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Each fact is a ball in the knowledge ball pit!

36 Bits of Trivia That Will Inflate Your Head Like Those Kids in the Gushers Commercials

January 23, 2024

In this knowledge ball pit of ours, we’ve stuffed each bright, colorful ball with a fact. And not to brag, but we thoroughly wash our colorful balls every few hours. So you can keep your factless, toddler slobber-ridden balls, Chuck E. Cheese. Only smart kids have their birthday parties here!

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CRACKED.COM THANOS' CREATOR GOT DIDDLY-SQUAT FROM THE AVENGERS MOVIES. Jim Starlin wasn't even invited to any showing-he had to pay for his ticket to see his own creation on a movie screen. All in all, he got more money from DC for an obscure character in Batman V Superman than for Thanos, Gamora, and Drax combined. — Source

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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CRACKED.COM The creator of Peter Pan wrote Sherlock Holmes fanfic. Think fanfiction is a thing of the internet? People have been writing (and publishing) pastiches and imaginary sequels with their favorite characters since the 1800s. J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote his own Sherlock Holmes adventure in 1893. — Source

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A Soviet general got Coca-Cola into the USSR. Coke's imperialistic reputation bugged General Georgy Zhukov, who had taken a liking to the brown sugary beverage during World War II. So through his foreign contacts, he got crates of adidas colorless Coke sent to him, which he could happily chug without anyone suspecting it wasn't vodka. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

He-Man villain Beast Man has a tragic backstory. The series bible states that Skeletor's furry minion used to be Biff Beastman, a regular Earth guy who crash-landed in Eternia along with He-Man's future mom. So while his travel mate ended up marrying a king, Biff was mutated by Skeletor into an animalistic henchman. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Ronald McDonald can't say that burgers come from cows. The dream gig as the corporate mascot of a multinational fast food company comes with some rules-the most bizarre of those being, you are never allowed to tell children where burgers come from if they ask. CRACKED.COM — Source

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American Psycho 2 wasn't supposed to be American Psycho 2. When Mila Kunis signed up for a slasher movie, she had no idea it was an American Psycho sequel-because no one did. It wasn't until production kicked off that the producers decided to connect the two films. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Euro bills could have a unicorn on them. Among the many designs considered for the Euro banknotes in the '90s, some were quite unconventional - a particular entry depicting a majestic unicorn on the 100 Euro bill. The fact that it wasn't picked is reason enough to call EURO100LY European authorities ACE LCP EZB B 1 cowards, forever. CRACKED.COM — Source

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CRACKED.COM ZO The cast and crew of Titanic did PCP by accident. A night of shooting was cut short when dozens of people got extremely high and had to be rushed to the hospital. As it turned out, the clam chowder the crew had for lunch had been spiked with PCP. It was never known who tried to turn the shooting into a wild rave. — Source

22

Spotify's payout model screws over small artists. Your subscription fee isn't divvied up among the Spotify artists you listen to-it all goes to a common pot, and then is shared based on each artist's total streams. So even if you never listen to Drake or Taylor Swift, they get a lot more of your money than the independent bands you keep streaming. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

The Nigerian Prince has been around for 200 years. Rich people randomly offering you big bucks if you help them out of trouble was already a scam genre in the early 19th century. Later, in the 1890s, scammers got to claiming in their letters that they were prisoners of the Spanish- American war, earning the scheme the name the Spanish prisoner. - - as VIS DE - - - CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Richard III wasn't as evil as Shakespeare made him out to be. There's no indication that Richard III killed any of the people Shakespeare wrote he did (and he wasn't a hunchback, either). It's possible that Shakespeare intended the king to be a stand-in for Robert Cecil, a member of a powerful family the Bard wasn't a fan of. CRACKED.COM — Source

