be wrong. Propaganda is a helluva drug and under-education is real. Fear and prejudice go hand-in-hand with under-education."
NbleSavage
Schemes
"Anyone who keeps getting involved in Ponzi or MLM schemes."
"For decades the public has been warned on what to watch out for to avoid these schemes, you would assume that the vast majority of people would have learned by now that these schemes are fraudulent and just can't work out. Yet somehow here we are with thousands of these companies still up and running and thriving and even more people being taken advantage of by them."
TheSameButBetter
Open Up
"My local park's playground has a push gate."
"Every time I watch grown adults stare at it for like 20 seconds then go 'I think it's locked is there another one?'"
"To which I walk up and... Push the gate open."
"What annoys me about this is they want to catch an attitude like I'm an a-hole for it."
3ao7ssv8
Challenges
ice bucket challenge news GIF Giphy"Those public challenges that CLEARLY risk health, i.e., 'the tide pod challenge.' Next time, just let things sort themselves out on their own. We can use fewer idiots in the world."
"The ice bucket challenge was at least kind of cute and DID give ALS a lot of media attention/awareness and raised a lot of money."
LadyVaresa
I liked doing my ice bucket challenge.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comment below.
Easter eggs, bloopers, trivia, behind the scenes anecdotes... cinephiles live collecting them and sharing their knowledge with others.
Some trivia is well known—like Eric Stoltz was replaced by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. Other tidbits are more obscure, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was first considered for the Michael Biehn role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator.
Some stories are conspiracy theories or urban legends—like the body in the forest on The Wizard of Oz set.
But what about just film facts? The obscure ones?
Reddit user Kuli24 asked:
"What's a movie fact you know that pretty much no one else knows?"
The Departed/Arthur the Aardvark
"When filming the rooftop scene in The Departed, a giant inflatable Arthur the Aardvark—from the TV show Arthur—on top of a nearby children's museum would have dominated the background of many of the shots."
"The museum graciously agreed to temporarily deflate and remove Arthur."
~ el_goyo_rojo
GiphyMission Impossible
"The theme song from Mission Impossible spells out MI in Morse code on repeat."
~ BelgianBeerGuy
GiphyStar Wars
"Robert Englund, famous for playing Freddie Kreuger, auditioned to be Luke Skywalker, but didn't get the role."
"He told his roommate, Mark Hamill, to go try out instead."
~ Zefram0911
GiphyNightmare On Elm Street/Lord of the Rings
"And by extension, the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise is considered the reason we have Lord Of the Rings today.
"Because New Line was on the verge of bankruptcy until Elm Street saved the company."
"And New Line was the only company with the guts to green-light and fund Peter Jackson’s pre-production and production for LOTR."
~ hevnztrash
GiphyThe Princess Bride
"Cary Elwes broke his toe on André the Giant's 3-wheeler during filming The Princess Bride."
"He was worried Rob Reiner might fire him so he kept it a secret.
"He worked the scenes before the Fire Swamp to make his character kind of nonchalant but really he couldn't put much weight on his foot."
~ Inevitable-Roof4992
GiphyAliens
"In Aliens, after the first encounter with the aliens as the Marines are retreating, there is a scene where they get in the troop carrier and as they are getting ready to leave, an alien tries to get in."
"Hicks picks up his shotgun off the deck, jams it in the alien's mouth, yells 'Eat this' and blows it away."
"That whole scene was shot backwards because the actor, Michael Biehn, couldn't perform the move."
"So it was shot backwards, played in reverse and then sound dubbed over it."
~ LordBaranof
GiphyCoco
"In Pixar's Coco, the boy who was going to play Miguel hit puberty, changing his voice."
"The people in charge replaced him with someone younger."
"The original boy got a cameo where he is the guy working the stage asking him if he's ready to go on."
~ numbersev
GiphyAirplane!
"Leslie Nielsen was a critically acclaimed dramatic actor and leading man before he did Airplane!."
