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These facts have a lot to offer

37 Cocky Bits of Trivia That Are Itching to Show Your Brain What They’ve Got

December 05, 2024

The squeaky fact gets the brain-grease. That’s the saying, right?

It should be. Sure, a fact could just sit there all polite and humble, waiting for someone to come along and read it, but that might not cut it in the fact game. In this day and age, it’s not enough to be interesting, and self-promotion is a huge part of breaking into the brain biz.

Think about it. Would your brain want to find the facts, or have the facts find it? That’s what we thought. Here’s some loud facts coming at you right now.

37

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was a natural blond CRACKED.COM In retrospect, no normal hair product could possibly achieve such a soaring quaff. Не would actually smother his mane in shoe polish. — Source: 14 Bizarro Celebrity Facts That Sound Like Mad Libs

36

Skiing

One guy spent seven hours skiing down from the world's second highest mountain peak. Не climbed for three and a half days to get up there - without any additional oxygen, which is pretty badass. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

Lung Cancer

We've gotten much, much better at treating and detecting lung cancer. In fact, we've gotten so much better than before that overall cancer mortality rates are declining. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

Sir Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Stewart's lifelong dream was to play Othello, Shakespeare's famously dark-skinned lead. And in 1997, he did. He played a white Othello in

33

Mad TV

David Herman got himself fired from Mad TV. GRAGKED.COM The Office Space actor wanted to leave the show to do other projects, but Fox would not let him out of his contract, so he screamed all of his lines at a read-through to get him- self canned. — Entertainment Weekly

32

Hoodies

Hoodies were made to keep athletes and workers warm, in the 1930s. 11,00 HOODED COTTON SHIRTS ROCKNE SIDELINE COAT No. F718-A waterproof coat Dark cotton gray fleece only lined to abitt order ية 15 hood No. and C700H-Heavy pocket. with a heavy wool high lining, quality zipper tan hood. full belt practical coat, warm and order Price........... and knee length. about one week. exactly na made by A for Notre Dame. To $2.00 only in ten days in US small, medium and large $17.00 $11.85 ora. No. To C702II-Same order only. as Price........ above in all standard 82.15 SLD DL — Source: 23 'Modern' Things That Are JUST. SO. OLD.

31

Mr. Deeds

Rigyan Dav Halkon MANDRAKE 1898 FALLS inform in FIRR DEPARTMENT An The 2002 Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds was a remake of a 1936 film called Mr. Deeds Goes to Town which itself was based on a 1935 short story called Opera Hat. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Geraldo Rivera

Geraldo Rivera was kicked out of Iraq after drawing a map during a live broadcast. CRACKED.COM In 2003, Geraldo Rivera was expelled from Iraq by the US military for broadcasting details about future U.S. troop movements in the country by drawing a map of Iraq in the sand, labeling where an Airborne unit was located and where it would be going next. — CNN

29

Weed

The first thing bought and sold on the internet was a x bag of marijuana. Dolopoint 2200 In the early '70s, students at Stanford used ARPANET to arrange a sale to students at MIT. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Florida Building Codes

South Florida's building code requires that exterior doors swing outward. That type of door allows people inside to leave a building more quickly, and the new code was adopted after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Exploding Head Syndrome

A disorder called exploding head syndrome makes it hard to fall asleep. After falling asleep, people with EHS sometimes wake up, feeling as if a loud bang went off. Nothing else happens, and the cause is unknown. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: NIH

26

Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs viewed his stories the way McDonalds views Big Macs. He read pulp fiction and figured he could churn out something just as bad, S

25

Dum Dums

MYSTERY FLAVOR DUM DUMS EXIST TO AVOID CLEANING THE MACHINES. When a flavor is running out, they just plop the next one on top and a batch MYSTERA of

24

Reality Show Suicides

Reality shows with dark sides Suicides, suicides everywhere As of 2020, reality TV had led to around 40 suicides. Our mushy monkey brains are simply not made for the pressures, dynamics, and consequences of this sort of entertainment. But asking for help? Yeah, that's a built-in Darwinian feature. CRACKED.COM — Source: The Guardian

23

Eminem

Eminem repeated the 9th grade three times. CRACKED.COM After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades, he dropped out of Lincoln High School at age 17. — Source

22

Alan Turing

ALAN TURING came up with the idea of a universal Turing machine, which was like a blueprint for a computer, and helped create the first electronic computer-all in the 1940s. CRACKED — Arthur Reginald Chaffin/Wiki Commons
American Scientist

21

Rick Moranis

Rick Moranis RICK MORANIS Theagerephobic Comboy CRACKEDCON The quintessential 80's dweeb left the biz to care for his kids after his wife's death. Now

