25 Really Interesting And Random Facts About '00s Pop Culture That Just Might Surprise You

1. In 2008, at its peak, Apple sold over 54 million iPods just that year alone. This accounted for around 40% of Apple's revenue. Sales of iPods didn't see a dramatic drop until 2011, when they dropped to 42 million. By 2014, sales had dropped to just slightly above 14 million.

Though it had been released in 2001, it truly wouldn't dominate the market until Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in 2003. 

2. If you aren't listening to the lyrics closely, then you may miss that OutKast's "Hey Ya!" is actually a sad song. According to André 3000 — who wrote the majority of it — the song was about modern-day relationships and how "a lot of people stay together for tradition," choosing to be unhappy rather than alone.

Even OutKast's official Twitter account tweeted back in 2021, about how "Hey Ya!" is actually a sad song:

Alright alright alright alright alright we made one. pic.twitter.com/lSMmPTtgdD
— Outkast (@Outkast) May 3, 2021

OutKast/SME / Via Twitter: @Outkast

3. When YouTube originally launched in 2005, it was meant to be a video dating site. The founders of it even had a slogan for it: tune in, hook up.

YouTube's founders — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — thought that people would be really interested in video dating. They imagined people uploading videos of themselves giving bio information and what they were looking for. However, they couldn't get anyone to upload dating videos (even after putting up ads on Craigslist that they would pay women $20 to upload one), so they decided to open it to all types of videos.

4. The singing hamster things in the Quiznos commercials are actually called "spongemonkeys," and they pre-date the commercials.

They were created by British animator Joel Veitch, who put them in a video where they sang about loving things like the moon and cheese on his website, Rathergood. An ad agency working with Quiznos saw the video and thought they would make great mascots for a new campaign.

5. No Doubt's iconic cover of Talk Talk's "It's My Life" was a result of the band being on a break and needing a new song for their greatest hits album.

At the time, the band was on a break as Gwen was working on her debut solo album, so there wasn't really time to get together and write an entire new song for their greatest hits album, Singles 1992-2003. But No Doubt found a workaround and decided that, for the first time, they would do a cover song and release it as a single.

6. It was Russell Crowe who recommended Hugh Jackman for the role of Wolverine in X-Men after he turned it down.

Scottish actor Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine in the film, but after the movie he was working on at the time, Mission: Impossible II, went over schedule, producers were forced to replace him. Producers then approached Russell first before casting Hugh (who would become a megastar because of it).

7. According to Jonathan Bennett, Tina Fey told him he got cast as Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls because he looks like Jimmy Fallon.

While filming Mean Girls, Bennett and Daniel Franzese — who played Damian — both came out to each other. In an interview with Gay Star News (via Gay Times), Franzese said that the two had an "open dialogue" with each other, saying, "We both were sharing in our little private misery of having to be in the closet. We definitely confided in each other."

8. In 2009, Kathryn Hahn played Eddie, and Kristen Johnston played Patsy in a pilot for the US remake of the classic UK sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

The show — which was titled AbFab — was meant for Fox, but the network ultimately passed on it and the pilot never aired.

9. There was almost an Arrested Development and The O.C. crossover episode (yes, you read that right).

10. Mark Ruffalo almost dropped out of 13 Going on 30 because he had such a hard time during the "Thriller" dance scene rehearsals.

According to Jennifer Garner, both she and Judy Greer had been dancers growing up, so they were able to learn the choreography quickly, while Mark, not knowing that, struggled to keep up with them.

11. People online HATED and were really UNHAPPY that Heath Ledger had been cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight — most people thought he was a really bad choice for the role.

When it was announced, a lot of people just thought of Heath as a heartthrob.  

12. After the HUGE success of The Dark Knight, rumors circulated that Cher was the top choice to play Catwoman in the next sequel. Now, neither Christopher Nolan, Cher, nor the studio ever confirmed this or said anything about it, yet the rumor really took off. Eventually, Cher did address it on Ellen, laughing it off and saying she was, "Too old to be Catwoman," and added, "I could be Grandma Catwoman or something."

But, this wasn't the first time Cher was speculated to play Catwoman. When 1992's Batman Returns was in development rumors circulated that she wanted to play the role. 

13. In 2006, analog TVs still out sold HDTVs.

While HDTVs had been introduced in the late '90s, people were not quick to adapt because they remained pretty expensive for most of the '00s. 

14. In 2006, A History of Violence was the last major Hollywood movie to get a home video release on VHS.

By that point, major retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target had already stopped selling VHS tapes, as DVD was the dominant format. (2006 was also the year that Blu-rays started to hit the market.)

15. Mike Myers originally recorded all his dialogue for Shrek in his normal accent, but after seeing a rough cut of the movie, he asked DreamWorks CEO and the film's producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, if he could re-record his lines with a Scottish accent.

Katzenberg agreed after hearing him do an alternative take. The re-record and reanimation cost the studio an extra $4 million dollars. 

