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Drag out that rusty old convo from behind the shed and get ‘er goin’ would ya, bud?

45 Random Bits of Trivia to Pull-Start Any Conversation Like A Rickety Old Lawnmower

November 22, 2024

It’s dusty. It’s cobweb-ridden. It hasn’t been useful in years, but we’re not going to let that small talk with your dad rot for another second.

So while he rambles on about the weather, the Yankees and that one interesting thing that happened 30 years ago, you can loudly and confidently interrupt him with a highly interesting fact. You’ll probably scare him, but that might be the little jolt he needs. A gem like, “The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun in July” should save the convo — and your relationship overall.

45

Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis C lpy*k6e Ce Cekc GO Miam CRACKED.COM Kunis was promoting the 2011 film Friends With Benefits when a Russian reporter tried to grill her about Justin Timberlake's career choices: Why is Justin in movies? Isn't music enough? Kunis fired back, in Russian, What kind of question is that? Why are you here? — Source: YouTube

44

Quentin Tarantino

CRACKED REJECTED BY QUENTIN TARANTINO. About Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a female journalist asked him if he deliberately didn't give many lines to Margot Robbie. Не simply responded, Well I just reject your hypothesis. — YouTube / People

43

Cash

Carry crisp new bills when you're shopping. Research shows that people have a subconscious desire not to part with them and therefore you won't spend as much. ESE Se THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1 THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRINATE 1 F 30807041G WASHINGTON D.G A? 6 6 F F 30807041 G AIN 6 Road R 1 SERIES 2013 6 - Summer 1 ONEDOAR CRACKED.COM — Source

42

Pikmin

CRACKEDc Nintendo's hit real-time strategy/ puzzle game, Pikmin, was born from a tech demo featuring Mario. Dubbed as Super Mario 128, the demo featur

41

Helen Mirren

HELEN MIRREN REALLY WANTED TO BE IN A FAST & FURIOUS MOVIE. CRACKED COM In a 2016 interview, Mirren revealed that her dream role was to be in one of the Fast & Furious movies. Shortly after, her dream came true as she got cast as Shaw's mother in The — YouTube

40

Mercenaries

The Holy Roman state of Hesse-Kassel became a mercenary state renting out its army to other major powers. The state maintained strict neutrality, to the point that it would rent out soldiers to both sides of a conflict and the Hessian soldiers would end up fighting each other. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — German Auxiliaries Of Great Britain In The Revolutionary War

39

Jerusalem

Planning on visiting Jerusalem? LERAEA You might start thinking you're a prophet. Victims of this phenomenon always make a white toga then deliver a s — For details, read The 5 Strangest Ways Your Mind Can Get Your Body Sick

38

Moscow

Moscow weathermen can be fined for inaccurate weather forecasting. CRACKED.COM In 2005, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov proposed fining the city-funded weathermen when their forecasts are wrong. This was the same mayor that dispatched cloud-seeding planes to the skies. — CNN

37

Blade Runner

A fight scene got cut from Blade Runner. When Deckard and Gaff search an apartment and find the snake scale, they were supposed to pull down a Murphy — Source: FilmSchoolRejects

36

Australia

The Australian Slouch Hat has one side of the brim turned upwards to aid rifle maneuvering. CRACKED.COM The intention of turning up the right side of the hat was to ensure it would not be caught during the drill move- ment of shoulder arms from order arms. — Source

35

Guano

There was a war over bat poop in 1864. CRACKED COM Spain started a war with Peru and Chile in 1864 by taking over an Island for its strategic source of guano, which at that time was an important ingredient for gunpowder.

