25 Great Facts About '00s Pop Culture That'll Have You Saying "Did You Know..." Next Time You Need An Icebreaker

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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 .

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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.

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).

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.