"On the set, people were intimidated by him because of his status."
"But they had no idea that he was the set prankster."
"He's actually buried with a fart machine that he used to carry around to mess with people."
~ G-Unit11111
"His prior career was the primary reason for casting him in Airplane!."
"A respected serious actor giving those jokes as serious lines was what made it so funny."
~ SaltWaterInMyBlood
GiphyFinding Dory
"In Finding Dory, the original voice of Nemo had grown up, so his voice had obviously changed."
"But he still got a cameo as one of the truck drivers."
Dead Zone/Christmas Story
"The movies Dead Zone and Christmas Story were being filmed only a couple miles away from each other at the same time."
"Both productions were waiting for snow so they could film. It was an usually snowless winter."
"Finally late in the season there was a significant snowfall. The scene where Sheriff Bannerman arrives at Johnny’s house is being filmed at the exact moment of the tongue to the flag pole scene."
~ Annual_Rooster5678
GiphyShrek
"In the first Shrek movie, Lord Farquaad is removing all the fairy tale creatures from the swamp."
"He wants Shrek's home too."
"In the old DVD extras they explain it’s because he wants to build a theme park there."
"It’s not explained at all in the movie."
~ bickel89
"Farquaad was modeled after then Disney CEO Michael Eisner."
"Shrek was produced by DreamWorks which was co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenburg who ran Disney before Eisner."
"Farquaad is also a play on the word F*ckwad."
~ TheGoadingGoat
GiphySir Anthony Hopkins
"Sir Anthony Hopkins is an incredible mimic."
"Throughout his career, he’s looped (post-production sound re-recording) many well known co stars who were unavailable for re-recording sessions."
"He’s never taken credit for this."
~ smdanes
GiphyToy Story/Monsters Inc.
"The original choice for Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story was Billy Crystal. He turned it down and went on to say it was one of the biggest mistakes of his career."
"When the opportunity to voice Mike in Monsters Inc came up he jumped at it, as he didn’t want to make the same mistake twice."
~ DorkusMalorkus89
GiphyContagion/Seven
"In Contagion the autopsy performed on Gwyneth Paltrow used a prop head that was originally made for the finale of Seven."
"The latter decided against showing what was in the box and thus, years later it was repurposed."
"In other words, we finally got to see what was in the box."
~ thepoeticpatient
GiphyEdward Scissorhands
"In Edward Scissorhands, the version shown to critics and reviewers contained a scene that got cut from the final theatrical version. The scene was during the opening when the grandmother starts telling her story to the little girl."
"Essentially, it made it clear that everything we are seeing in Edward’s story is not as it actually occurred, but rather we’re peering inside the little girl’s imagination, seeing how she’s interpreting what her grandmother is telling her."
"This brings whole new meaning to things like the way the houses are painted, how all the dads leave for work at exactly the same time, and the quirkiness of how everyone behaves.
"Once you know that this scene exists, you see the movie in a very different way. Much of what we think of a 'Tim Burton weirdness' is actually childlike imagination once you know."
"So, go watch it again. It’s not a whole new movie, but it feels and comes across in a whole new way."
~ Darnitol1
GiphySo, what cinema secrets do you know?
The Weirdest Things People Have Witnessed In A Rich Person's Home
It's no secret that as a person starts to make more money, they may forget how difficult they had it when there was less money coming into their bank account.
Not only are rich people often incredibly out-of-touch with the realities of most people's lives, but what they choose to prioritize and bring into their home is often pretty bizarre, too.
Already side-eyeing, Redditor Jerswar asked:
"What's the weirdest thing you've witnessed in the home of a rich person?"
Love Can't Be Bought
"Rich grandparents had a brand new house built, had a $100,000 splash pad built for their only grandchild who has never visited them at their new house."
- wyoflyboy68
"This reminds me of when my sister built her house. She had a barrier-free ground-floor apartment built in it, so my grandmother could visit. She never did."
