July 5 in nerd history

Happy National Graham Crackers Day! Put ’em in milk right when you get home from school or stuff some chocolate and burnt marshmallows in between ’em. Let us honor this snack in whatever way you prefer.

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July 5 in Nerd History

Here are 5 things that happened on July 5 at the intersection of nerd and pop culture.

I.

Birthdays of honor: P. T. Barnum (1810), Huey Lewis (1950), RZA (1969).

II.

When you think of the all-time great actors, who comes to mind? Probably names like Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington, and Jack Nicholson — but probably not Terry Kiser.

Yet Kiser may have outacted anyone in history in 1989’s Weekend at Bernie’s, released on July 5, where he not only had to play a two-faced rich business jerk/criminal but a dead body that was having the best weekend of his damn life (or, uh, death).

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III.

Cracked Rear View from the band Hootie & the Blowfish was released in 1994. After a somewhat tepid start, it took off in 1995 and went on to sell over 21 million copies.

IV.

In 1989, a little show called The Seinfeld Chronicles (what’s the deal with that name?) screened its pilot on NBC. They thankfully updated the name to just Seinfeld, which clearly is what led to its unprecedented success.

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V.

One of the weirdest and yet most criminally underrated video games ever, NiGHTS Into Dreams…, was released for the Sega Saturn in 1996. If you were one of the 10 people who owned a Saturn, you know what I’m talking about.