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to 1922 20 20 20 20 20 20 Your pay always feels too small, no matter how big it is. Of course, your pay is too small if you can't meet your needs-but once you can, more money sends you along the hedonic treadmill, where you always need even more to feel happy. Even if you're super-rich, a point never comes where you feel that you have enough. NO 200 11 - 20 E UHE 0.0 TAXI APEX 20 2 CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Mice have facial expressions. Scientists have known for years that mice can grimace in pain, but more recent research has shown that their tiny mousey mugs can also convey other emotions, like fear, nausea, disgust, or pleasure. While still lacking Mickey Mouse's range, this makes mice valuable subjects to study the neurology of emotions. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

George R. R. Martin keeps referencing Gone with the Wind. Martin is a fan of Gone with the Wind, and works countless references into his work. It's not just Easter eggs, but complete characters and storylines-like the way that Sansa Stark's journey, beginning as a naive aristocrat hardened by war, mirrors Scarlett O'Hara's. CRACKED COM — Source

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Our hair is mutilating pigeons. As pigeons often live where people live, strands of human hair float around on the ground where the birds gather. The hairs sometimes get tangled around the pigeons' toes, where they keep wrapping tighter and tighter, until the toe in question succumbs to necrosis. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Elle Woods is much less likable in the book. If you loved Elle in Legally Blonde, that's because she's pretty much the polar opposite of her version in the original novel. Literary Elle Woods is manipulative, lazy, entitled, and is constantly mocking and bullying everyone-not exactly someone you would ever root for. CRACKED.COM — Source

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CRACKED.COM We almost had a Star Fox claymation show. Back in 2014, CollegeHumor was working on an official Star Fox project, made in the style of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Nintendo pulled the plug (along with all of their other adaptations) when rumors spread about a Legend of Zelda live-action show by Netflix. — Source

13

When Baby Groot throws up in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, that's James Gunn's nod to his roots. It's his way of acknowledging that he started out in B-movies and isn't afraid to resort to the lowest common denominator which is a baby tree vomiting. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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Streaming Despacito used up more power than some countries produce in a year. It was streamed 4.6 billion times from January 2017 to early 2020, which consumed as much electricity as Sierra Leone, Chad, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Guinea-Bissau make in a year, combined. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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The inventor of the USB says his team blew it. by not making the plug work both ways. Ajay Bhatt said that would need more wires and circuits, so it would have been more expensive - they thought about it, but it would have cost too much. Still, 20 years after inventing it, he says that was a mistake and the USB plug was good, but not good enough. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Sharks have been around longer than trees have. Sharks started popping up about 450 million years ago, while trees showed up 100 million years later. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Peter Stormare just kind of stumbled into a role in John Wick: Chapter 2. Не was hanging out with Keanu Reeves and, since he was a fan of the first movie, he asked Reeves What can I do? The rest is movie history. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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Most of the sets for Independence Day were built in the same hangar where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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In Australia, half of a banknote is worth half its face value. - - - Pholo Come 10 - - - - - a than or - - - USTRALIA TEN DOLLARS So you could cut, say, an AUD 100 bill in half, and each half would be worth AUD 50. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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The director's cut of Blade Runner was released because of an odd mistake. BRYANT In 1992, Warner Bros. accidentally sent one cinema Ridley Scott's own cut of the movie -- and people loved that version, so WB eventually released it on video. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Kids in the US have a disproportionately high amount of the world's toys. Although the country has 3.1% of all children in the world, it consumes way more .. a total of two-fifth of all toys available in the world. CRACKED.COM — Source

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The guy who invented the safety razor was actually also a utopian thinker. In 1894, King Gillette wrote a book about his plans for a utopian city in which there'd be no money - and therefore, he claimed, no crime. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber by complete accident. Не left some rubber and sulfur on a hot stove and, to his surprise, found that the rubber not only failed to melt but got harder when he turned up the heat. CRACKED.COM — Source

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Fettuccine Alfredo was brought to the US by a pair of silent movie stars. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks ate it at the only restaurant in Rome that served it, really liked it, and asked for the recipe -- which they took home. CRACKED.COM — Source

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There's a researcher who can say with 94% accuracy if a couple will stay together. To do that, Dr. John Gottman needs to spend an hour with the couple and do things like monitoring their breathing and heartbeats as they talk. CRACKED.COM — Source

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