- P44
A Separate Hoarder's House
"I had a rich neighbor growing up who'd always invite us over for parties and always insisted on giving us gifts and leftovers. They did this with every guest."
"They were also hoarders but built a separate house to keep their crap in. It was filled with whatever they bought but never used and even never got out of the packaging it was delivered in."
"They told my mom to take a box of what she wanted, and for s**ts and giggles, she did. It was a knife collection and sharpener set."
- MUSTARDUNAVAILABLE
Unusual Art
"I was at John Waters’ house for his birthday and he has a room set up as a lifelike recreation of a meth lab (it wasn’t a real meth lab, it’s an art piece)."
"He told me that when Bill Clinton visited him the secret service agents were extremely concerned about the room."
- writeleahwrite
Weird Pet Relationships
"One client had a whole separate house on their property just for their dogs. They'd referred to it as the 'dog house,' and I was expecting like maybe a little building in the yard where they kept their toys or something, but this was a fully furnished home with king-sized beds and a huge playroom on the main floor."
"They had a full training and feeding staff to care for the dogs and everything. They lived in their own house and would come over to visit. Seemed like a weird dynamic to have with your pet..."
"One client didn't have a litterbox for the cats, their cats I guess didn't like using the boxes in the basement and they didn't want to put boxes upstairs so they put down pond liner and kitty litter across an entire room in the basement and had their housekeeper run a rake through it daily."
- daabilge
Special Needs Kitty Mystery Mansion
"As a kid back in the Mesozoic Era (I'm old), my best friend and I used to play in a converted racquetball court and lounge under the old West Coast mansion her family had lived in since its construction."
"The stairs to it were hidden behind a closet off of the abandoned servants' quarters. Halfway down the stairs was a wine cellar. A decoy as the actual wine cellar for the home was under the kitchen….. Another staircase behind a rack of dusty bottles led two stories down to our giant play area beneath this."
"At the beginning of WWII, before Pearl Harbor, my friend’s paranoid WWI vet grandfather had dug out the space over fear of Japanese (or German) invasion. Her dad made the giant room regulation designed for racquetball years later. Maybe originally squash. Not sure, but the lounge area was also glassed off above it so one could look down into the court like a gallery."
"It was really neat. Also upstairs in the living room was a wall straight out of an old mystery novel. If you pushed a spot just right, the wall opened to a hidden room. Super tiny and had a button to ring certain other rooms in the house as the home had these already to call for staff. My friend's mom said it was so if someone quickly had to hide, they could alert the household of danger."
"We used to pretend to be on Nancy Drew cases all the time... so fun."
"The family was wealthy, but despite the amazing home, they lived a completely pretentious free life. Normal cars, camping vacations, frugal living as sport."
"But they were philanthropists too, especially supporting organizations like the humane society. One thing about this family’s home was all the cats. I loved kitties but had a mother who preferred her animals well-seasoned. The family had the space so they always had, and were looking to adopt out but often didn’t, at least 20 rescue cats, many with special needs."
"I’m old, I didn’t know how to write that. Special needs kitty mystery mansion really is actually an appropriate description..."
- waltersmama
"Special needs kitty mystery mansion with hidden panic rooms and decoy wine cellars is like, the best possible fever dream."
- ConneisseurOfDanger
A Unique Viewing Experience
"In Naples, FL., I was at a house with a sensory deprivation room. Flat black walls with acoustic dampening baffles, in the middle was a coffin-like bathtub. It had speakers and a flat-screen display in the lid."
"I heard that the room cost over $100K to build."
- frank_sarno
A Christmas Village
"They had part of the house permanently decorated for Christmas and it included a fully decorated Christmas tree that was suspended upside down from the ceiling. Which was pretty awesome."
- lithecello
New Meaning to "Don't Take Your Work Home"
"My wife and I used to babysit for this wealthy couple when they went on ski trips etc."