16. In 2004, Starbucks got into the music business with its Hear Music Coffeehouses. The new stores were a mix of a coffee shop and music store and offered the ability to make mix CDs — you would select the music you wanted from a touch-screen computer kiosk and then burn it onto a CD (for 99 cents a track).

But the idea was a little too late; by 2004, a lot of people either burned their own CDs at home and/or listened to music on an iPod. By 2006, Starbucks removed the kiosks from most of its Hear Music locations.

17. RuPaul's Drag Race is one of the most popular and beloved shows on TV. However, before its 2009 premiere on Logo, the series had been turned down by both Bravo and E! The networks felt they couldn't do a show about drag.

In fact, it actually took World of Wonder some convincing to get Ru on board, who felt reality competition shows were too mean-spirited. 

18. In late 2007, Netflix got VERY close to releasing their own streaming device called The Netflix Player. However, Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, realized that if he put out his own streaming device, he would likely lose out on Netflix being available on other devices — like AppleTV — because he would be a direct competitor. With just a few weeks before the product was set to launch, Hastings canceled it. However, he decided to spin off the product to Roku, which was the company that had helped develop the device.

The first Roku hit the market in 2008 — and really just served as a box to stream Netflix. 

19. Amy Winehouse was the first choice to sing the Bond theme song for 2008's Quantum of Solace. After meeting with the franchise's producer, Barbara Broccoli, it was clear that she couldn't do it. According to Broccoli, Winehouse "was not at her best," and that "she was very fragile emotionally."

Jack White went on to record the theme song "Another Way to Die" with Alicia Keys. However, according to White, he was brought on at the very last minute to replace Winehouse. 

20. Mad Men is considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time. The show's creator, Matthew Weiner, envisioned the show for HBO, but not only did HBO pass on it, they didn't even read the pilot.

Weiner had written several episodes of The Sopranos and thought of himself as part of the "HBO family." Additionally, even the Sopranos showrunner, David Chase, was telling everyone at HBO that they needed to read the script. Weiner went on to say of the whole thing, "It was very disappointing to me, as I pushed the rock up the hill, that they did not notice me. Because I was part of the family."

21. The idea for the series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy came from a total fluke. In 2001, the series co-creators, David Collins and Michael Williams, were at an open artist studio in Boston when they overheard a wife yell at her husband for not being dressed as nice as three gay men that were there — the gay men then went to talk to the couple to smooth things over. While they were all talking, Collins said to Williams, "They just got a queer eye for the straight guy. That's the show we've been looking for."

The two later went outside to talk to their friends, who all thought it was a great idea. Williams then said, "I guarantee you a year from now, it will be one of the biggest hits on television." This was partially true...the series was a big hit, but it premiered two years later, in 2003.

22. The Devil Wears Prada is not only one of the most iconic fashion films of the 2000s, but of all time. However, the movie only had a wardrobe budget of $100,000, which meant the movie's costume designer, Patricia Field, had to call in a lot of favors in order to create all the high-fashion looks. According to Field, she imagined Andy Sachs as a "Chanel girl," so she personally called Chanel (with whom she had a long relationship) and showed them the script. Chanel was ecstatic to work with her because "they wanted to see Chanel on young women." Of course, this collaboration all led to the iconic Chanel boots quote and look.

Field ended up pulling about a million dollars worth of clothes for the film. Her work on the movie was also recognized with an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design.

Also, in case you're wondering, Field imagined Miranda Priestly as someone who wore Donna Karan. She ended up pulling many archival pieces from Donna Karan for the film. 

23. The iPhone was not the first phone with a capacitive touch-screen. It was actually a Prada (yes, as in the design house Prada) phone released in collaboration with LG. The phone was released in January 2007, and, in fact, a few days before Steve Jobs would announce the iPhone.

As this GQ article points out, designers releasing cell phones were a thing in the '00s — most notably Kimora Lee Simmons’s Baby Phat phone with Motorola, and Versace's gold flip phone with Nokia.

24. The novelty-colored ketchup of the early '00s has become a pretty iconic Y2K product. Most people remember purple being the first color out; however, the green color was released first in 2000, followed by purple a year later in 2001. Also, the ketchups were actually incredibly popular.

25. And lastly, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguliera's 2003 VMA opening performance is one of the most iconic VMA performances ever, and it happened because MTV wanted something fun and cheery to open the show to contrast the 2002 show — where Bruce Springsteen opened with a tribute song to 9/11. So, former MTV president Van Toffler called Madonna's manager to see if she would want to open the show and put something together with full control.

Originally, Madonna picked Britney and Jennifer Lopez because they were the best pop star dancers. However, Jennifer had to drop out because rehearsals for the performance lasted weeks, and she needed to film Shall We Dance? They then approached Christina for it, knowing that having her and Britney performing together (as supposed rivals) would have everyone talking. 

Madonna also requested that very few people know this performance was coming, and it was a total secret. Even the kiss part was kept secret from MTV executives, who only saw bits of rehearsal footage. Another big reason it became the night's biggest moment was that MTV never announced the performance — so it was a total surprise to viewers at home and the audience.