34

Bob Hope and Dwight Eisenhower

BOB HOPE AND DWIGHT EISENHOWER In 1943, then-General Eisenhower enjoyed Hope's performance for the troops so much he wanted to meet him, and their fri — Source: Mental Floss

33

Combat Drones

Created with good intentions COMBAT DRONES In 1998, two founders started a company to build a better drone to locate tuna in the ocean. When the Iraq War began, they quickly adapted their plans and their ScanEagle was ready for use in Iraq within three months. The rest is military history. CRACKED — U.S. Navy/Wiki Commons,
funny face/Shutterstock
The Seattle Times

32

KFC

45 Random Bits of Trivia to Pull-Start Any Conversation Like A Rickety Old Lawnmower

31

The Fugitive

THE FUGITIVE was set in Illinois, but the dam from which Dr. Richard Kimble made his famous jump is near Robbinsville, North Carolina. CRACKED.COM

30

Mission to Mars

CRACKED.COM The movie Mission to Mars was based on a Disneyland ride. Before Pirates of the Caribbean, Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars was loosely based on the Tomorrowland ride of the same name. The connection was downplayed in the marketing, though, and it's unclear whether De Palma himself was aware of it. — Source

29

Burger King

Burger King's Where's Herb? ad campaign led to a 40% drop in sales. URGER RING The $40 million campaign rewarded customers who spotted a character n — Source: Pixaura

28

NOFX

CRACKED.COM In 2017, punk band NOFX made an ill-advised joke about the mass shooting in Las Vegas. НА At least they were country fans and not punk rock fans, they said. They were immediately dropped as headliners from the Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Festival, named after one of their own albums. — Source

27

Queen Victoria

CRACKED.COM Queen Victoria had a really creepy stalker. The young Edward Jones was obsessed with the newly crowned Victoria. He would cover himself in grease to squeeze through Buckingham Palace's chimneys, and then remain hidden, just to be near the queen and steal her personal items. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

26

Drake

Source: The Spirits Business

25

Buildings

The lower floors of a building used to be meant for wealthy people. CRACKED COM Before the invention of el- evators, and for many years after, the building's lowest floors were prime real estate meant for the wealthy, and the higher floors were for servants. — Source

24

Richard II

In Game of Thrones, JOFFREY is a villainous boy king who comes to a sticky end. He's a lot like Richard II, who ascended to the throne of England at t

23

Beavers

BEAVERS CRACKED.COM Sadly, just the Eurasian ones. Unlike North American beavers, who mate outside their bonded partners, Eurasian beavers team up for life. Couples split the workload of maintaining their dams, guarding their territory, and sharing parenting duties. — Source: bbcearth

22

North Carolina

WEIRD WORLD A North Carolina city has been getting invaded by swarms of buzzards. To make things worse, they throw up when they're threatened, and their poop is acidic. Using loud cannons and effigies to scare them off didn't work. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

America

FOR TRIPS OF LESS THAN ONE MILE... 70% OF AMERICANS WILL DRIVE. 70% OF EUROPEANS WILL WALK, BIKE, OR USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Thriller

Michael Jackson's THRILLER is so much more than a music video. In December 1983, the 13-minute short film was solely responsible for increasing MTV's ratings tenfold. It is the only music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. CRACKED — Source

19

The Pyramids

THE PYRAMIDS WEREN'T BUILT BY SLAVES. Despite what you've seen in movies, the Egyptian pyramids were the work of paid laborers working on three-month shifts. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

World War II

The U.S. tried to fight Japan with radioactive foxes. WWII's Operation Fantasia involved catching foxes, painting them with paint that had radium so they glowed in the dark, and releasing them in Japanese villages. They'd look like mythical kitsune, which was suposed to terrify the Japanese. Mercifully, at one meeting, an official spoke up and convinced everyone they should call off the whole thing. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: Now You Know! 13 Facts About Movies And General Trivia To Un-Bore You

17

Chicken

The chicken you regularly eat is actually injected with a saltwater solution before it's sold. The solution accounts for 15 to 30% of a chicken's weight, and it's added because, apparently, the bird would be too dry without it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Beer

Ancient Egyptians revered beer. They drank it daily and at religious rituals, and gave it divine status. The goddess Hathor was called, among other things, The Lady of Drunkenness. Even laborers, including those who built the pyramids, got a ration of over 10 pints of beer a day. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Progressive Training

Forget static stretching - dynamic drills are the way to go. CRACKED.COM Static stretching does not reduce the risk of running injuries, and an active warm-up with dynamic stretching drills can help improve running performance. Progressive training is the best way to reduce injury risk and improve running performance. — Reuters / Pexels

14

Will Smith

Will Smith was cast as the lead of Fresh Prince at a party at Quincy Jones' place. Не wanted to have at least a week to prepare, but Quincy Jones persuaded him to audition right then and there - so he did. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Toilet Paper Mask

CRACKED ROBBERY WITH A TP MASK A guy in Nashville, Tennessee held up a gas station while wearing a mask made out of toilet paper. The police, for somewhat mystifying reasons, later went through the store's security footage to see if they could figure out who it was. — AP / Super Lucky

12

Perfect Games

In Major League Baseball, there have been only 23 PERFECT GAMES where no one got a hit. The last one was thrown by FÉLIX HERNÁNDEZ in August 2012. CRACKED — Source

11

Walking Around in Circles

According to science, people definitely walk around in circles when lost. The proposed explanation is that that's the result of the brain trying to create a meandering path, but making lots of small errors that happen to favor one particular direction - which turns the path into a circle. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Jericho

When CBS canceled Jericho, fans sent them literal tons of peanuts. When Jericho was canceled, fans freaked out and started sending peanuts to CBS. 40,000 pounds of nuts later, CBS was reconsidering their decision. CRACKED — CBS
ABC News

9

Jason Momoa

Jason Momoa Became A Total Dude Bro For Conan The Barbarian. CARU CARLINS MOMOa Momoa figured the best way to prepare himself to play a barbarian (whi

8

Robert Reed

CRACKED THE BRADY BUNCH ROBERT REED Robert Reed, the actor who played Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch, wouldn't say a line in the show's last episode because he thought it was wrong - he argued that hair tonic can't turn someone's hair orange. And so he wasn't in the finale. — Cheatsheet

7

Dracula

When they shot Bela Lugosi's Dracula, they shot a Spanish version too. The Spanish one was shot at night, when the sets were free, with the same script but a different cast. Today, that version is considered better. CRACKED.COM — Source: remezcla.com

6

Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey was hired by a country club in Texas to set up sand traps in a golf course. Не was later given a gun to shoot armadillos when those critters began eating the grass at the golf course. GRACKED.COM — Source

5

Expensive Music Videos

Directed by Mark Romanek and featuring an excellent sibling dance-off, this $7 million clip combined cutting-edge special effects with really, really shitty ones - the spaceship looks like a George Foreman grill. CRACKED — Source

4

The Expanse Easter Eggs

easter eggstra meanings and references THE The Simpsons EXPANSE $6X 00 There are a couple of references to the popular American sitcom, with a notable one in season 5 when Amos passes a vendor that is clearly selling some Khlav Kalash cuisine in the background. CRACKED.COM — Source: Collider

3

Game of Throne Birthdays

THE STARK CAMP HAD CUPCAKES. Nikolaj Coster- -Waldau celebrated his birthday on the set, in chains. CRACKED.COM

2

Finales

There is no Bob Newhart, there is only Bob Newhart CRACKED.COM In the final scene of Newhart in 1993, Bob Newhart's Dick Loudon wakes up from a dream, only to realize he's actually been Dr. Robert Hartley -- the star of The Bob Newhart Show, which had ended 15 years earlier --

1

The Earth’s Distance from the Sun

The Earth is farthest from the Sun in July Low density of incident rays (northern winter) Earth Night Day Sun Equator High density of incident rays leouthorn cummer In the Northern Hemisphere, we have summer in July because of the tilt of the Earth's axis, not because of the Earth's general proximity to the Sun. CRACKED.COM — Source: Earthsky

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