"Except for the children's schoolbooks, there wasn't a book, magazine, or newspaper in the house."
"The man was a publisher."
- Texbadger349
The End of Laundry
"I knew someone who didn't like to do laundry so she just bought new clothes for each of her 4 kids every week. They were always high-quality or designer clothes. At the time, all her kids were 10 to 16 years old."
"What would happen if they liked an item a lot and couldn't find it again? Why not just teach the kids to do their own laundry? Why not hire a housekeeper who can do it?"
"There are so many options, other than spending thousands every month just to avoid laundry. Plus, they rarely donated it. Just bagged it up and threw it out. I never could wrap my head around it."
- coffee-jnky
Can We Be the Trivia Guy?
"I know someone who's worked for a very rich person, probably worth billions. He had more than 100 staff on site, including chefs for the staff...all while divorced and living alone. He had a 'trivia' staff member... someone hired to tell him interesting facts and stories daily. That was his only job."
"Someone else was hired to maintain his shoes. Polish, shine, the works."
"If I didn't hear it firsthand, I wouldn't have believed it."
- mambo-nr4
A Mud Room, Indeed!
"I used to work as an exterminator, mostly pest control. This had me walking through houses from the poor to the rich."
"One day, I pulled up to a four-story mansion with more rooms than I could count."
"I spoke with the lady at the door and got started. As I sprayed, I noticed there wasn’t much furniture in the house. As I went, I made a game of counting the furniture I could find. Over 50 rooms and the whole building had 13 pieces of furniture."
"Pretty odd, but then I went into the very last room, a mud room right by the door I came into."
"I stopped as I walked in, completely shocked. A huge, full-sized (alive) adult pig stretched from one end of the room to the other, resting on the tile floor. I’m talking five or six feet stretched out across the room. Flies buzzed around its head as it stared at me."
"Suddenly, the lady (who I hadn’t seen since she let me in) said, 'Oh, don’t go in there. She doesn’t like men,' and then she walked me out, paid me, and went back inside."
- Moist-Exchange2890
His Very Own Hot Wheels Garage
"Buddy of mine has a car elevator."
"Instead of just building a bigger garage, he stores his cars stacked onto each other, like some kind of Hot Wheels accessory. It's very surreal."
- SmackEh
Make Yourself at Home
"My friend's dad growing up was one of the top lawyers in our state. Their house was so d**n big, I got confused (lost as h**l) on all the staircases they had everywhere. They would split in a few places and lead to banisters that had different connections to different parts of the house."
"They had a room just for dishes. Her mom had a huge room for sewing and another for different crafts. They both had an office. Many guest rooms. A small kitchen in one part with a sink, coffee pot, and fridge. Their main bathroom for guests had heated floors and rainfall showers and everything. I LOVED HER SHOWER."
"Her room had a balcony and a table outside."
"They had a pool and hot tub. Horses and a barn and lots of cute barn cats."
"I was very poor and had a messed up situation in my childhood. I stayed there a lot and they would even take me for weeks in the summer because my mother was not there. They are really great people."
" They didn't give handouts or anything, I would literally scoop up horse shit and clean stalls and help with everything for those horses when I stayed. I wanted to help."
"They had a maid, but we still cleaned up after ourselves. Their kitchen was gigantic, and I always loved the fancy pasta water arm over the stove. I had so much fun cooking with her mom and us having the big dinners (Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) with them."
"They were so magnificent and beyond anything I would have ever experienced without them. I got my first pair of cowboy boots from them for Christmas. Her dad bought me a plane ticket one time out of the blue because I wanted to visit my grandmother. Never forget them."
- xNinjaNoPants
So Much Wasted Food
"A very rich person I know does not eat leftover food. They will cook a feast and after, everything goes straight in the garbage no matter how much is left over."
- duckduckroosebolton
"My husband won’t eat leftovers because he thinks it will give him diarrhea. His family is preoccupied with food poisoning but doesn’t know any of the actual food safety rules."
"Oh well, more for me."
- jendet010
"My brother-in-law’s family does this but they are middle class. It’s such a waste!"
- outlawjoseymeow
An Art Enthusiast
"Not weird but a Van Gogh, just chillin' in the hallway. I took a selfie with the flash on, whoops."
- Raccoon_Expert_69
"When I did executive level IT support years back, I found a Monet dangling haphazardly on an office chair in the CEO's extra office (which was unused for storage, and had an extra desktop computer I would sometimes use for quick tasks when on that floor)."
"Another time, I was admiring a Joan Miro coffee table book in his main office, and when his assistant noticed, he showed me into a side room I didn’t realize was there, which had a mini gallery of original Miro drawings."
- spymusicspy
It's amazing what people will spend money on when they have the money to spare. It would be so interesting to see how much more a person would explore a hobby if they had the money to spend.
Being in high school is such a pivotal moment in a young adolescent's life.
They discover who they are and where they want to be. They start making tough decisions about their future and forge bonds with individuals who may continue to influence them as they navigate the world post-graduation.
But as it often happens, we all drift apart due to going to different colleges or embarking on other adventures.
It's not until several years pass that we wax nostalgic about our youth and wonder about the people with whom we once roamed the halls, carrying our textbooks and fixated on inconsequential matters that seemed like a big deal then.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Just_Suspect5904 asked:
"What happened to the most popular kids in your school?"
The following Redditors opened up about acquaintances that left an indelible mark on their memory.
The Parents Were Wrong About Him
"One of my best friends was from the wrong side of the tracks, poor, had a mullet and wore Metallica shirts way before they broke into mainstream."
"He was extremely popular because he was crazy smart, very talented and driven. Everyone wanted to be his friend and he was very open about being nice to everyone."
"Many many parents were like 'don’t hang out with that John Smith boy, he’s on drugs and a bad influence' (He absolutely was not, it was the Satanic scare of the late 80s and 90s and he liked Metal Music)"
"He worked his as off all his life and is now pretty damn wealthy with a house, wife and kids in California."
"When we chat it up on the phone he is the exact same person I grew up with. Crazy funny and extremely kind."
– Vitaminpartydrums
No Chance For Goodbyes
"Most popular kid in our school was a guy named Josh. Insanely outgoing and friendly, he could befriend anyone he talked to within five seconds, and always did. Active athlete, was on the football team. Straight A student. Very devout church-goer. I didn't meet him until later in high school, where he was part of a Dungeons and Dragons game I joined. Always put on a great time role playing. While we didn't get close, we had a couple extraordinarily memorable times during our senior year of high school, very fun and meaningful times that stood out strongly to me then during a shitty part of my life and are still remembered fondly by me twenty years later. Josh was going places, and he'd make a difference somewhere."
"We lost touch after high school. Three years later he fell asleep behind the wheel of his truck and hit a tree. Died on impact. Found out through another friend who'd kept up with him, and we went to his funeral. I'd never seen a church so packed full of people for something like this, hundreds and hundreds of people. From our school, from his church, from all over life, the church was legitimately full."
"To this day, one of my few true lifelong regrets is letting my anxiety get the better of me when Josh's pastor asked people to come up to the mic and say something about Josh. I should've told everyone of our ludicrous all-nighter digging his truck out of the mud in a forest he'd gone mudding in after an evening school performance where we were all still in khakis and polos, finishing at three AM and somehow ending our bedraggled a**es at IHOP after getting it out."
"I should've told everyone how we found out our DnD GM was moving away on short notice, and we high-tailed it to his place after school and literally ran out of gas in that f**king truck getting there, then flooded the engine refilling it from a Jerry can, stuck with our GM who didn't want anyone coming to say goodbye and ending up late in the evening laying in that truck bed talking about science and philosophy and religion, three teenage dudes waiting for that goddamn f'king truck to get to a drivable condition so we could say goodbye to our friend properly before he disappeared from our lives."
