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33 Random Bits of Trivia That Answer the Age-Old Question: What the Frick?

Heck, these facts might even answer ‘What on Earth?!?!’

33 Random Bits of Trivia That Answer the Age-Old Question: What the Frick?

August 26, 2024

Asking these facts, “What on Earth?” is actually a tad shortsighted. You should actually be asking, “What in the known universe?” Because our facts have reached that far. Honestly, past lists have covered facts about the theory of the multiverse, so you should really be asking, “What in the multiverse?”

There. Now you may ask away!

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33

A Sacramento woman ate 4.5 pounds worth of steak in 20 minutes. CRACKED COM The world record for eating three, 72 oz steaks is held by Molly Schuyler, who weighs just 120 lbs herself. — Source

32

The word guy comes from Guy Fawkes. CRACKED.COM Folks used to burn his effigy, a Guy Fawkes or a guy, and from there it came to refer to a frightful figure. Eventually it just came to refer to a man. — Source

31

Astronauts in long-term microgravity pee out their skeletons. CRACKED.COM In space, astronauts stand to lose 2-2.5% of their bone density every month as the minerals are excreted through the urine. Exercise has been tried as a countermeasure, but has not shown to be successful. — Source

30

In 15 years of conquest, Alexander the Great never lost a battle. CRACKED.COM From his first victory at age 18, he gained a reputation of leading his men to battle with impressive speed, allowing smaller forces to reach and break the enemy lines before his foes were ready. — Source

29

Ariana Grande accidentally tattooed small charcoal grill on her hand. That's not exactly what she was going for with her Japanese tattoo, but fans pointed out that's what it meant - to her credit, she acknowledged it. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The all-American icon Harley Davidson actually ... isn't made in the USA. That is, many of its parts are from abroad - suspension components come from Japan, brake parts from Italy, wheels from Australia, and so on. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

An alligator's brain is absolutely tiny - it would fit in half of one tablespoon. It weighs a total of 8 or 9 grams, i.e. not much more than the usual contents of a tablespoon - which kind of explains a lot about gators. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

In Texas, you can learn all about Texas barbecue in an actual college class. The class is offered by Texas A&M, and it's called ANSC 117, Texas Barbecue. It covers everything from food safety to cooking whole pigs. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

If honey has always seemed incredibly indestructible to you, you were basically right. HONEY Raspberry 16 oz. 98232 575 Richard late R from Edison Rees Wa 98232 If it's preserved right, it almost can't spoil - pots of honey found in ancient Egyptian tombs are still A-OK to eat after thousands of years. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

There's only one mammal that's completely covered by scales: the pangolin. They use those scales to instantly go into what's basically fortress mode - if a threat appears, they curl up into a tight, scaly, well-armored ball. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

In Japan, there are actual companies that can help you set up a new life. Yeah, kinda similar to the one in Breaking Bad, apparently - it's a thing, and there's even a word for people who want to escape: jouhatsu. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Baby axolotls chew off each other's arms when there's not enough food around. Which sounds awful, but it's not really that bad-they can fully regrow their arm in a few months, so it's a mild inconvenience to help a bro or sis. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

In the Philippines, there's a tattoo artist who's 102 and, amazingly, still working. Whang-Od Oggay is a mambabatok, or traditional tattooist of the Kalinga province, and she's the oldest one who's currently active. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Plague-Infested Fleas

Japan nearly dropped plague-infested fleas on Southern California in WWII. It was going to be revenge for the US firebombing their cities, and was supposed to involve planes launching from submarines to drop the fleas. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

The Shining and The Empire Strikes Back were shot in the same studio. They were shot at the same time, too - and when The Shining had to stop using a stage after a fire, it borrowed a new one from Empire. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

A Scanner Darkly was basically inspired by Philip K Dick's strange life. For a year or so, he had pretty much the same life as the lead, Bob Arctor, including the hallucinations, weird paranoias, and wandering conversations. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

There's a subtle Cars Easter egg that references Ferrari's factory in Italy. 44.5-10.8 - Luigi's license plate isn't a random string of the numbers - it says 445-108, and those are the geographic coordinates of that factory. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Con Air was written as an indy drama. In script form, the movie was a little character- driven piece. Then it landed on the desk of Jerry Bruckheimer, Hollywood's biggest let's just blow s#!t up producer in the '90s. The movie was tweaked accordingly, becoming an explosion-packed blockbuster starring Nicolas Cage's mullet. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Morrissey

