10 Things That Had a First Recorded Use Before You Realized

[@kepanoid]

The Tolkien ring thing was new to me, although it shouldn't have been. He was a great scholar and gentleman. He took ideas, stories and languages from all around Europe, and combined them all into a single world and its history, and added a lot of his own. He was not afraid to admit it. In fact, he has described the whole process and sources in his factual, and perhaps more private, writings. The Hobbit was an eloquent story for children (his own), but the madness had already started. Many people have seen the Peter Jackson films, but I *higly* recommend reading *everything* . All the appendices in Lord of the Rings, the books Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, everything! In addition to history and geekery, his use of the English language is the most beautiful I have ever witnessed.

[@BruceBoyde]

Oh yeah, Tolkein was a proper nerd. There is dispute on what might have inspired the ring since he never stated it though. Another possible influence is the Ring of Silvianus, which Tolkein would have probably been aware of due to his assistance in deciphering a curse tablet related to it. The man was the Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford for 20 years and pops up here and there if you study English archaeology.

[@garryferrington811]

I prefer Shakespeare myself.

[@petertrevorah7388]

Toptenz might well consider doing a piece on the true inventors of things the credit for which is conventionally given to others. For example, television - Henry Sutton or the automobile - Richard Trevithick. That should stir up lots of controversy!

[@RHCole]

Harry Potter also has a striking resemblance to the YA novel 'Wizard's Hall' by Jane Yolan. Both feature a young orphan being taken to a Wizarding school where they are an outcast who is also the chosen one and who both fought evil wizards at the magical school who have giant pet snakes.

[@patrickknight2375]

DC comics also had a short run called, "The Books of Magic", in which a young bespectacled boy finds out he is actually a wizard, has a pet owl too!

[@mikitz]

I guess the real magic is to plagiarize a story you bet no-one remembers anymore, add nothing to the story, get a publisher who doesn't know it's a plagiate, have movies made from that and make billions in royalties.

[@marenawheatley5260]

Knowing how Simon feels about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, this must have been painful for him.

[@QBCPerdition]

As far as I remember, he actually likes Harry Potter. The LOTR and Star Wars entries were absolutely in through the eyes and out through the mouth, though.

[@AeroGuy07]

I just realized that many people watching this hadn't been born when the first episode of Seinfeld aired. Some of them might not have been when the final episode aired. And that makes me feel really old.

[@dogwalker666]

Never watched it.

[@geregan8803]

A

[@DeAthWaGer]

When's the last time you turned a radio to an oldies or classic rock station? Anything 20+ is on there. I mean Friends is on Nick@Nite, so...

[@EddyA1337]

I am 33 and I grew up with Seinfeld. You aren't old man. Neither am I. Unless you're a boomer.... Then you're old

[@alicia27ish]

Damn, why you had to say it like that 😩😭😆 now I feel old too 🤦🏽‍♀️

[@DarinRWagner]

The Hebrew Torah (The Old Testament) covers the time before the Greco/Roman gods so, no, the saying "Heaven helps those who help themselves" did not predate the Bible... the guy who made that saying popular in the United States was founding father and occultist Benjamin Franklin.

[@eli-bt4he]

Doesn't really matter, because the saying is nowhere in the Bible. And it was very obvious that the scriptwriter knew that, but chose to tiptoe around it, probably to promote the narrative that everything in the Bible is copied from other stories.

[@agneskirsch8335]

While it's true, that the proverb is not in any Part of the bible, I do not understand , why it should be Bad that some sayings predate the bible or come from different cultures. The bible was written over many centuries by authors influenced also by surrounding cultures. Especially St Paul and St John the Evangelist where heavily influenced by greek philosophy.

[@shogunn2517]

THANK! YOU! I knew immediately when I saw the title card for 6 that you would be talking about "Troll". Noah Hathaway from the Neverending Story, Michael Moriarty from L&O, Sonny Bono and Julia Louis Dreyfus! Richard Band made a helluva score! I know it's crap, but a movie you see when you're 5 leaves an impression.

[@AshLilburne]

Im here for the Moonwalk cause that absolutely blew my mind when I first saw someone else do it first

[@AshLilburne]

Uhhhh Simon..? Cant believe you didn't include it!

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

I had no idea there was a Seinfeld DS game.

