Movies & TV

The New ‘South Park’ Special Could Spell the End of Eric Cartman’s Fat Ass

Movies & TV

Ilana Glazer Says ‘Broad City’ Made Morons Think She Wanted to Smoke and Sleep With Them

Trivia & Jokes

12 Trivia Tidbits for Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Movies & TV

People Are Comparing the King Charles Portrait to the Cursed ‘Ghostbusters’ Painting

Trivia & Jokes

39 of the Funniest Tweets from Wednesday, May 15, 2024

30 Random Bits of Trivia We Cooked Up With a Secret Ingredient

We hope you like a little spice in your facts

30 Random Bits of Trivia We Cooked Up With a Secret Ingredient

April 29, 2024

Are you the type to pass the menu back to your server and say, “Surprise me?” We hope not. Putting that kind of pressure on them is weird and unwarranted. Like, who are you, Anton Ego from Ratatouille?

The good news: When it comes to random facts, you never have to say surprise me. They’re random. We can handle the pressure anyway.

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

30

The London Necropolis Railway used to carry dead bodies. SOUTHERN RAILWAY. LONDON NECROPOLIS COFFIN TICKET WATERLOO to BROOKWOOD From 1854 to 1941, the train ran from London to the Brookwood Cemetery. Family and friends of the departed could also ride. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

J. Cole was a first-chair violinist in high school. From 5th to 12th grade, the emcee played violin, earning the top spot at Terry Sanford High School. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Sarah Michelle Gellar was almost Amber in Clueless. While on All My Children, Gellar's producers refused to accommodate the movie's filming schedule so the role was given to Elisa Donovan. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

NASA tried to recreate the smell of space for astronaut training simulations. They asked Steven Pearce of Omega Ingredients, a fragrance company, to recreate the odor (it smells kind of like spent gunpowder). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

White Castle is the oldest fast-food burger chain, originating in 1921 White Castle WhiteChoile.com a Castle Save drop The company's assembly line style food preparation helped to lead the the entire fast food industry. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

The Statue of Liberty was designed to recognize the abolition of slavery. Edouard de Laboulaye wanted to give the US a gift that would both recognize abolition and commemorate Abraham Lincoln's death. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

The chicken you regularly eat is actually injected with a saltwater solution before it's sold. The solution accounts for 15 to 30% of a chicken's weight, and it's added because, apparently, the bird would be too dry without it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

The standard pirate speech comes from a 1950s pirate movie - Treasure Planet. Robert Newton played Long John Silver, arrr'd a lot, and used phrases like shiver me timbers. That's how the whole thing got started. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

We think of medieval dentistry as crude, but it was surprisingly advanced. Dentists at the time could do things like filling cavities, handling facial fractures, basic teeth whitening, and even spotting oral cancer. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Generally, guns were more strictly regulated in the Old West than they are today. For example, you usually couldn't openly carry guns in towns - you could only do that if you were outside town limits or inside your home. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Ancient Egyptians had pregnancy tests of a sort as far back as 3,500 years ago. A woman would pee over a bag of barley and a bag of wheat, and if either one sprouted, the woman was pregnant. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Eye of newt in a witch's potion recipe isn't a part of an actual animal. It's actually just another name of mustard seed, and many other witch's potion ingredients are also just various herbs and so on. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Ernest Hemingway survived two plane crashes 24 hours apart. Presumed dead after the second, he emerged from the jungle with a bottle of gin & some bananas. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

17

The 'Shirts vs. Blouses' with Prince that Charlie Murphy described on the Chappelle's Show actually happened. According to guitarist Micki Free, Prince was every bit as good a basketball player as Charlie Murphy said he was. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

The United States has the world's most violent weather. It receives more high-impact weather events than anywhere else on Earth. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Canada eats more Kraft macaroni & cheese than any other nation in the world. Canadians eat 55% more Kraft Dinner (their term) than people in the U.S. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Screech owls bring live Texas blind snakes into their nests. The small snakes eat insect larvae that would otherwise be parasites on newly-hatched owl chicks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Robocop's suit was so big and unwieldy that he would not fit into a police car. So whenever you see him- he's not wearing pants. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

12

In Pirates of the Caribbean, Mackenzie Crook had to wear two contact lenses in the same eye. It's uncomfortable, but not painful, he says. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

11

In Endgame, Cap catches Mjolnir in a fluid motion, while Thor extends his hand and catches it in a dead stop. That's because Cap is used to adjusting for recoil as he catches his shield. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Biz Markie never planned to sing the chorus on Just A Friend. He'd invited singers to the studio, but none of them showed up. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to the first glasses they gave him for the Harry Potter movies. The skin around his eyes broke out in whiteheads and spots, and it took everyone a week to figure out the nickel silver in the rims was causing that. They quickly made him new ones out of rolled gold. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

8

An oil tanker with five crew members has been stuck offshore for almost four years. The company that owns the tanker started having money troubles at that point and stopped paying their salaries, so they've survived only thanks to donations. They're still negotiating with the company to pay them, and they can't leave the ship as that's the only leverage they have. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

7

The MoMA hung a painting upside down for 47 days before someone realized INCORRECT CORRECT A visitor was one who caught the wrong orientation of Matisse's Le Bateau. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

6

A cave in Romania is possibly the most isolated ecosystem on Earth. Movile cave has been isolated from the rest of the world for 5.5 million years, and it contains 33 species found nowhere else. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Microsoft Excel is messing up the science of genetics. By default, Excel converts gene names into dates and floating-point numbers. As a result, about 20% of scientific papers that feature lists of genes in Excel format have screwed-up gene names. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

4

In 2009, a chemist accidentally created a new blue hue YInMn blue is a near-perfect blue. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

3

The color of a lion's mane indicates his testosterone level. The darker the mane, the higher the lion's testosterone - and the better his health is likely to be, and the more attractive he is to female lions. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Bats aren't blind. Although many also use echolocation, they have sight that is well-adjusted for the dark. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

1

In 2009, Lily Allen refused to get paid for a concert in 200,000 Bitcoin. She was offered the payment for a virtual performance in Second Life but said no, and later called herself an idiot. If she'd taken it, she'd be a billionaire today. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

Tags:

Visual

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Comedy

Kim Kardashian Doesn’t Know How Nikki Glaser Handles Roasts: ‘It’s Abuse’

Trivia & Jokes

30 of the Weirdest Ways a Date Took a Left Turn

Trivia & Jokes

38 Random Facts That Are Kind of a Cosmic Gumbo That Almost Moves to the Beat of Jazz

Movies & TV

The ‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel Series Misses the Point of ‘Legally Blonde’

Movies & TV

Disney’s Stand-Up Series Will Begin With Jim Gaffigan, Despite His History of Roasting Disney

Movies & TV

Ed O’Neill Got Cut By the Pittsburgh Steelers

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

15 Celebrity Names Everyone Says Wrong

2

20 Movies That Switch Genres Mid-Story

3

5 Eerily Specific Things Every Human Does Exactly the Same

4

The 7 Most Horrifying Things Ever Discovered in a Human Body

5

15 On-Screen Couples That Got Together in Real Life