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These really are the greatest facts of all time. If only G.F.O.A.T wasn’t such a terrible acronym

38 Drippy Bits of Trivia That Are Low-Key GOATed

May 31, 2024

The term G.O.A.T. gets thrown around a lot lately. Which got us thinking: What is the greatest fact of all time? We’ve found so many great ones over the years, and we love them all the same. It’s like asking a mother of thousands of kids which one is her favorite.

We’re going to need your impartial judgment on this one. We’ll provide this list of some of the best facts known to man, but you’ll have to label one the G.O.A.T.

Good luck!

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38

The Irish crown Jewels have been lost for over 100 years. The jewels were supposed to be kept in a strong room, in a secure tower - except that the safe didn't fit through the door. So the jewels were kept in the office of the Ulster King of Arms - where they went missing from in 1907. CRACKED.COM — Source

37

You're eating way more plastic than you think. Plastic doesn't degrade - every piece of plastic ever made still exists, ground down to smaller and smaller parts. These microplastic particles make their way into waterways and soil - and eventually, into our food. It's been calculated that we eat a credit card's worth of plastic every week. CRACKED.COM — Source

36

Bee crime is huge in california. Honeybees are very valuable in the state - not because Californians like honey a lot, but because the bugs are in high demand to pollinate crops. So it's no wonder that there's a huge black market for bees, and bee theft is rampant. It's serious enough that some cops specialize in it. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

Mikhail Gorbachev released an album of ballads. In 2009, 10 years after his wife died of leukemia, Gorbachev took the step of contributing to a cancer research charity by... uh, singing ballads and auctioning off the album. It fetched $164,940 from someone who (understandably) chose to remain anonymous. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

The boy who played Peter Pan had a crappy life. Bobby Driscoll didn't just voice Disney's Peter Pan, but had a remarkable movie career - which was all but over by age 17. Не spent the rest of his life in and out of jail and rehab houses - and after he died of a drug-caused heart attack at 31, the press took four years to notice. CRACKED COM — Source

33

A protein is named after sonic the Hedgehog. The SHH gene codes for the sonic hedgehog protein, which is called that partly because it kicks in during fetal development to split your eyes apart. Before that, your eyes are fused together, kind of like the blue speedster. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

spider-Man 3 didn't actually sink the franchise. We're not saying that Spider-Man 3 was actually good - but it was a huge box office hit (even bigger than its predecessors by some metrics). A fourth movie was underway when Sony chose to reboot the franchise instead. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

CRACKED.COM Victor Hugo was a huge horndog. Hugo wasn't just famous for writing Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre- Dame, but also for sticking his little Jean Valjean in everything that moved. When he died, France mourned the loss of its greatest writer while French sex workers mourned the loss of their greatest patron. — Source

30

CRACKED.COM A thief was caught because he was a hopeless romantic. Stephfon Bennet and a couple partners fled after robbing an apartment in 2009. A couple hours later, he came back to ask the victim out on a date. This was a big miscalculation, as А, the victim wasn't single, and B, WTF were you thinking, dude. — Source

29

CRACKED.COM A doll caused an uproar for (allegedly) trying to convert children to Islam. Mattel's Cuddle & Coo doll played nonsense baby sounds, but some parents thought they heard the toy praising Islam or Satan (which are probably the same thing in such people's heads). Mattel didn't recall the doll, but did reprogram unshipped units. — Source

28

CRACKED.COM Julia Child created a shark repellent for the military. Long before cooking meals on TV, a young Julia McWilliams cooked up a shark repellent during World War II, commissioned by the U.S. Navy. A member of the OSS (proto-CIA) with top security clearance, she was stationed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China as the war went on. — Source

27

Dogs can laugh (sort of). The specific panting dogs do while playing (with either humans or other dogs) is different from the I'm exhausted kind of panting. It certainly doesn't sound like human laugh, but it serves pretty much the same function of social bonding. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Dirt in baseball fields comes from Pennsylvania. As different kinds of ground can lead to different gameplay, playing fields use soil made by mixing just the right amount of clay, sand, silt, and other stuff. Most MLB stadiums buy their dirt from one location in the town of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

CRACKED.COM Capcom keeps, uh, borrowing game assets. Artist Judy Juracek sued Capcom in 2021 for lifting dozens of textures from an art book she published in '96. The images were used in games such as Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry without licensing them. — Source

24

Spartans would despise the gun nuts who keep quoting them. Second amendment enthusiasts are fond of the Spartan challenge molon labe (come and take them), unaware that Spartans of that time disdained weapons that could kill at a distance. According to Plutarch, those fighting at the Thermopylae found arrows womanish and cowardly. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Zootopia is a sequel to Disney's Robin Hood. While Zootopia wasn't intended as Robin Hood 2, the directors loved the idea so much when they came across it that they declared it canon. So, does this mean that Nick Wilde comes from British royalty? CRACKED COM — Source