Morrissey won an award for how awful he is at writing sex. You know Morrissey for his music, and if you're lucky, you don't know him as a writer. His 2015 novel List of the Lost won the Literary Review's Bad Sex Award, for its hypothetically sexy run-on sentences. The book contains baffling word assortments like, the pained frenzy of his bulbous salutation extenuating his excitement. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

The Crips began as a neighborhood watch. According to Stanley Tookie Williams, he started recruiting other boys to form a watch against the street gangs that troubled South Central Los Angeles. Eventually, Tookie's group gained strength and became the Crips, one of the largest gangs in the world themselves. Oops. CRACKED COM — Source

13

30 Rock's gay bomb was real. It isn't just some absurdist joke - it really happened. In 1994, the U.S. Air Force commissioned a laboratory to experiment with pheromones and aphrodisiacs as a weapon, to cause homosexual 2 F - I J - I I 1 I I I I I Y I . do I I , i I I ي . 1 ! 2 I I 1 E I . the I 2 & I 1 I : I 1 a I behavior among the enemy. PENTAGON REJECTS SO-CALLED GAY BOMB - - - - - - Yuman - — Source

12

Fraternities

Back in the 18th century, Fraternities college societies were less were born about keg, togas, and as literary hazing, and more about societies. debating topics like politics, literature, and religion. The first fraternal organization as we know them today, Phi Beta Карра Society, was established in 1776, and more soon followed. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The NRA used to be pro-gun control (albeit for racist reasons). Only in the '70s did the NRA become the advocate for gun rights we know today. For much of their history, they held the opposite view and pushed for stricter gun regulation Except that this was in part to keep guns off the hands of black activists, like the Black Panthers in the '60s. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

The NYPD employs beekeepers. Bees can't break the law (we hope), but as many New Yorkers keep bees on their rooftops, the lil' buzzers often swarm and cause trouble. When that happens, the police will send one in of their beekeeper cops - not to shoot at the bees (again, we hope), but to help remove the swarm. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

HBO's first original programming was polka. Back when it was a regional TV provider that only broadcast movies nine hours a day, HBO first flexed their production muscles by broadcasting the Pennsylvania Polka Festival in 1973. It was a really long way to robot cowboys and dragon boobs. HBO CRACKED COM — Source

8

The test run for D-Day was as deadly as the actual D-Day. Exercise Tiger was a full-scale practice landing, performed on a British beach - and through a combination of live ammunition, bureaucratic screwups, and German boats showing up uninvited, hundreds died. The entire operation was covered up and forgotten about for a long time. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

33 Random Bits of Trivia That Answer the Age-Old Question: What the Frick? — Source

6

For a hot second, the Flash was called Flush Man in Argentina. N In the '90s, Argentinian publisher Perfil scored the rights to print DC's comics - except that, as there was a magazine titled Flash, they called the hero Flush Man, accidentally making him poop-related. Everyone hated the stupid name change, and the comic bombed. GRACKED.COM — Source

5

x Being a hardcore fan can be bad for your self-esteem. There's nothing wrong about being a fan of something, and it can be for you - in moderation. If fandom becomes too large a part of your identity, your sense of self-worth will take a hit when your heroes release a bad album, make a sucky movie, or lose a big game. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

The Ninja Turtles caused Hitler's death. Archie Comics' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was supposed to be closer to the cartoon than to the bloody source material. And yet, it featured plotlines like the turtles going back in time, kicking Hitler's ass, and spooking him into shooting himself. CHOK 12 CRACKED.COM — Source

3

SNL put Leia in a gold bikini years before George Lucas did. In 1978, Fisher hosted SNL dressed as Princess Leia. During a beach skit, Leia beams down (yeah, let's ignore that part) and takes off her robes, revealing her bathing suit t-a gold bikini. This was five years before Return of the Jedi. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Tom Holland learned on social media that he was Spider-Man. After a grueling seven months of auditioning, Holland finally learned that he landed the part - not through a call from his agent, but while scrolling on Marvel's Instagram account, just like any random person. Only later did the studio reach out to him. our ENGLISH Instagram 2 Continue CRACKED.COM — Source

1

King Edward I refused Scotland's surrender to fire his trebuchet. In 1306, Edward Longshanks ordered the building of a huge- ass trebuchet, in order to break the defenses of Stirling Castle and end the Scottish rebellion. The Scots tried to surrender when they saw this medieval Death Star - but Eddie just wouldn't let them. Not before he fired his sweet trebuchet, damn it. CRACKED COM — Source

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