15 things you didn't know about 'The Walking Dead' zombies

The INSIDER Summary:

• The zombies, or "Walkers" in "The Walking Dead" take up a significant part of the television series.
• Guts are made from pickled ham. 
  
• It takes about two hours to turn into a zombie.

Yeah, Rick Grimes is cool. Glenn is adorable. Daryl has nice hair. Michonne wields a samurai sword. And Negan is…. Negan-y. But the real draw of The Walking Dead are all those mindless killing machines just waiting to take a bite out of our favorite survivors. After all, you can’t have a zombie apocalypse without a Walker or two knocking at your door.

Even for those who have read all the comics and watch Talking Dead religiously, there is still a thing or two you might not know about these roaming meat puppets. Whether it’s how much walkers make for a living or why they don’t like to be called zombies, everyone’s favorite slow-moving lamebrains have made a career of catching us by surprise. We’ve already taken a look at the things you didn’t know about The Walking Dead in general, so how about now we zero in on the undead stars of the show.

Here are 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Walkers.

15. The guts they eat are made from pickled ham

As surprising as it may be, the human flesh walkers eat on the show is not really made from humans. It’s actually something far more disgusting – hams soaked in vinegar. Originally they were covered in barbecue sauce, but when that kept ruining their makeup, so the hams were plunged into a huge vat of vinegar to give it a nice oozy sheen. Understandably, after watching walkers chow down on their friends like a pack of wild hyenas during Christmas, many of the show’s actors have admitted to going off meat altogether.

One exception to the hammed guts main course, was the death of Dale. This was actually one of the more expensive deaths filmed (not counting CGI costs) because they used boneless chicken breasts for his innards. But regardless of what type of marinaded meat the show is serving up that day, if you’re hoping to be an extra on The Walking Dead and are a vegetarian, you might be out of luck.

14. All blinks are edited out using CGI

Have you ever noticed that walkers never seem to blink? That is because all the extras playing them are told to keep their eyelids in check. After all, what need does a walking corpse have for moistening their eyeballs? But every once in a while there is no stopping the blinks and so a CGI artists has to edit them out in post-production.

Because you can’t legally remove the eyelids of extras on a television set, this means some poor person has to comb through hours upon hours of footage to catch all those split-second eye flutters that no one noticed in the moment. Which just sounds like one of the most boring jobs you could ever get on The Walking Dead set. But that’s just the kind of attention to detail that makes the show so great. And why walkers are the absolute worst to have a staring contest with.

13. All walkers must attend zombie school

Having to convincingly eat the intestines of an entire family is a huge responsibility. Which is why the creators of The Walking Dead leave nothing to chance and put all their extras through Zombie School. Which is just like regular school only funner and with less biting.

Each season a new crop of people are auditioned to have the honor of trying to kill the show’s remaining survivors. Of the thousands who turn up, only a lucky few are selected and then promptly put through a rigorous training program to bring out their inner zombie. Afterwards they are graded on two criteria: look and performance. Although size, gender, and age don’t really matter, the show prefers thinner, more gaunt extras with a specific bone structure who won’t appear fluffed up when prosthetic makeup is applied. More discerningly, they require a genuine and authentic delivery. Because no one wants a walker around who’s faking it.