I wish I could unlearn some of these stories because SHEEESH.

I'm an NYC-based Viral Resident Writer covering what people are talking about online, from the culturally revealing to the deeply personal to the genuinely unhinged.

"Hollywood got started as a movie-making jurisdiction because movie makers who didn't want to pay Edison's patent fees needed to be as far as possible from his goons."

"Crazy how close film history came to being centered on upstate New York instead of LA, all because of patent lawsuits."

And as the commenters mentioned, his patent battles extended to the early movie industry, where Edison and other patent holders tried to control who could use key filmmaking technology. Those legal battles were one of several factors that helped push independent filmmakers away from the East Coast and toward Southern California.

"He’s also a cheerleader for CCP authoritarianism, and while complimenting Jaden Smith’s work ethic and talent, talked about how disappointed he was with his own son."

Chan has also faced major backlash for his political views. In 2009, he questioned whether having too much freedom was a good thing and said he was beginning to think Chinese people “need to be controlled”; years later, he publicly praised the Chinese Communist Party and said he wanted to become a member. And the commenter is right about Jaden Smith: while filming The Karate Kid, Chan praised the 11-year-old’s discipline and martial-arts skills, saying Jaden “put my son to shame” because he’d never been able to convince his own son, Jaycee, to train.

"Just in general, the guy is horrible; his whole philosophy is pretty horrible."

Osteen has also long faced criticism for his enormous personal wealth and his association with the “prosperity gospel,” a controversial strain of Christianity that emphasizes faith and financial success. That criticism intensified when Lakewood received $4.4 million in federal PPP loans during the pandemic, though the church said the money went toward employee salaries and benefits.

"Yes, and they tried so hard to cover it up until she died in 1971 (she was an active and enthusiastic Nazi sympathizer)."

"The way she tried to use those laws to steal her business back from her Jewish partners was evil."

"You know, I really didn't know how he ever got famous enough to be such a constant bane of my sports-viewing life, but that just unfortunately doesn't surprise me as an origin story."

A year later, Barstool published paparazzi photos of Tom Brady’s naked 2-year-old son alongside Portnoy’s commentary about the size of the child’s genitals, something he also publicly defended. He’s faced years of criticism over similar comments, while maintaining that his humor is intentionally provocative and often taken out of context.

"One of my favorite John Oliver quotes, 'All the childlike whimsy of a Roald Dahl novel and all the uncomfortable racism of a Roald Dahl.'"

"The comedian Paul F. Tompkins used to have a podcast called The Dead Authors Podcast in which he, as H.G. Wells, would use his time machine to talk to famous authors who were played by comedians and improvisers. Many of them were armed only with the knowledge they already had about the person, or with nothing at all. In a very infamous episode, Ben Schwartz plays Roald Dahl as he loved his books as a kid, and finds out in real time the horrible antisemitic truth about Roald Dahl, much to his horror."

"Gandhi absolutely WAS racist. As a young man, he bought into British propaganda about 'civilization' and was aghast at his treatment in South Africa as a 'kafir' instead of a civilized British subject. However, his experiences in the Boer War as an ambulance driver convinced him that the struggles against colonialism were universal, and he had abandoned those prejudiced beliefs. His writings from his later days indicate he changed. From a 1931 speech at Oxford: '…as there has been an awakening in India, even so there will be an awakening in South Africa with its vastly richer resources — natural, mineral and human. The ‘mighty English’ look quite pygmies before the mighty races of Africa. They are noble savages after all, you will say. They are certainly noble, but no savages and in the course of a few years the Western nations may cease to find in Africa a dumping ground for their wares.'"

"While it's good to see he realized his racism was wrong, he still slept naked next to his niece to prove how much control he had to not rape her."

"Picasso was rotten to his own children and grandchildren as well. Some lived in extreme poverty, and he never helped out with all his millions."

His granddaughter Marina Picasso also wrote about the damage he inflicted on his family, describing how her father, Paulo, struggled financially despite Picasso’s enormous wealth and how her family sometimes had to beg him for money. Picasso died extraordinarily wealthy, but his relationships with several of his children and grandchildren were deeply troubled.

"I would never forgive her for Dr. Oz or Phil."

To be clear, that doesn't mean Oprah endorsed every claim her guests made — but critics have long questioned her role in giving questionable medical advice to such an enormous audience.

"He would pull absolutely egregious pranks on his teammates that would get any normal person charged with assault. Some claims include: (1) shitting and pissing in a bucket for weeks, letting it stew, and then dumping it on a teammate’s head while he was in the bathroom stall, (2) shoving a teammate’s mouthpiece up his ass, and then threatening anyone if they told said teammate before they would use it during a game, (3) shitting in people’s shoes or in their bags, and (4) shoving other teammate’s possessions up his ass. To paraphrase a veteran on Shaq’s team talking to a young teammate, 'Throw away everything in your locker because there’s a high chance it’s been up Shaq’s ass.'"

However, Shaq has denied some of the most extreme stories, including the shit-dumping allegation, and Devean George specifically denied a story that Shaq shat in his shoe. So: The stories about Shaq’s wildly inappropriate locker-room pranks are very real, but others of the specific viral claims aren't totally verified.

"His mother and wife were deaf, yet he still believed deaf people were inferior. World-class douchebag."

"Seeing House Rep. Jasmine Crockett honor Chris Brown with an award was pretty disappointing."

"MMA is essentially professional bum fights."

"Well to be fair, we Americans have a significantly more prominent abusive, racist piece of shit in our headlines every single day."

"He gave me weird vibes, but damn...that was not the confirmation I was waiting for."

"'Get the wogs out,' if I recall correctly."

"He is also very arrogant. He was a patient in a dental office I worked at, and he was totally full of himself."

"This one always shocked me. Dude was charged with a hate crime."

"She had just died. And obviously, there are more harmful things out there, but as far as the psychology that drives someone to make a meat platter in the likeness of someone who died tragically and recently because they think it’s a funny joke…I wouldn’t be surprised if they were much worse in private."