[@skateorpie]

Well if you were great at video games, you’d know 😉 (sorry bad joke)

[@TheRealMarxz]

5:58 Simon spends an agonising minute talking about LotR.... and then at 8:00 Star Wars the things we do for lucre (I hope you got triple rates for this)

[@WayneKitching]

I think his writer is trolling him!

[@paranoiawilldestroyya3238]

1: A related quote that I like (source unknown) is: "Everything cometh to he who waiteth, so long as he who waiteth worketh like hell while he waiteth."

[@felonious_c]

That blazer and that beard are a stellar combo.

[@brett4264]

I can't believe how this channel pumps out videos. More than one per day lately. Simon must sit on set, for hours at a time, just reading scripts, acting like he knows about what he is saying. If he absorbed 10% of the info he regurgitates, he'd be the most knowledgeable man on earth!

[@maverick7291]

I knew about name Palpatine due to his toy release in 1983 which is labeled "emperor Palpatine"

[@willbroccolo8389]

this is BY FAR one of your best videos.

[@seakelp3508]

You missed "The Golden Rule". "Don't do anything to someone else that you wouldn't want done to yourself.", was similar to a quote from the Buddha, 800 years B.C. At least that's what I found out from a forgotten textbook.

[@davidaltman8831]

the original star wars story not only tells that palpatine was the emperor but in a sentence tells the main plot to episode 1, (there was a senator named palpatine who caused himself to be elected chancelor then proclaimed himself emperor) also i saw in another video in an outtake from the original movie the term "sith lord" first used.

[@aaronaaronsen3360]

I rewatched those some years after the first trilogy and I was amazed. Ben Kenobi also speaks about how he knew Luke's father in the clone wars.

[@PaulJWells-ud2eq]

Shouldn't we be preparing for the anniversary of 1000 years of "F**K YOU!"? It seems important.

[@burtbackattack]

Seinfeld for the Nintendo DS?? I'd definitely buy that.

[@paulsarnik8506]

What happened to the person who claimed to have coined"muggles"?🤓😎✌🏻

[@OneColdMonkey]

Ugh that headline. Dr. Seuss books weren't banned, they were voluntarily pulled from publication because the people making them felt parts of the stories/artwork had become problematic. That's like saying the McDLT was banned because McDonalds stopped making it.

[@Caleb1874ya]

Like Kinder Surprise Eggs…. BANNED

[@andrelunaisatuna]

What on earth was a McDLT?

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

Looks like we found one of the noodle armed choir boys who tried to ban Dr. Seuss.

[@colin6603]

Imagine finding a Dr Seuss cartoon problematic. Soft society.

[@OneColdMonkey]

@@andrelunaisatuna Do a KZbin search for McDLT and check out the commercial. You'll get to see Jason Alexander young enough he still had his hair

[@aceundead4750]

The internet is the one ring. My precious internetses

[@joeobrien196]

But Heaven help those who are caught helping themselves.

[@libbyrudolph6302]

Many people make the mistake of saying Ying Yang. The proper term is Yin and Yang.

[@bobkerolls13]

Did the Emperor's name not appear on the early toys? I felt like everyone called him Emperor Palatine in the 80s and 90s, and not just the SW nerds. Hard to say for sure though because I was one of those nerds but it's really hard to imagine anyone except small children being surprised by him being the Emperor in the prequel trilogy.

[@artbyjennyray]

I knew the Emperor's name was Palpatine way before the prequels, but I didn't read any of the books...I don't remember now how I learned it.

[@bobkerolls13]

@@artbyjennyray yeah I'd really love to find someone who didn't know it when they saw the prequels (and was older than let's say...8 when they first saw them)

[@SeraphRyan]

It's weird, cause like the other commenters, I knew the Emperor was "Emperor Palpatine" before the prequels were released, but honestly I have no idea WHERE I learned it. I never read the first novel, it was just something I "knew".

[@Byronic19134]

Mandella Effect

[@RobotacularRoBob]

@@Byronic19134 The Mandingo Effect isn’t real and there’s always a logical explanation. In this case, there were plenty of references to his name before the prequels, including the action figures which were super common

[@mlee6050]

Today I found out square is an insult but not understand why

[@donsandsii4642]

Nerd was a very negative term on "Happy Days"

[@adamc1966]

That is why Joannie called Potsie Dren.

