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36 Very Thoughtful But Functionally Useless Bits of Trivia Gifted to Us by a Procession of Wise Men at the Birth of Our Child

It’s not the size of the fact. It’s how you whip it out at parties. Wait, what?!

36 Very Thoughtful But Functionally Useless Bits of Trivia Gifted to Us by a Procession of Wise Men at the Birth of Our Child

January 01, 2024

Let’s be honest here: You probably won’t need one of these facts in a job interview, but you never know! It could be a job in a museum, or on a tour bus, or at a pub with a weekly trivia night. If you love facts as much as we do, those could be the gigs for you. Here’s a few to help you burst onto the fact scene…

36

THE V2 BOMB WAS A HORNY THING. Wernher von Braun was known as a ladies' man- and that carried over to the flying death contraptions he designed. The V2 bomb wasn't just inspired by the rocket in the film Woman on the Moon, but it had naked women painted on its tail. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

CRACKED.COM JAMES BOND MAY BE NAMED AFTER A CHURCH IN CANADA. Officially, lan Fleming named his spy after the author of a book on birds. But maybe it isn't a coincidence that Fleming spent a couple weeks in Toronto in 1942, just down the street from St. James Bond United Church (an amalgamation of two other churches, St. James and Bond Street). — Source

34

COINS WERE FIRST RIDGED TO STOP CRIME. Back when coins were made of precious metals, enterprising felons would file a bit of gold or silver off each coin-a practice known as clipping. It was the Romans who first carved ridges into coins, to know if someone had clipped them. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

CRACKED.COM SLAPPING CHOKING PEOPLE IN THE BACK MIGHT KILL THEM. By all means, slap that choking person in the back, like you see in movies-if you really hate them. The slapping can dislodge the object and send it further down, making the person choke harder. You're supposed to lean the person forward beforehand. — Source

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31

IF YOU'RE POOR, YOU'RE MORE LIKELYTO BE AUDITED BY THE IRS. The IRS's job is to make sure everyone complies with the convoluted American tax code-which is easier if you're broke. Yes, auditing the Jeff Bezoses of the world makes more sense-but it's also a lot more complicated, so poor communities are targeted more often. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

CRACKED.COM DOGE HAS A TRAGIC BACKSTORY. Kabosu, the Shiba Inu gone memetic as Doge, was abandoned when the puppy mill where she was born closed down. Luckily, she was adopted by a kindergarten teacher before she was put down in a shelter. Very story, such sad. — Source

29

KILLER PLAYLISTS HELP SAVE CORAL REEFS. One of many solutions tried to revive dying reefs is to bring fish back by playing sounds of a healthy reef through underwater speakers. Scientists from the UK and Australia have tried this acoustic enrichment approach, which does bring the fish to the reef party. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

CRACKED.COM EVERYONE ON THE GAME OF THRONES SET HATED THE CAT. Ser Pounce, King Tommen's cat, was popular with fans even though he only appeared once- but he only appeared once because he was hell to work with. Natalie Dormer called it a bit of a diva -and according to showrunner David Benioff, he was horribly killed (in-story, that is). — Source

27

YOUR CLUNKY HEATING RADIATOR IS THE RESULT OF A PANDEMIC. During the 1918 flu pandemic, cities ordered people to keep their windows open, even on frigid days. That meant that big radiators were needed to keep the cold at bay. And now you know why your old, ugly radiator overheats your apartment. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

36 Very Thoughtful But Functionally Useless Bits of Trivia Gifted to Us by a Procession of Wise Men at the Birth of Our Child — Source

25

Milk won't make your bones stronger. It stands to reason - if your bones are made of calcium, and milk has calcium, you should drink lots of milk, right? It turns out that biology is more complicated than that. Decades' worth of studies have failed to find any benefit to bone health from drinking extra milk. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CRACKED.COM The flu almost vanished during lockdown. During the 2020-2021 season, hospitalizations due to the flu plummeted to about 14% of the previous year. As the flu spreads the same way as COVID but is less infectious, it didn't stand a chance against all the masks, social distancing, and hand-washing. — Source

23

Isaac Newton prescribed toad vomit against the bubonic plague. Shortly after a plague outbreak, a young Newton studied medical texts and came to the conclusion that the best treatment was powdered toad, mixed with the toad's own vomit. We're forced to admit, Newton wasn't a genius at everything science-related. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

CRACKED.COM A Thanos-like approach to population was seriously proposed in the '70s. Overpopulation was one of the great fears of past decades. Famine was thought to be inevitable, so some authors proposed triage- essentially, letting entire nations starve to feed the rest. Luckily, new agricultural techniques were developed that curbed food shortage before that happened. — Source

21

36 Very Thoughtful But Functionally Useless Bits of Trivia Gifted to Us by a Procession of Wise Men at the Birth of Our Child — Source

