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The power of facts compels you!

27 Random Bits of Trivia to Spew Onto the Priest Who’s Trying to Exorcize You

September 11, 2024

Whether it’s clean or messy, we implore you to spew these facts on anyone who crosses your path today. They’re just that good.

If anyone complains that you ruined their shirt, you can just assure them that the knowledge they’ll receive is totally worth the clean-up. What’s an extra load of laundry when facts are being learned?

They’ll see where you’re coming from. Trust us.

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27

Commando was meant for Gene Simmons. Can you picture anyone but Arnold starring in this testosterone fest of a movie? And yet, the original script was a much more subdued story. The lead character was a retired Israeli soldier, intended to be played by Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

В batteries were just too middle- of-the-road to be popular. The A to D standard sizes were established in the 1920s, with AA and AAA batteries expanding the range later on-and each end of the spectrum eventually found its specific uses But the poor Bs, being either too large or too small, were ignored like middle children everywhere. - 10 - - and . to Democracy - AND - - CRACKED.COM — Source

25

A TV show ending can hurt as badly as a breakup. When you hang with people all the time, you form a bond with them-even if they're fictional characters. When the show ends, the parasocial breakup can leave you feeling alone and depressed, just like you ended a real relationship. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Hot dog stands in London are run by gangs. A lot of stands operate illegally, run by violent gangs that often fight each other. The business is so cutthroat that cops often fear to do anything about it, as they might get boiling fat thrown at their faces. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

MineCraft players spent years recreating Middle-earth. 14,000 fans spent nine years building every major location from The Lord of the Ringsand The Hobbit in MineCraft-from the Shire to Moria and Minas Tirith. The project is 29,000 by 30,000 blocks, or about 336 square miles. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Ancient Greek music was hardcore. Old-timey Greeks didn't leave any sheet music behind, but we have a good idea of what their tunes sounded like. Scholars have used a bunch of clues (poetry meter, word patterns, well-preserved instruments, and so on) to reconstruct ancient Greek music. (And it flippin' slaps.) CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Somali pirates started out as vigilantes. With no military to stop foreign ships from illegally fishing or dumping nuclear waste, fishermen in Somalia started going after the offenders themselves. Eventually, however, they became greedy, and realized that being pirates was more lucrative than fighting them. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Nintendo ran a M price-fixing cartel for years. In the '90s, getting a Nintendo game in Spain cost you three times as much as it did in Britain or Germany. The European Commission fined the company 149 million euro in 2002 for rigging the market. In 1991, they had been found guilty of the same racket in the U.S. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

People hated shopping carts at first. When grocery kingpin Sylvan Goldman invented shopping carts in the 1930s, his customers rejected them, preferring to stick to the comfort zone of their small wire baskets. To have his idea accepted, Goldman had to hire people to push the carts around while pretending to shop. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

An extinct human species gave Tibetans the ability to live at 14,000 feet. The EPAS1 gene, sometimes called the super-athlete gene, helps Tibetans easily breathe the thin, oxygen- poor air of their high-altitude homeland. This gene, however, didn't originate in modern humans-it comes from the Denisovans, a human species that went extinct 40,000 years ago. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

MARVEL THE INFINITY GENEERS NCIBLE GAUNTLET MAN MARVEL AVENGERS FO potential - - in - - one I with The MARVEL you Development ! - - - Ltd - veria - MATIC THANOS AVENGERS BENDIS APRIME DAVIS NE OM MAN DE LEMON - - MINISTRY E The '90s comic book bubble brought Marvel to bankruptcy. Many were collecting comics in the early '90s, thinking that their collections would one day sell for big bucks - and Marvel was happy to cater to those people. When collectors realized that their books weren't rare enough to ever be valuable, they just stopped buying, leaving — Source

16

15

A sitting senator is responsible for keeping candy for everyone. In 1965, California senator George Murphy began keeping candy in his desk drawer to share with other lawmakers. The practice stuck, and to this day there is a designated Candy Desk. During his tenure as resident candyman, Rick Santorum became infamous for keeping only Peppermint Patties. GRACKED.COM — Source

