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40 Random Bits of Trivia Wholeheartedly Endorsed By Every Fact-Finder on Earth

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41 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Make You Seem Like the Authority on the Subject Until An Inevitable Follow-Up Question Is Asked

Careful, the more confidently you spout these, the more questions people will ask

41 Random Bits of Trivia That’ll Make You Seem Like the Authority on the Subject Until An Inevitable Follow-Up Question Is Asked

January 06, 2025

All we’re saying is that if you’re going to blast these around town like some self-assured fact missionary, you better read a little deeper into each topic. A random fact is interesting enough to want to share it with the world, but it only scratches the surface of a topic with a lot more to learn about.

Take it from us. You don’t want to be the person who has to pull up Google seconds after confidently dropping serious knowledge.

41

Tina Fey

Tina Fey Fey is a 1988 graduate of Upper Darby High School in Upper Darby, PA. Naturally she was involved in her school's drama club- but was also editor of the school paper. GRACKED.COM — source: classmates.com

40

Hidden Treasure

Who buried the Saddle Ridge Hoard? While walking their dog, a California couple found in their property over 1,400 19th- century gold coins, worth a grand total of $10 million. Most of the coins were never circulated, and are in mint condition. It's the largest buried treasure ever discovered in the U.S. CRACKED.COM — Source

39

The United Nations

United Nations forces are often called blue helmets because of their light blue headwear, same as the UN flag. The bright blue also serves to quickly and obviously identify them as UN forces even to faraway snipers. CRACKED.COM — Source: UN

38

The MCU

Marvel teased fans for decades with Bucky Barnes' return. For a long time, Marvel had a standing rule that Captain America's dead sidekick would never be brought back but that didn't mean they couldn't suggest the possibility to boost sales. Many fake Buckys came and went until the Winter Soldier storyline revived him for real in 2005. — More: 4 Falcon And Winter Soldier Stories Marvel Wants To Forget About

37

Birds

Pigeon and Dove are interchangeable terms. The Pigeons typically seen in cities are real- ly Rock Doves, and the Doves released at weddings are really Homing Pigeons. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

36

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie thought she was lroquois. AN B, ANG JC 444 CRACKED COM Her false heritage is, ironically, familial. Her mother allegedly made the false

35

John Lennon

John Lennon was a gentle, peace-loving hippie. But he was also abusive to women and his kid. John admitted in a Playboy interview that when he was you

34

Avatar

33

Katy Perry

32

Nancy Carell

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS Outer-course advice was given by NANCY CARELL HOW TO STOP BULLY CRACKED.COM Steve met his wife Nancy at Chicago's Second City. They auditioned together for SNL in 1995 and Nancy was the one who actually landed the gig. She also showed up on The Office as Carol Stills, Michael Scott's realtor and sometimes girlfriend. — