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43 Random Bits of Trivia That Our Parents Threatened to Throw Out If We Didn’t Dig Them Out of Our Childhood Closet

We’re just going to give these facts away anyways, mom!

43 Random Bits of Trivia That Our Parents Threatened to Throw Out If We Didn’t Dig Them Out of Our Childhood Closet

November 08, 2024

On our most recent visit home, our dad was making these not-so-subtle remarks about the mountain of facts we still have in “his house.”

Okay dad, your attic, basement, crawl space and two spare bedroom closets have more than enough space to house these, but we guess we’ll get this burdensome batch out of here. Since our tiny bachelor apartment is already overflowing with facts, you guys can treat this list like a sack on the lawn with a big “FREE” sign on it.

There. Happy now, dad?!?!

43

El Soboo

CRACKED EL SOBOO El Soboo is an Egyptian tradition that dates back to Ancient Egypt. On the seventh day after a baby is born, people make a lot of noise by banging on pots and singing loudly. This is done to help the baby develop their sense of hearing. — Egypt Today / Peace Bene

42

Jaws

The Jaws shark was named after Spielberg's lawyer. The crew called him Bruce, after Bruce Ramer. CRACKED.COM — NPR

41

Red Lobster

A Red Lobster president lost her job after creating an endless crab promotion. Red Lobster Edna Morris tried to boost profits with a $22.99 din- ner promotion, but instead lost millions by bungling her calculations on how many times patrons would refill their plates with pric- ey crab. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

40

A Clockwork Orange

CRACKED.COM Stanley Kubrick had A Clockwork Orange pulled from the British market. STANLEY KUBRICK'S CLOCKWORK RANGE When the movie was released, the UK was dealing with a wave of crime, and some lawyers said their clients were only emulating the movie. Kubrick's family even got death threats. So the movie was banned in the UK from a year after its release until 1999, when Kubrick died. — Source

39

Penis Statue

WEIRD WORLD One guy in New York state put a giant seven-foot dong on his front lawn. But it only stayed, uh, up for a few days in total - state police soon showed up and arrested him. Months later, though, the charges got dropped. CRACKED.COM — Source

38

Goodwill

Goodwill executives make mid six figures while workers get $12.55 an hour. GOODWILL Regional Goodwill officials in California announced that they would have to cut 100 job training positions if a local measure to raise the minimum wage passed. The CEO of one branch told disabled workers they were getting fired after a minimum wage hike. CRACKED.COM — 15 Evil Things Goodwill Has Done (That Aren't Widely Known)

37

A Different World

GRACKED.COM A Different World The writing staff went on field trips to black colleges. Producer/director Debbie Allen would take the writers to Morehouse College and Spelman College in Atlanta, for them to capture that experience. Media — Source: Television Academy Interviews

36

Gay Marriage

Gay couples in Chile are finally tying the knot. Same-sex couples have been able to enter into civil unions since 2015, but marriage between the couples was not recognized until a bill was pushed through at the end of 2021 in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. CRACKED.COM — Source: BBC

35

Good Burger

CRACKED.COM Good Burger There was nearly a ton of rotting meat on set. According to Kenan Thompson, at one point there was 1,750 pounds of meat on set that the poor extras had to pretend to eat, as the burgers got older and older with each take. — Source

34

Sly Cooper

Video game movies we were denied Sly Cooper The movie was never officially canceled, but it never entered production after it was announced back in 2014. CRACKED.COM — Source: SimpleGamer

33

Pandas

1/2 of all panda births are twins However, it's very rare for both to survive to adulthood. The mother will pick the strongest cub to care for, abadoning the weaker one. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

Bruno Mars

BRUNO MARS was arrested in 2010 in Vegas for FELONY COCAINE POSSESSION. The charges were only dismissed after the singer paid a $2,000 fine, went through 8 hours of counseling, and completed 200 HOURS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

TV Firsts

The First Couple to Share a Bed Mary Kay and Johnny got away with sharing a bed- and the first on-screen pregnancy in 1948 -because the titular couple

30

Girls

what's the deal with GIRLS? Girls is banned from the University of IOW A Hannah gets into the prestigious lowa Writers Workshop, but campus filming was a no-go. The University believed the show would cast an unfavorable light. Actual Workshop participants say scenes were believable, except for Hannah getting accepted — Vulture

29

Star Trek

Star Trek: The Next Generation featured the PADD, sci-f technology extremely similar to the iPad. The fictional mobile touch-screen Personal Access Display Devices has many similarities to the very real iPad created 30 years later. CRACKED.COM — Source: Ars Technica

28

Paper Size

Most of the world uses the A series of paper sizes; doubling in size but maintaining the same aspect ratio throughout. Neat. 841 841 A1 GOLD 594 x 841 AO reamstime 1189 841x1189 A3 297 . 420 A2 420 x 594 A5 - A4 207 -210 . AS Meanwhile, the US only uses two sizes of paper: Letter, and Legal, which is slightly longer than letter-sized. GRACKED.COM — Source

27

The Hobbit

Peter Jackson THE HOBBIT CRACKED.COM It's hard to find fault with his carrot-eating cameo in Fellowship. But when he later shows up as the very same carrot muncher in The Hobbit, he creates a time paradox. The same guy, 60 years in the past, but looking 10 years older? It's more than a simple anachronism; it's a big red flag signifying the lack of care he took in creating The Hobbit films. — Source: 14 Unforgivably Gratuitous TV And Movie Cameos

26

Voting on War

A constitutional amendment proposed all acts of war be put to a national vote. CRACKED.COM With the first Great War looming in 1916, a group of Nebraska residents sent a constitutional amendment to Congress that would have enacted a national referendum before lawmakers could declare war. — Huffington Post

25

Candy Bar Price Hikes

April 1947, Canada Canadian kids went on strike to protest a 60% hike in candy bar prices. HERSHEY'S NESTIE FSy CANDY ENACOLATE 9- Bars 8 BabyRuy IS B

24

Movie Showtimes

Having standard showtimes for films was not common until 1960. CRACKED.COM Previously most films would just play on a loop, and people could enter at any time. Hitchcock's Psy- cho required that people watch from the beginning to the end and made show- times more standard. — Source

23

Being Popular

People who are popular in school earn more money as adults. Scientists conducted a long-term survey where they interviewed high school students, then tracked them down 35 years later. They found that kids in the top fifth of the popularity rankings earned 10% more than those who were in the bottom fifth. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Parasite

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

21

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

COMEDY NERD Tom Hanks was almost Brad Hamilton in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At that point, he was just a sitcom star who hadn't even started a movie career yet. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Oliver Reed

OLIVER REED CRACKED COM Reed reportedly drank 100 pints of beer during celebrations before his second wedding. But he said the story was false: Actually, he'd drunk the 100 pints during an earlier arm-wrestling contest. — Source

19

The National Institutes of Health

The NIH has spent $1.55 million on a video game app called Kiddio: Food Fight. In it, you play a mother persuading her kid to taste vegetables. Because harried moms want nothing more than to spend rare moments of leisure playing force the kid to eat veggies on their phones. CRACKED.COM https://salmon house, .gov/media-center/press-releases/ rep-salmon-introduces-final-shrink-our-spending-bill-2015-cuts-funding — Source

18

Street Fighter

STREET FIGHTER WAS BORN DURING A DULL MEETING. 100 STALEST FREHER Capcom programmer Takashi Nishiyama was getting really bored during a long meeting, so he started thinking about martial arts games, and the boss fights in those games, and wouldn't it be cool to make a game that was all about those boss fights. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

Vikings

CRACKED ALL VIKINGS WORE HORNED HELMETS Actuallys the misconception came from a painter who had drawn the Vikings with horned helmets. He was inspir

16

Chris Hayes

Not only did MSNBC host Chris Hayes direct Lin-Manuel Miranda in his first musical while they were in high school together, in college at Brown he dir

15

Jersey Boys

CLINT EASTWOOD'S OLD TV SHOW PLAYS IN JERSEY BOYS. lCRACKEDGOR COM The director's younger self can be seen in the movie while an episode of Rawhide plays on TV. That was my way of having a Hitchcock moment without actually having to do anything, said Eastwood. — The Mirror

14

Things We Put in Our Butts

An endoscopy department in Milan had to come up with a new technique to remove a massive 23 dildo from a 31-year- old man's rectum. It was too smooth

13

Muammar Gaddafi

MATTHEW PERRY'S SHOW SECOND CHANCE SHOWED THE CHARACTER IN HEAVEN WITH ST. PETER AND MUAMMAR GADDAFI. ACCORDING TO THIS SHOW, GADDAFI DIES ON JULY 29,

12

Gilligan’s Island

Gilligan's Island was almost rebooted in the '90s (with more cannibalism). According to James Gunn, Charlie Kaufman managed to get a Gilligan's Island reboot greenlit, with the starving castaways killing and eating each other. The project was nixed by Gilligan's creator Sherwood Schwartz. — More: 'Gilligan's Island' Almost Got An Unthinkable Reboot

11

Saving Private Ryan

Some of the unsubbed German dialogue in Saving Private Ryan is actually Czech. When two German soldiers surrender at Omaha beach and apparently speak German, they're actually saying in Czech Please don't shoot me! I am not German, I am Czech, I didn't kill anyone! I am Czech! — Source: The Independent

10

Bugs Bunny

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, BUGS IS An ODD name FORABUNNY HE ACTUALLY GOT HIS name BEcAuSE OF A MISTAKE. BUGS BUNNY MOOEL SHEET M.M.22. Animator Ben Bug

9

Pet Hyena

CRACKED.COM UINN HARLEY QUINN HARLEY'S PET HYENA IN BIRDS OF PREY WAS ALMOST REAL. Director Cathy Yan considered using an actual hyena, until she learned how stressful and expensive it'd be to safely have a wild animal on set. She ultimately went with a dog that was turned into a hyena via CGI. — Source: Cinemabend

8

Joe Rogan

CRACKED BLACK PEOPLE'S BRAINS Joe Rogan said in an old video that Black people have a different kind of brain than white people. Whenever you're in a situation where you have to say 'I'm not racist', you've fucked up. And I've clearly fucked up, he said about the clip later. — Independent / SCMP

7

Cheese

GRACKED.COM Blur bassist Alex James used his rockstar money to become an award-winning cheesemaker. ALEX JAMES PRESENTS NO. 7 BLUE MONDAY Complex - - - ALEX JAMES - - - Product adidas AN i PRESENTS 2 - - and streets - E - - NO. I - H - - - I - - service - and - 2012 1 FARLEIGH - i I WALLOP GOAT CHEESE Dem - - Не operates a 200-acre cheese farm in Oxfordshire. All I think about is cheese and children these days. — Source

6

Phobias

Liam Payne kind of has a phobia of spoons - if they're someone else's. See I'm not so much scared of spoons, I'll hold one. But I don't like eating with them if they're not my spoons, if that makes sense, he says (uh ... does it?). CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Celebs We Didn't Know Have Very Surprising Phobias

5

Working Overtime

Working overtime is great, because of all the extra money. It's also a lot of extra deadly. That's not hyperbole. People who work 11-hour days run a 6

4

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise CRACKED.com Okay, it's not exactly a surprise that the most famous man in Hollywood changed his name to make it big, but buckle up for this one: Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. There were already three of those, and they thought the world neded more?

3

Poop Bomb

WEIRD WORLD A plane dropped a ton of poop on a guy in his backyard in Windsor, England. All the stuff got ejected when the plane was over his garden, and it covered the whole garden, garden umbrellas, and him, apparently. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Suffragists

Suffragists protested at the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty (on a boat). Program WOMAN SUFFRAGE VOTES for Procession WOME They objected to a woman symbolizing liberty when women couldn't vote, so they chartered a steamer boat and held up protest banners on it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Trout

Female trout fake orgasms. During trout sex, the male and female both quiver, and release the egg and sperm at the same time. But sometimes, the female doesn't release her eggs, so she can keep them for another mate (plus, having more fake orgasms apparently attracts more male trout). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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