14

Bollywood established a new Hindu goddess. Unlike the cadre of age-old gods, Santoshi Maa wasn't mentioned in canonical Hindu texts (or anywhere else) before the 1960s. She went mainstream in 1975, with the success of the Bollywood movie Jai Santoshi Maa. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Black people are more likely to get hit by self-driving cars. You'd think that cars can't be racist t-but the Als that drive them are often biased. /Sensity / 48 100m mah A 2019 study by the Georgia Institute of technology found that dark-skinned people are less likely to be correctly identified as pedestrians. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Conspiracy theorists mistook a guitar pedal for a 5G chip. A TREBLE TuF DAJ I BASS A100 A1004 10oF 22% 220 1202 5G FREQ 4TH 10n 2XA4TR DA32 1/2V+ In December 2020, an electronic diagram started circulating online in Italy, with conspiracy theorists claiming it was for a 5G chip added to COVID-19 vaccines. It wasn't, though-an engineer revealed that it was the circuit board for a guitar pedal. (And a crappy guitar pedal, at that.) CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The U.S. tried to use radioactive foxes against Japan during World War II. Vaguely aware of Japanese stories about ghostly foxes, someone had an idea: Dunk foxes in radioactive, glow-in-the-dark paint, and release them in Japan as psychological warfare. The plan was abandoned-but not before a trial run in New York City, to test how scary the foxes were. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

CRACKED.COM Martin Luther King Jr. had an advice column. In the '50s, Reverend King had a column in Ebony magazine titled Advice for Living. He'd often talk about black issues, but he also gave personal advice (which sometimes, um, wasn't very good). — Source

9

CRACKED.COM A (fake) queen lived for years in a train station. In 1974, the queen of the lost kingdom of Oudh set residence in New Delhi's central train station with her entire entourage. After 10 years, the Indian government ended up giving her the palace she demanded. It came out long after her death that she wasn't a real queen. — Source

8

CRACKED.COM Blockbuster Video almost had its own city. BLOCKBUSTER® Back in the '90s, Blockbuster wanted to build a 2,500-acre theme park near Miami-and they somehow convinced the Florida legislature to give them powers restricted to governments. This Blockbuster Town was entitled to collect taxes and seize private land. — Source

7

CRACKED.COM China is building a new Great Wall made of trees. China is trying to stop desertification in the traditional Chinese way-by building a huge-ass wall. This Green Great Wall (made by planting trees, not piling stones) was started in 1987, and it will be several decades before it's finished. — Source

6

CRACKED.COM DC let a harasser edit their comics for years. Eddie Berganza was Superman executive editor, and in 2010 he was promoted to executive editor. At least five people had reported him to HR by then. DC Comics let him keep this position for seven more years before doing something about his continuing harassment. — Source

5

CRACKED.COM A pandemic in the 19th century was blamed on the telegraph. Just like conspiracy theorists today think 5G is the cause for COVID-19, the Russian Flu of 1889 was blamed on telegraph wires. Since affected towns were linked together by the telegraph, some people just jumped to the obvious conclusion. — Source

4

CRACKED.COM A fan colorizes I Love Lucy better than CBS. When CBS started colorizing / Love Lucy, Lucille Ball's hair ended up looking like some radioactive carrot. Zach Smothers of Pop-colorture.com doesn't have CBS' budget, but he managed to get much better results. — Source

3

CRACKED.COM Third-world country doesn't mean poor country. RUSSIA CANADA BONKOLIA UNITED STATES CHINA KOREA Libre SAND - - - - BRAZIL AUST During the Cold War, the countries allied with the U.S. were the First World, while those in the Second World were with the USSR. If your country was neutral, rich or poor, that made it Third World. — Source

2

CRACKED.COM She-Hulk was created for copyright reasons. With The Incredible Hulk being successful on TV, Marvel feared a spin-off would be made featuring a female version of the character. So they tasked Stan Lee with creating her himself, just to make sure they would own the rights. — Source

1

CRACKED.COM Shops used X-rays to check the fitting of shoes. Sure, just trying on the shoe is often enough, but using a shoe-fitting fluoroscope was undeniably cooler. Too bad that people in the '30s didn't understand how stupidly irresponsible and dangerous this was. — Source

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