IMDb

The closest corollary to Notorious B.I.G.’s dictum advising “never let no one know how much dough you hold” is Hollywood’s absolute commandment to “never let ’em know how old you really are.” Over time, an actor’s real age becomes a jealously guarded secret with the power to instantly push a casting profile from “love interest” to “love interest’s comic-relief parent.” The Internet Movie Database has posed a threat to this lie agreed upon in Tinseltown by adding exact birth dates to actors’ profiles, and the industry has pushed back. Today brings a pushback to that pushback, with the web giant defending their right to let everyone know who’s no longer passing for under 40.

The Internet Movie Database is a fantastic website. It’s an invaluable, comprehensive resource; I use it almost every day of my life. But the IMDb is also an underrated source of comedy. Every film on the site contains what are called “Plot Keywords”—words or phrases that describe motifs, themes, character types, or plot details. Each plot keyword is searchable, so if you wanted a list of, say, every movie where a character gets hit with a hammer, you just need to go to the “Hit With A Hammer” IMDb keyword page. It’s that simple.