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Better make room

38 Random Bits of Trivia to Top Off Your Noggin

June 02, 2024

Your brain might think it’s full, but there’s always room for a few dozen more factoids.

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38

Na BLADES OF GLORY WILL FERRELL'S LOOK WAS BASED ON JIM MORRISON AND STEVEN TYLER. To be the flashy Chazz Michael Michaels, Ferrell looked to the frontmen of The Doors and Aerosmith for the look. CRACKED.COM — Source

37

Booksmart

SLS BOOKSMART THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE SCRIPT WAS WRITTEN IN 2009. The script was on the Black List in 2009, and just gathered dust until the movie was finally made and released in 2019. CRACKED.COM — Source

36

BLUE VELVET DEBBIE HARRY TURNED DOWN THE LEAD ROLE. After being in Videodrome, Harry didn't want to be typecast as the weirdo in movies. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

UNDERWORLD KATE BECKINSALE WAS HUNTING DOWN HER EX. Beckinsale's Selene is a vampire hunting down the lycan leader Lucian, played by her ex boyfriend Michael Sheen. Unlike their characters, the two actors are friendly with one another and share a child. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

I, TONYA ALLISON JANNEY WAS A COMPETITIVE ICE SKATER. Janney was a skater herself until an accident with a glass door sliced a tendon in her leg. She then pursued acting. Seems to be doing fine with that. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

STARSHIP TROOPERS PAUL VERHOVEN DIDN'T EVEN FINISH THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. Verhoven hated the book and dropped it after a few chapters. Не just had screenwriter Edward Neumeier just explain it to him. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

STARDUST THE MOVIE WAS A MASSIVE FLOP. The movie based on Neil Gaiman's novel had a $70 million budget, but only got a little over $9 million in its opening weekend. Now it's a cult favorite, though. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

GRUMPY OLD MEN JACK LEMMON'S FATHER WAS ONLY 17 YEARS OLDER THAN HIM. The father was played by Burgess Meredith, even though he was 85 at the time and Lemmon was a spry 68 years old. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

CRACKED.COM THE FUGITIVE THEY ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE WAS REAL. The parade just happened as they were shooting in Chicago, so they had Harrison Ford hide out among the marchers for the movie. Не did so well that the crowd didn't recognize him for several minutes. — Source

29

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE SPIDER-HAM ORIGINALLY SWORE LIKE A MOTHER****ER. Comedian John Mulaney was encouraged to play around with the dialogue and improvise some of his lines. After constantly using four-lettered words, he was told it was a PG-rated film. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Christopher Guest

CRACKED.COM BEST IN SHOW THE ACTORS WERE GIVEN JUST A 15-PAGE OUTLINE. Director Christopher Guest often prefers his actors to improvise their scenes and dialogue. Не gave them a short outline and let them decide themselves how it'd all play out. — Source

27

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN QUENTIN TARANTINO GOT $1,500 FOR WRITING THE SCRIPT. Well, it was his first paid writing gig, after all. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

THE LEGO MOVIE NO CHARACTER UTTERS THE WORD LEGO. Go ahead and watch the movie again. We'll wait. You back? Told ya. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

OFFICE SPACE - MIKE JUDGE OFTEN DID HIS BUTT-HEAD AND BOOMHAUER VOICES ON SET. Creator and voice actor on both Beavis and Butt- Head and King of the Hill, Judge would entertain the crew while getting work done by instructing them in his characters' voices. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CRACKED.COM PARASITE IT WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE A STAGE PLAY. Bong Joon-ho was encouraged by a theater actor friend to write a play as his film Snowpiercer was wrapping up. After playing with the script, he ultimately wrote it as a film. — Source

23

CRACKED.COM SPIDER-MAN 2 DOC OCK'S ARMS WERE REAL. While CGI was used in wider shots and during complex fight scenes, the arms were animatronics operated by remote control or via crew people. — Source

22

Negasonic

CRACKED.COM DEADPOOL NEGASONIC WAS PART OF A BARTER WITH GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. Marvel owned the rights to Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Fox wanted her for Deadpool. Fox owned the rights to Ego the Living Planet and Marvel wanted for GotG Vol. 2. Fair trade. — Source

21

Bridesmaids

BRIDESMAIDS MINDY KALING AND BUSY PHILLIPPS WERE UP FOR ROLES. The two auditioned for Lillian and Megan, respectively, but didn't get the parts. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Jesus Christ is officially the king of Poland. XC CRACKED COM Christ was officially crowned the king of Ро- land after a vote in the Polish parliament in 2016, with thousands of true believers attending the November coronation. — Source

19

Japanese POWs provided a vast wealth of information during World War 2. CRACKED.COM Most Japanese soldiers were unaware of the rights they retained as prisoners under the Geneva conven- tion. Many also felt indebt- ed to American troops for the courteous treatment they received. — Source