20

Ugandan Cult Members

There was a Ugandan doomsday cult whose followers surrendered all their wealth to the church. K ALCO CRACKED.COM After the prophesied date passed, many disgruntled followers demanded their money back. The cult lead- ers responded by massa- cring over 900 of them. The leaders were never caught. — BBC / Wikipedia

19

Helium on the Moon

A helium balloon on the moon would plunge to the ground Without air to rise above, the helium might as well be lead. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Orcas

AN ORCA'S FEAR SPARKED A WAVE OF ATTACKS. Since 2020, there have been a lot of orca attacks in the Strait of Gibraltar. It looks like a scared orca might have started it all, and apparently it taught its young to ram ships. CRACKED — Andrew Sutton/Shutterstock
News.com.au

17

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway hunted German U-boats in the Caribbean during WWII. CRACKED COM Hemingway used his fish- ing boat named after his ex-wife (Pilar) to hunt Ger- mans, armed only with Thomson machine guns and hand grenades. Не was given unlimited gasoline by the US government. — Source

16

Mineral Shortages

IC50 WE COULD RUN OUT OF... Minerals 2R2 used in electronics, medical equipment, 10 and renewable energy We could run out of some of these minerals in less than a century. On the plus side, that makes the threat from our new AI overlords look a touch less scary. CRACKED — raigvi/Shutterstock
E&T Magazine

15

Oil Consumption

The United States, China and Japan US are the top three oil 20% consumers in the world. CHINA 11.7% Americans use more JAPAN oil than China and Japan 5.3% COMBINED. GRACKED.COM — Source

14

PETA

PETA sued photographer David J. Slater for publishing this photo. Naruto, the now famous monkey, had picked up the camera from where the photographer

13

Holy Holland Height

The Netherlands has the tallest population on earth. Vermeer Mill CRACKED.COM No one knows why for sure, but the leading theory is that their diets contain the most milk, and therefore higher levels of calcium. — BBC / World Atlas

12

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.

11

Thornton Jones

United Kingdom, 1924 Thornton Jones CUT HIS OWN THROAT WHILE SLEEPING. I dreamt that / had done it, Jones wrote for his family. I awoke to find it — Source: The Evening Star

10

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: Mental Floss

9

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is sitting on a bunch of information about Jack the Ripper. NEW SCOTLAND VARD For some reason, they just don't want to release it apparently, they have four ledgers with information they refuse to publish. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

The Cinnamon Challenge

GRACKED TERRIBLE NETTRENDS CHOKING TO DEATH ON CINNAMON The Cinnamon Challenge has been linked to the death of a four-year-old, who choked to death after ingesting nearly a whole container of cinnamon powder. — Oksana Shufrych/Shutterstock
Vice

7

The Sopranos

COMEDY NERD Will Arnett had a very small (and very obscure) role in The Sopranos. It wasn't comedic at all-for two episodes, he played the husband of an FBI agent who becomes friends with Chris' girlfriend Adriana. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

The Wizard of Oz

In The Wizard of oz, they banned the main actors from eating in the cafeteria. The actors who played the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion apparently looked so gross eating in makeup, they couldn't have lunch in the cafeteria. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vanity Fair

5

Belgium

CRACKED.COM Belgium attempted to use cats to deliver mail. In 1879, in the city of Liège, the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat had the idea of using cats in the same way as carrier pigeons, giving them small waterproof postbags. The results were disappointing, and the experiment was cancelled. — Source

4

Starsky and Hutch

Starsky & Hutch was based on two real-life NYC cops. CRACKED.COM Lou Telano and John Sepe went undercov- er as Hasidic Jews, gay lovers, and fe- male nurses in the 1960s and 1970s. — NY Daily News / Wikipedia

3

Naps

STUDY, THEN NAP CRACKED c A quick 45-60-minute nap can vitalize your memory. Researchers found that napping triggers a staccato of electrical impulses they call sleep spindles, which play a major part in the whole being able to remember all that stuff you just hurriedly learned part of studying. — For details, read 5 Awesome Life Hacks Hidden In Your Own Body

2

Ugly Laws

Several cities made it illegal to be disabled in public. Cles BOL ATI RY ST CIG Back in the late 1800s, several major U.S. cities passed unsightyly b — From 5 Insane Ways History's Screwed Over Disabled People.

1

Batman: The Musical

Warner Bros. wanted a Batman musical. In the late '90s, Warner Bros. approached songwriter Jim Steinman to create, of all things, an official Batman musical for Broadway. It was never produced, but some of the songs (sung by Batman, Joker, and Catwoman) can be heard on YouTube, while another song ended up in a Meat Loaf album. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Random Facts For Your General Edification

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