22

A Batman and Captain America had weirdly similar plots. In the mid-2000s, they both faced villains who turned out to be their dead sidekicks, and then both got lost in time while their revived sidekicks took their places. Both storylines happened at about the same time, so an intentional rip-off is out of the question. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Autotune became a thing because Cher hated Believe. Cher stormed out of the studio, refusing to keep recording that song her producer insisted on. So the producer used his new pitch correction software to smooth out the only vocals he was going to get, and accidentally discovered the right (or wrong) settings created a cool effect. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

CRACKED.COM Eddie murphy got sick of his most popular character and killed it. Murphy hit it out of the park with an adult version of Little Rascals' Buckwheat on SNL. But he eventually came to resent being known just for one character, and shot a sketch when Buckwheat was murdered. — Source

19

CRACKED.COM Rotten Tomatoes was inspired by Jackie Chan. Senh Duong, a huge Chan fan, set up the website specifically to track reviews for Rush Hour. When the film's release was pushed back, Duong launched the site with different movies instead. — Source

18

CRACKED.COM marlon Brando wanted Jor-El to be a bagel. When Brando was cast for Richard Donner's Superman, he suggested that the Kryptonian patriarch should look a bagel. Donner had to convince him that the audience would much rather see a Marlon Brando-shaped Jor-El. — Source

17

Walmart loses $3 billion to shoplifting every year. 2200 Walmart macy But that's only 1% of its annual revenue. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Harlan Thrombey's name in Knives Out was based on a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It came from Who Killed Harlow Thrombey, one of Rian Johnson's favorite childhood books. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

The Little Red-Haired Girl in Peanuts was inspired by Charles Schulz's ex. Her name is Donna Mae Johnson, and she worked in the accounting department at Art Instruction, Inc. in Minneapolis, where she met Schulz, who worked as a cartooning instructor. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Kobe Bryant's grandparents inspired one of his greatest achievements. LAKERS 8 The day he played his 81-point game was the birthday of his grandfather, who had died a few years earlier, and also the first and only time his grandma had come out to watch him play. Kobe was so happy, he scored 81 points. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

You can't legally buy alcohol in 2,000 U.S. jurisdictions. KIRKLAND ORIGINAL SPICED RUM The AT LAKKA Experi Store TALISKER STORM St adid ISLAND THE SI LE MALT . DOL FICH - adidas - NONCA SCA ONE - adidas scorch SKY - - ФРОМ - - And many others limit alcohol sales - - for example, you can't buy any liquor in Texas on Sundays. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Viggo Mortensen got a black eye while learning to surf on the Lord of the Rings set. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan tried to teach him how to surf on their day off, and Mortensen got hit right in the face. It took a month for the swelling to die down, which meant they had to avoid that side of his face in close-ups in the Mines of Moria scenes. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

11

IKEA has its naming system because its founder was dyslexic. IKEA Ingvar Kamprad was not only dyslexic, but had a hard time remembering strings of numbers that item codes usually consisted of, so he came up with a naming system. For example, bookcases are named after professions, outdoor furniture after Scandinavian islands, rugs after Danish and Swedish towns and cities, and so on. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

The okapi is an animal that likes its privacy, preferring to live a solitary life within a large secluded area. They mark their territory with a sticky tar-like substance coming from their hooves. And urine, of course. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Stool pigeon comes from a method of hunting passenger pigeons where a decoy pigeon was tied to a stool. Want to know if it was effective? You can ask a passenger pigeon yourself. Or you could, if they weren't extinct. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Rabies is easily prevented with a vaccine that can be administered before or shortly after exposure. However, once symptoms appear, it's basically a death sentence. Less than 20 people have survived rabies. Ever. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

The late singer Selena was a huge fan of famously fancy jeweled eggs known as Faberge Eggs. She collected over 500 of the stunning spheroid shapes, which are on display at the Selena museum. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Smallpox is considered the only human disease to have ever been entirely eradicated. This was thanks to the invention of the smallpox vaccine, the first ever vaccine. Pretty good for a first try. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

When you're as large and as tasty to predators as wildebeest are, you better be born ready to haul ass. Which is why it's good that they're one of the few animals able to walk immediately after being born. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Between 20 and 40 men are believed to have died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Many died from what we now know as the bends after leaving pressurized areas allowing underwater work. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

When they shot Bela Lugosi's Dracula, they shot a Spanish version too. The Spanish one was shot at night, when the sets were free, with the same script but a different cast. Today, that version is considered better. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell had a cameo in Ron Howard's movie Apollo 13. HAISE P D مداد POLEO not APOLIC Не was the captain of the ship that recovers the astronauts, and he wore his own captain's uniform (the rank he had when he retired) in the movie. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

One of Hook's most iconic scenes was a total surprise to some of the actors involved. When Peter Pan (Robin Williams) passes his sword to Thud Butt, nobody except Williams and Steven Spielberg knew Thud would get it. CRACKED.COM — Source

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