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These facts oughta knock the dust off of that sleepy ol’ brain of yours

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Freshen Up Your Crusty Brain Like a Mental Urinal Cake

October 19, 2024

We heard that you have some really high-class facts coming over soon, so we wanted to help liven up your brain with some of these.

Don’t get us wrong, they’re good, solid, true facts. They’re just not guest-facing facts, ya know? They’re more “back-of-house” facts. They’ll get your brain ready to host a factual dinner party, but you’ll definitely have to stuff them in the broom closet before your hoity-toity facts get here.

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The Freshest Random Facts!

Transformers could have been Muffy the volkswagen. When Hasbro approached Marvel about creating a story for their new toyline, one of Marvel's pitches was about Muffy (short for Muffler), a transforming VW who hanged out with three kids and their dog. Luckily, Hasbro went with the (slightly) less silly proposal about alien robots. CRACKED.COM — Source

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The Freshest Random Facts!

Led zeppelin kept stealing from black artists. Led Zeppelin loved blues so much that they repeatedly swiped songs by black II blues artists, and just shrugged when they got hit by lawsuits. Willie Dixon won two separate suits against them over different songs-both of them in the same album. CRACKED.COM — Source

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The Freshest Random Facts!

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Freshen Up Your Crusty Brain Like a Mental Urinal Cake — Source

37

The Freshest Random Facts!

coca-cola's Tab clear was made crappy on purpose. The colorless, caffeine-free NEW FROM Coca-Cola Crystal Pepsi was selling well in the early '90s-and Соса- TaB TRADE - Cola wanted to stop that. So they launched Tab Clear, a product that was similar but much worse, so that its bad - reputation would tarnish the CLEAR very idea of a clear cola and sink Crystal Pepsi. And guess what-it worked. lathorized by The Coca-Cola Company CRACKED.COM — Source

36

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED.COM NO, Lorena Bobbitt wasn't some knife- happy crazy woman. Bobbitt became a punchline in the '90s as someone who randomly chopped off her husband's dick. No one bothered to point out at the time that he had horribly abused her for years, a fact acknowledged by both the prosecution and the defense. Не keeps sending her love letters-but sure, let's call her crazy. — Source

35

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED.COM Fake dating profiles were already a thing in the 1880s. A gazette in the U.K. promised high-class matches to men and women (mostly men). For a fee, you could contact one of the wealthy ladies who placed ads-who then suddenly stopped being available. This early catfishing scam went on for a solid decade. — Source

34

The Freshest Random Facts!

The Phantom Menace even CGl'd Natalie Portman. She limped in some scenes because she had hurt her ankle, so the VFX team had to give her CGI legs in them. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

33

The Freshest Random Facts!

The night-time sequence in Mad Max: Fury Road was shot in bright daylight. They just heavily overexposed the footage to turn it into a deep blue night. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

32

The Freshest Random Facts!

Originally, Groot was going to be all grown up again in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. But James Gunn decided to keep him as baby Groot because he thought that'd be too repetitive. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

31

The Freshest Random Facts!

95% of Mongolians are lactose intolerant, even though their diet relies on milk from seven mammal species. They can consume milk products only thanks to gut bacteria that digest the x lactose for them. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

30

The Freshest Random Facts!

You can't revive someone who's flatlining with a defibrillator. Unlike in movies, if you actually tried to shock someone who had flatlined back into life, you wouldn't accomplish anything. The only thing that can help them is CPR. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

29

The Freshest Random Facts!

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he flinched from a reporter's microphone. Не thought the very modern-looking microphone might have been a weapon developed during the nearly 30 years he'd spent inside. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

The Freshest Random Facts!

In 1966, the USSR put out a gas fire with a nuclear bomb. The fire had been burning in a gas well for three years, and they'd tried everything from capping the well to reducing the flow of gas. The bomb put out the fire in 23 seconds. The Soviets were so delighted, they did the same thing with four more gas fires over the years. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

27

The Freshest Random Facts!

A 12-year-old slave invented modern vanilla pollination. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave on the island of Réunion, figured out how to pollinate vanilla plants by hand - which hugely boosted vanilla productivity, and made the modern vanilla industry possible. And we're still using his method today. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The Freshest Random Facts!

50-80% of the human genome comes from viruses. Retroviruses can leave their genetic information in their host and pass it down to the host's children. Over millions of years, massive amounts of viral DNA can build up in a host's genome - as happened to humans, apparently. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

The Freshest Random Facts!

Turns out, rats are actually pretty altruistic. An experiment found that rats will not only work to free another rat who's trapped in a plastic tube, they'll sometimes free the other rat before opening a plastic box with chocolate. And they'll share the chocolate with the rat that they just freed. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

The Freshest Random Facts!

In 1777, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode through New York to rally American troops. Colonel Ludington received a warning about an incoming British attack, but had to prepare for the battle, so his daughter rode through the countryside to rally his men. She rode all night in the rain, covering 20 to 40 miles, and mobilized hundreds of soldiers. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

The Freshest Random Facts!