20

A Robert Rodriguez movie won't be released until 2115. The only copy of 100 Years, directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring John Malkovich, is currently sitting in a time-locked safe set to open in November 2115. The movie was made as a publicity stunt for an extra-fancy cognac that is aged 100 years. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Pigs can learn to play video games. Using food as reward, researchers at Purdue University trained pigs to operate a cursor on a screen with a joystick, and then make the cursor collide against targets. One day they'll learn they're the bad guys in Angry Birds and get mad at humans. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Caroling was an extortion racket. Before the 19th century, caroling was more like trick-or-treating - ift the trick was destroying your home if you didn't give the carolers enough booze or money. Even some of the songs explicitly threatened home occupants in order to get them to deliver the goods. CRACKED COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM 2 | 9T 15 bt 13 a 9 1 8 I Thursday 2 9 10 32 1 7 The calendar was a hot-button political issue. In the 1500s, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned a new calendar to fix serious inaccuracies in the one then in use - and threw the world into turmoil. Non-Catholic countries refused to use the new calendar, seeing it as a tool of Papal domination. Russia and Greece in particular resisted it until the 20th century. — Source

16

CRACKED.COM A Texas guy got rich off phone users' indifference. I don't care, many '90s people would say when using a payphone and the operator asked them what long-distance carrier they preferred. A dude named Dennis Dees wised up to this, and created a carrier actually called I Don't Care (which charged rather more than competitors). — Source

15

it Merrü Christmas to цои Victorian Christmas cards were hardcore. Trees? Sleighs? Victorians had no time for such harmless BS-their Christmas cards had dead birds, murderous frogs, scary old men, and other imagery you'd only find in horror movies today. CRACKED COM — Source

14

CRACKED.COM Aaron Paul was in The Price is Right. Back in 1999, a young, pre-Breaking Bad (and hugely excited) Aaron Paul made it to the stage after best estimating the price of a desk, and managed to get to the final Showcase Showdown. Too bad that he lost, and had to settle with a future as a popular celebrity. — Source

13

CRACKED.COM Gilligan's Island was almost rebooted in the '90s (with more cannibalism). According to James Gunn, Charlie Kaufman managed to get a Gilligan's Island reboot greenlit, with the starving castaways killing and eating each other. The project was nixed by Gilligan's creator Sherwood Schwartz. — Source

12

CRACKED.COM Characters losing their hands in the MCU is a nod to Star Wars. Kevin Feige has confirmed that people keep losing their hands on MCU movies as a sneaky shout-out to Star Wars, a franchise with a similar track record. It wasn't intentional at first, but that changed with Phase 2. — Source

11

Jerry Seinfeld has apologized for Bee Movie. According to Seinfeld, a bee having the hots for a human was not an intentional thing, and he has apologized for the uncomfortable subtle sexual aspect. Не has said, after it came out, I realized, 'This is really not appropriate for children. D'ya think, Jerry? CRACKED.COM — Source

10

36 Very Thoughtful But Functionally Useless Bits of Trivia Gifted to Us by a Procession of Wise Men at the Birth of Our Child — Source

9

x Being a hardcore fan can be bad for your self-esteem. There's nothing wrong about being a fan of something, and it can be for you - in moderation. If fandom becomes too large a part of your identity, your sense of self-worth will take a hit when your heroes release a bad album, make a sucky movie, or lose a big game. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Saturday Night Live

SNL put Leia in a gold bikini years before George Lucas did. In 1978, Fisher hosted SNL dressed as Princess Leia. During a beach skit, Leia beams down (yeah, let's ignore that part) and takes off her robes, revealing her bathing suit t-a gold bikini. This was five years before Return of the Jedi. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Tom Holland learned on social media that he was Spider-Man. After a grueling seven months of auditioning, Holland finally learned that he landed the part - not through a call from his agent, but while scrolling on Marvel's Instagram account, just like any random person. Only later did the studio reach out to him. our ENGLISH Instagram 2 Continue CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Scrooge McDuck's first cartoon was capitalist propaganda. In the original comics, Scrooge was pretty much, well, a scrooge - but in his 1967 animated debut in Scrooge McDuck and Money, his villainish side disappears as he becomes a wise advisor, giving Huey, Dewey, and Louie valuable lessons about how capitalism works. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

CRACKED.COM Stan Lee created the infamous Marvel Method by accident. In the late 1940s, Lee would often commission art he didn't need, in part to keep his artist friends employed. It ended up backfiring - when his publisher found out, he promptly fired the artists, and had Lee turn all that surplus art into stories that could be published. — Source

4

CRACKED.COM Nobody knows what Roman dodecahedrons are. Over 100 of these hollow, metallic thingies have been found all over Europe since the 18th century. They date back to Roman times, but they aren't mentioned in Roman writings or depicted in their art. No one has any clue what they were used for. — Source

3

Oklahoma has a panhandle because of Texas' racism. Liberal Loktahoma City Clinton Z Oklah Amarillo Lawton Wichita Falls When Texas joined the U.S. in 1845, a lil' bit part of it was in territory where slavery was illegal - so they just chopped it off, because being able to remain a slave state was more important. That land strip was a chaotic outlaw paradise for decades, until Oklahoma took it in in 1890. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

A Zelda game is haunted. It was a legend for a long time that there was a ghost in a swamp-like level in Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It was eventually discovered that this ghost was an enemy accidentally placed where it shouldn't be - not knowing what to do with it, the game made it invisible. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Danny DeVito wrote a pandemic-related comic (starring the Penguin). DeVito didn't just play the character - in 2021, he wrote a comic for DC where the Penguin (along with Catwoman, who is his lover here) commits the villainous act of, uh, stealing vaccines and inoculating the entire world against the pandemic. CRACKED.COM — Source

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