"I'm nearing forty, and I still regret not saying how great of a guy he was to a short, scrawny, long-haired metalhead weirdo like I was in high school. Because he was. He was going to make a difference. I suppose, given all the people at his funeral, he still did."
– token_bastard
Some failed to make much of an impression enough to stand out.
However, a discourse on cliques was started in the thread.
Unpopular Majority
"My HS graduating class was 952 people, I do not even know who the most popular people were, lol."
– CorruptDictator
"My class was about that size and I remember always thinking that many of the high school stereotypes you would see on TV and film didn't seem to apply at a school that huge. People who might have been the school bully in a smaller school are properly segregated, and people who might have been an outcast in a smaller school could always find a clique of similarly minded weirdos. Popularity was never a school-wide thing because the orchestra people, the jocks, and goths, the potheads, etc. all had their own separate leaders. Also as a result we would often have a lot of cross-clique friendships and mixed parties where most people tended to be generally cool with each other."
– soretti
The Thing About Bullies
"Apparently the cliques happen in medium size schools because my exceptional small school only ever had one kid that could represent each kind of classic clique. I think the school bully trope is strange because from my experience people are a d*ck to different people in different ways that might be considered bullying. Like orchestra kids might have been a group but perhaps there was a bully within that group that picked on other orchestra kids"
– Mediocre_Scott
New York City Does High School Different
"Same. it was 850 kids in my class. NYC. so no 'campus' just a single secure building (one of my schools was actually inside a sky scraper), kids didnt leave to get lunch (without cutting class), nobody drove and there was no parking lot to hang out in, there was no Football team, and just none of the tropes you see in the media. A lot of us worked after school. 80-something languages were spoken. everyone was from somewhere else, so there was no 'new kid in town' tropes. we didn't even have lockers!
"We also don't all go to our 'local'; schools, so the kids you went to school with in Elementary school are a different set of kids than from your Jr High, and are a different set of kids from your High School. And on top of that, you also had your own set of friends from your 'hood/block, so its not like you ALWAYS were with the same kids all the time all through childhood."
"Like on TV, the kids you are in class with, are also from your neighborhood and you hung out with them outside of school, and they were also the same kids you played on sports teams with. in my world, those were always different sets of kids."
"Extremely different from all the Suburban High School TV and Movie sh*t."
– super-antinatalist
People closely examined more about the differences between popular/unpopular demographics.
Privilege
"Small town."
"There are always exceptions, but most kids who were 'popular' were friendly, outgoing, well dressed, and emotionally stable. That happened because they came from families with more money and better educated parents."
"Those parents often provided better mentoring, ensured they went to college, and as a result the kids ended up professionals who did reasonably well for themselves."
– BeKindAndWorkHard
Assumptions
"This is a very unpopular and underreported reality, as the unpopular kids desperately want to believe the popular guys end up working at the local gas station or Walmart once their days as sports stars or heartthrobs are gone. While the nerds go on to become rich and successful exactly because of reasons that made them unpopular in school."
"Unfortunately for them, popularity is often based on social status and people skills. Two key assets in life at any age."
– Kalle_79
Study Shows
"I remember reading a study that says high school bullies were more likely to be successful than the average student from their class. Once again because outgoing people who are willing to have that aggressive personality are likely to be able to succeed more than a passive timid person. If that bully grows out of being a bully they're still going to have that outgoing aggressive personality."
– Tritium10
Misconception
"They're doing fine. Contrary to what Reddit would have you believe, most of the popular kids in schools weren't bullies in my experience. They were kids who for the most part were nice, had a stable home life, and maybe happened to be fairly athletic."
– GoldenFrog14
I managed to keep in touch with a handful of people from high school; therefore, I didn't think about anyone else from my class year.
That's why I never considered going to my high school reunion.
It's because I realized there was never a time when I wondered about how the popular students at my school were doing these days.
Have you?