Learning to play a piano makes you better at math. After 8 months of piano lessons, students went from scoring in the 30th to the 65th percentile on the Stanford 9 Math Test. CRACKED COM — Source

22

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED SUPER WT ROAD BISHOPSGATE MAYF BOUR 1. KINGS ROAD COLLECT €600k 2. KE £2M AS YOU PASS CAM GO MONOPOLY In the US version of Monopoly, the orange group of properties - St James Place, Tennessee Avenue, and New York Avenue - are statistically the likeliest spots for players to land when they get out of Jail. So: buy those. — Source

21

The Freshest Random Facts!

I CFi i II A 1-dt The Futurama Theorem. Created by Futurama writer Ken Keeler for the Season 6 episode The Prisoner of Benda, this states that regardless of how many mind switches between two bodies have been made, they can still all be restored to their original bodies using only two extra people. CRACKED — Source

20

The Freshest Random Facts!

The Matrix's code is a bunch of scrambled sushi recipes. To make the iconic code, production and concept designer Simon Whiteley scanned the kanji from his wife's Japanese cookbooks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Movie (And Other Cool Stuff) Now-You-Know Facts

19

The Freshest Random Facts!

Dallas Buyers' Club total makeup budget was $250. But it won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Movie (And Other Cool Stuff) Now-You-Know Facts

18

The Freshest Random Facts!

Aside from being a patriot, Paul Revere was a silversmith, but when that revenue stream dried up, he studied to be a dentist. He studied under John Ba

17

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED.COM In NBA Jam, the Detroit Pistons were basically invincible against the Chicago Bulls. FBEEPLAY PIppen PRESS PBESS PRESS STOBT START START T

16

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED.COM MORE SERIAL KILLERS ARE BORN IN JANUARY THAN ANY OTHER MONTH A study of 293 serial killer spread across 29 countries all over the world revealed that 11.2% of those were born in January, even though the month of January has 7.9% of all births. Fun fact: Hannibal Lecter was born on January 20, 1933. — Source

15

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED COM The RV crash scene in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives was a way to screw over the producer. o Producer Don Behrns would get a chunk o

14

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED Scientists used lasers and Fibonacci to create a new phase of matter. A= 1 dt Physicists shot a laser at atoms in a Fibonacci sequence, and found that it created a new phase of matter. This new phase is more robust in preserving information than the current methods used. — Source

13

The Freshest Random Facts!

NUMBER FACTS CRACKED.COM A THOUSAND SECONDS IS ABOUT 16 MINUTES. 12 17 m 9 3 12 11 10 mella A MILLION SECONDS IS ABOUT ONE AND A HALF WEEKS. A BILLION SECONDS IS ALMOST 32 YEARS. — Source

12

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED -n.d. Marriage mathematics. It takes five positive interactions to overcome one negative interaction in a marriage. Researchers Gottman and Levenson found this ratio may be key to happy, stable marriages. (2xFx0 EOQ — Source

11

The Freshest Random Facts!

CRACKED DOPPELGANGERS The chances of having an exact twin are pretty slim - only one in 135. But if you look at the bigger picture - attributes like the overall shape of your face-it's more likely that you have a doppelganger out there. — Source

10

The Freshest Random Facts!

Indie films have a wider audience now. SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Thanks to digital distributors like Netflix, the number of Sundance films that received

9

The Freshest Random Facts!

Amphicoelias Fragillimus, possibly the largest dinosaur that ever existed, giving a modern elephant a piggy back ride. GRAGKED.COM — Source

8

The Freshest Random Facts!

Michael Fassbender says Aaron Sorkin's script for Steve Jobs was overwhelming, and a lot of the tech jargon flew over his head. Fassbender didn't have — Sources: The Guardian, The Independent

7

The Freshest Random Facts!

Stephen Dillane who played Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones had no idea what was going on. Dillane didn't understand the plot and says he regrets — Source: Entertainment Weekly

6

The Freshest Random Facts!

Dame Judi Dench didn't know what was happening in The Chronicles of Riddick. Said Dame Judi about the bizarre movie: Tremendous fun, but I had absolu — Source: The Irish Times

5

The Freshest Random Facts!

Edgar Allan Poe became a legend thanks to a spiteful rival. Poe never made much money from his writing while living. But sales of his books skyrockete

4

The Freshest Random Facts!

Gregor Mendel's work was overlooked in his time. Mendel's experiments with peas were taken to be applicable only to peas, even by himself. Today he's

3

The Freshest Random Facts!

THE JETSONS IS A FUTURISTIC BLONDIE. Meet a father with a thankless job, his wife, their two children, and their grey dog. When The Jetsons came BLOND

2

The Freshest Random Facts!

POLTERGEIST WAS INSPIRED BY THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The TWILGHT ZONE The 1960s episode Little Girl Lost follows a plot almost identical to the 1982 mov

1

The Freshest Random Facts!

In 1966, two men were found lying on a hill in Brazil, uninjured but dead. And they were wearing lead masks. The men, who were identified as electroni

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