12 Bits of Trivia You Can Pop in the Microwave When You Get Home
Sure, you’re full now. But by the time you get home, I know you’ll be craving more of my signature trivia tidbits. Here, I put them in a listicle, you can just pop ’em in your phone. You’ll thank me later!
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King Kong Was Inspired by the Discovery of Komodo Dragons
Most people in the West didn’t believe accounts of komodo dragons until the early- to mid-20th century. A 1926 expedition to the East Indies finally resulted in pictures and specimens, and screenwriter Merian C. Cooper was enthralled by these prehistoric beasts found on a remote island.
Poor Security Hygiene Got a Killer Caught (Even Earlier Than BTK)
Maury Travis was responsible for several murders in Missouri. While pushing his luck and bragging anonymously to cops, Travis sent a screenshot of a map to point them to another victim. Police gathered data from Expedia and Microsoft, and found that he was the only one who looked up that particular area the day the taunting map was sent.
In the Face of Obvious Fraud, One Lady Chose to Believe She’d Been Kissed by a Ghost
In 1885, a Detroit spiritualist was caught faking a whole bunch of ghost interactions by a disgruntled patron. Despite all the evidence that she had been brushed with a long stick in a dark room while the spiritualist made kissy noises, one woman said, “I know enough about kissing to know the difference between a bathing swab and a genuine salute. I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I was kissed.”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Give It Away’ Is Somehow Not About Sex
It’s actually about a really nice coat. Despite its sex-adjacent wording, the lyrics mainly refer to a seminal moment in Anthony Kiedis’ young adulthood when his older girlfriend, Nina Hagen, gave him her nicest coat to show him the value of letting material objects float out of your life in order to drum up positive energy.
The Holy Roman Empire’s Brilliant Plan to Win the Thirty-Years War: Secret Inflation
To finance their warmongering, the Empire decided to secretly debase their own currency and distribute it only in foreign countries. They collected and melted down their coins, mixed them with less valuable metals, and used them to make purchases and pay off debts abroad. Obviously, those coins eventually traveled back home. When people noticed the government had started minting Monopoly money, soldiers quit and civilians rioted.
The Nazis Invented the Olympic Torch Relay
The Ancient Greeks were said to keep a torch burning through the duration of their Olympic games, representing Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. They brought the symbol back in 1928, but it wasn’t until the 1936 Nazi Olympics that Hitler decided to make a relay out of it. Bummer.
Cro-Magnon Hunter-Gatherers Had Extremely Metal Funerals
Remains found in a cave in England suggest that at least one group of ancient humans paid respects in extremely hardcore ways. Skulls were made into cups, while bones had runes carved on them and showed signs of having been chewed on. Researchers don’t believe there was a famine at the time, but rather, this stuff was done to pay respect to the dead (and their precious resources).
Howard Hughes Invented a Proto-Netflix
After he had holed himself up in a Las Vegas hotel, he found out that being a wealthy recluse was extremely boring. He spent a lot of time watching TV, but in those days, channels just stopped showing stuff after a certain time of night. Hughes ultimately purchased an entire TV station, just so they’d play his favorite movies overnight.
The Longest Piano Solo in History Was 130 Hours
The record was set in 2022 by Romanian musician, Thurzó Zoltán, who also set the record for highest-altitude grand piano performance.
ISIS Is More Boring Than French Prison
By some counts, over 100 French citizens who defected to ISIS have cited “boredom” as the reason for coming home and facing jail time.
An Actor Blew Up His Hand While Taking Publicity Shots for His Goofy-Ass Comedy Movie
In 1919, comedian Harold Lloyd was taking promo pictures for his upcoming comedy film (which had a possibly racist name that we won’t repeat here). He was playing with what he thought was a fake bomb, then lit the fuse, which exploded and took off two of his fingers. He wasn’t done filming yet, so he was forced to wear a glove for the rest of production.
A Degenerate Gambler Emailed a Death Threat to a Horse
In 2009, Peter Reynolds, general manager of a lucrative stud farm, received a text message that his horse Conduit would be murdered if he wasn’t removed from the upcoming King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The perpetrator followed up with an email, from his personal email address. Reynolds called the police, Conduit won the race and the gambler got 34 weeks in jail.
