Ever hear the one "Black holes are out of sight"? Or how about, "Two protons walk into a black hole" (end of joke)? How about the definition, "Black holes are what you get in black socks"?
All joking aside (though I may not hold myself to that), the black hole has been deeply entrenched in human imagination as well as popular culture for about as long as it has been an idea, theory, or studied object in science. The first scientific ideas on regions of gravity so strong that light cannot escape were kicked about in the 18th Century. In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild brought the idea into the realm of mathematics, and almost 50 years after that the first observational evidence for the existence of a black hole was discovered.
In 1964, a rocket-born probe peaking at space from just outside of Earth's atmosphere detected intense X-ray emissions coming from a spot in the constellation Cygnus. Designated Cygnus X-1, this location earned the distinction of being the first probable detection a black hole. The X-rays were explained as coming from the gases of a nearby companion star being pulled off and swallowed up, heating up to a searing X-ray glow before disappearing into the black hole.
This indirect detection of the black hole's theorized presence set the character for future detections of black holes. Since light cannot escape from such a beast, we cannot see the black hole directly but must infer its presence through the effects on its surroundings.
Someone once likened a black hole to the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: the original star has vanished from sight, and all that is left is its grinning gravity.