18

In 1896, Auburn students greased the train tracks leading in and out of the local station. CRACKED COM When Georgia Tech's train came into town, it skidded through town and didn't stop for five more miles. The GT football team had to make the trek back to town, then went on to lose, 45-0. — Source

17

No one knows where the missing Russian bioweapon missiles are. CRACKED.COM Even after signing a treaty banning bio-weapons, the Soviet Union built ICBMs that could be loaded with weaponized smallpox, an- thrax, typhus, and rabies. After the fall of the USSR, most of them were lost. — Source

16

Workers in a Peru gold mine are paid in whatever they can carry out. CRACKED.COM Employees work for 30 days without payment, and on the 31st day they are al- lowed to take as much ore as they can carry. Whatev- er the miners are able to extract from that ore is theirs. — Source

15

Tomb Raider

Angelina Jolie had to wear bra padding in the first Tomb Raider movie to match the video game character. CRACKED COM Jolie wore considerably less or no padding in the sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, as the decision was made to give Lara more realistic dimensions. — Source

14

Chloe Grace Moretz faked a British accent when she auditioned for her role in 'Hugo.' CRACKED.COM Moretz heard that Martin Scorsese was looking to cast a Brit- ish actress. When she got the part, she had to come clean. — Source

13

A doctor in a rubber mask was vital to getting homosexuality off the list of mental disorders. CRACKED.COM Dr. John Fryer of Philadel- phia appeared at the 1972 APA convention wearing a (somewhat terrifying) rub- ber mask to deliver a speech about the hard- ships of being a psychia- trist and gay. — Source

12

'Looney Tunes' started off as a way for Warner Bros. to promote their music catalog. LODNEY REG TUNES PAT.OFF. U.S. CRACKED.COM The title of the first Looney Tunes short, 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930)', is a und on 'Singin' in the Bathtub,' a song written in 1929 for the film The Show of Shows. — Source

11

An early version of the Game of Thrones theme can be found on the soundtrack to the first 'Iron Man! CRACKED.COM 18 seconds into 'Mark Il' you can hear composer Ramin Djawadi wrestling with the notes that will three years later become part of the Game of Thrones tune. — Source

10

Kate Winslet keeps her Oscar in the bathroom. CRACKED.COM Winslet won the Best Ac- tress Oscar in 2009 for The Reader, and keeps it so that her guests can hold it and make acceptance speeches in the mirror without feeling self-conscious. — Source

9

An aeronautics engineer visited all 238 countries compiling a list of religions. S I C CRACKED COM David Barrett resigned abruptly after seeing a vi- sion of Jesus, and spent 40 years single-handedly com- piling the only complete list of Earth's 10,000 religions and 33,830 denominations of Christianity. — Source

8

The Royal Navy saved £5 million by having personnel shout bang instead of firing live rounds during training. 037 CRACKED.COM The practice was con- demned by lain Duncan Smith, the Shadow De- fense Secretary, saying the procedure called into question the quality of their training. — Source

7

Bill Cosby gave back a custom AC Cobra Supersnake because he couldn't control it. GRACKED.COM American automotive de- signer Carroll Shelby gave Cosby the car in 1966, but it was too fast for him. The next owner lost control and drove it off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean. — Source

6

An ancient Roman politician had a bounty put on his head based on the head's weight in gold. CRACKED.COM Although the head of Gai- us Gracchus was delivered, the prize was never paid, as it was discovered that Gaius' captor had emptied out his brain and replaced it with molten lead. — Source

5

A lawyer shot himself demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself. CRACKED.COM Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and Ohio politician defending a man accused of murder, had his client cleared in 1871 by his first-hand demonstration. Vallandigham died 12 hours later. — Source

4

NASA considered using motorcycles on the moon as a simpler alternative to the Lunar Rover. CRACKED.COM It was a backup method in case the Lunar Roving Vehicle, the LRV collo- quially known as the Moon Buggy, wasn't ready in time for the mission's launch. — Source

3

Top Gear

'Top Gear' staged breakdowns of the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster, making them seem unviable. VEGAN CRACKED.COM The cars were driven in loops, for miles, until their batteries were drained. The hosts then staged a breakdown during a 60 mile journey, declaring that electric cars are not the future. — Source

2

The name of Orcas Island, famous for its resident pods of orcas, was a coincidence. CRACKED.COM The island was actually named after Horcasitas, the Viceroy of Mexico, who sponsored an expedition there in 1791. Whereas the animal name orca origi- nated in Ancient Rome. — Source

1

An evil alternate version of Superman crushes up Kryptonite and snorts it. CRACKED.COM Ultraman first appeared in 1964, with the stan- dard powers of a Kryp- tonian, only he is em- powered by green Kryp- tonite and is weakened by yellow sunlight. — Source

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