[@jayriz668]

Ayee keep it up simon

[@Cameron655]

Heh. The Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus: thanks to my college alumnus who runs the RSPB website) used to be known as the windf---er due to its ability to whack the atmosphere and keep itself in place. It's one of only two birds in Britain that can hover, the other being the Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). Yes, I am a bird geek: sue me. (But I'm not getting into gulls. Beyond Herring and Black-Headed gulls, they all look the same to me. And don't even get me started on warblers. Small greenish passerines that all look the same? I'm out.)

[@alexthorold3496]

You had the opportunity to call yourself a bird nerd and you didn't take it smh

[@Cameron655]

@@alexthorold3496 actually, I did in the first draft, but then (I always live-comment on videos), when Simon did "nerd was first used by Dr Seuss", I edited it to avoid over-egging the puffin; sorry, pudding. 😀

[@MarvinG88]

Why did the Seinfeld part have a Nintendo DS logo with it??

[@dominicwaghorn6459]

English is hard. I had to read the title 3 times and I’m from England

[@canaan5337]

I was a big fan of Star Wars since 1983 (Return of the Jedi). My parents tell me I said “I wanted to see the Jedis” every time I went to the movies when I was two years old after I saw “Return of the Jedi” in theaters, and I knew Palpatine was the emperor in 1999 when I first saw episode I.

[@sharkiemc]

YIN yang, Simon. YIN! Ying yang...totally different thing 🤣🤣

[@AshLilburne]

How on earth did MJ's Moonwalk not make this list??

[@slake9727]

Or Beyonce's Single Ladies dance moves

[@seandelap8587]

Doesn't nerd originally mean bookworm as opposed to an IT guy

[@Loralanthalas]

Nerd = Big Bang Theroy. It's nice that one show helped to normalize smart people shouldn't be ostracized (which they very much are).

[@multiyapples]

I never knew about these.

[@heathenwolf4997]

"Meanest man in America" huh? Gordon Ramsay has at least one home in the US... Not surprised about Hitler, think he was coming to power back in WW1. He tried again in WW2.

[@Static-ash]

#1 just reinforced my agnosticism

[@springhollerfarm8668]

It is not in the Bible. Never was.

[@eli-bt4he]

That's why the scriptwriter was so careful not to actually say it's not from the Bible. To promote the narrative that everything in the Bible is plagiarized.

[@DB-jk8vs]

Dr. Seuss is not pronounced like Juice but like voice or moist. It's also usually written properly with the sharp S from German "ß" instead of the two S'..

[@eamonahern7495]

1:40 the date that article was published was my 40th birthday.

[@jonathandevries2828]

maybe rolling saw that movie but forgot and remade it in her own voice

[@larryl43]

THANK YOU

[@Hornfancy]

A guy's wagon gets stuck in the mud. He gets out and cried, "oh ye gods, help me with this mighty task!" Hercules appears and says, "Get behind it and push!" Moral: the gods help those who help themselves

[@vanrozay8871]

On the NY Times's first take on Hitler: The Jewish owners of the Times were skittish about asserting their Jewishness, afraid of being labelled as partisan. Even during the War, once Hitler had shown his colors, the Times was notably timid.

[@flamencoprof]

The electric toaster was invented before sliced bread.

[@aaronaaronsen3360]

Well, that makes sense.

[@canaan5337]

Seinfeld is my favorite show and I’ll love the Soup Nazi, I wish I could implement some of his policies at my job. Specifically the way if you piss off the Soup Nazi you’re band for a year.

[@kenmcfann8128]

Hey simon

[@dunkyschannel8842]

Hey Simon…supposedly Dr Seuss’ surname is pronounced ‘Soyce’ (like Joyce but with an S). I thought you’d find that interesting 😊

[@WayneKitching]

So that it rhymes with "rejoice."

[@bobgeorge283]

so the one ring makes the wearer invisible. wasn't Sauron wearing the ring when it got cut off? so why did everyone see him?

[@mattyt1961]

I asked this once (to someone who has read all the tolkein books) the answer I got was that it amplifies the inner person. Frodo and Gollum wanted to hide, not be found out. Gollum from what he did (and hide away with his precious) Frodo was a reluctant hero/adventurer, he wanted to be home. Sauron wanted power and to rule over everyone, that is why he was huge and overpowered.

[@secularbelt]

Top Gun Maverick first happened in Star Wars

[@dazgreensmoker669]

I read a book years before phantom menace that stated palpatines name and the fact he was a senator that used trickery to gain political power and bring martial law to the galaxy in fact I knew he was palpatine before that cos it was his name on the toy box

[@glennrugar9248]

Why is the seinfeld picture from a nintendo ds game i never knew existed?

[@dominicwaghorn6459]

Haha. I thought the same thing. I think it’s a prank

[@vintageretro83]

Lol @ Nintendo DS Seinfeld.

[@righty-o3585]

Does everything have a beginning?

[@spddiesel]

Suess would make up nonsensical words, because that's what an author does. He gave us gluppity glup and schloppity shlop and zizzer zazzer zuz...

[@dreamCatV6]

there is a Nintendo DS version of Sienfeld somewhere??? Why

[@BigJeremyBeyer]

Is your significant other referred to as a whistle blower? I'll see myself out now.

[@LordOfRuin101]

I was always amused that the fax machine came before the telephone.

[@Loralanthalas]

Way easier to get 0 and 1 then voice attenuation

[@lexzbuddy]

I hated Seinfeld.

[@adamc1966]

Oh so you are the one.

[@lexzbuddy]

Yes, I guess so. Most of the folks I know weren't fans. I don't live in North America, probably the reason it didn't resonate with me and most of the folks I know.

[@Cynchronicity7]

… I was expecting this to be a bunch of audio files and their origins and/or how they were made. This video is still nice, though.😅

[@Pub2k4]

There was a Seinfeld game on Nintendo DS?

[@Byronic19134]

The ying yang was not Celtic it was known as a Scythian symbol, and there is DNA evidence that Scythians date back as far as Ancient Phoenicia and after Jews were kicked out of Holy Land they migrated to the step at which point tribes would of went East towards China, and West today Gaul modern-day France. This can all be traced with haplogroups sameway the ying yang can be traced back to the swastika in origin. Nazi may have used it for a decade for 2 but the symbol has been used for over 5 Millenia before them so symbolize balance and peace. And if you want peace prepare for war.

[@paulstewart6293]

The Romans bought lots of Chinese silk.

[@berniegores2083]

theres 6000 year old mummies of white celtic people in tchyna. So that explains the yin yang symble

[@broncobubba3169]

Could've been Donald's brother's kids.

[@211inprogress]

Hello.

[@jimlasswell4491]

I'm surprised you sometimes pronounce Rowling as Americans do.

[@garryferrington811]

How could Hitler have happened? You're kidding, right?

[@aguynamednathan]

Try as I might, I'm never the original comment

[@tombrunsdon2169]

Love your videos but do not care to hear about lord of the rings, Harry Potter or Star Wars … I’m here for history

[@slake9727]

Yin Yang, not ying yang

[@LazarusBaccus]

A lot of stuff in the bible predates the bible, by about 5000-years. They just changed the names of people and places.

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

Suck it, Gilgamesh!

[@eli-bt4he]

Like what, for instance?

[@LazarusBaccus]

@@eli-bt4he All of it.

[@eli-bt4he]

@@LazarusBaccus Wow, what an intelligent response. It's amazing how people will mindlessly believe anything they hear that disproves the Bible, while claiming it's the religious people that do that.

[@Loralanthalas]

Lol. Simon having no clue he's a nerd and trying to distance himself with a ... generic "oh its just somone who doesnt get along well" is halarious. No dude: they dont get along with "normals" because they like being smart and find value in it: nerd.

[@seanriggen]

👍🏻

[@dominicwaghorn6459]

Heresy

[@stevenguevara2184]

So this script recycles these ideas for the 3rd time at least

[@eli-bt4he]

I liked how Simon tiptoed so gently around the fact that the saying is nowhere in the Bible. But I guess then it wouldn't have fit as nicely in the list.

[@VFC13017]

Exactly my thinking, I was sure it is not there so checked the verses quoted and yes it is nothing like it.

[@BenFromOhio]

Even the poster's psalm reference doesn't even come close to the quote. In fact, it references that God's help came when the psalmist's anxieties were overwhelming him entirely.

[@pauloboyle477]

Fun fact. The Old Testament is bunch of quotes from Hammarabi in 1700bc

[@chiphausl]

1/137

[@adamc1966]

0.0072992700729927

[@ngumzakwanza8495]

IS ANYTHING ORIGINAL?

[@SamIAm10262]

Nope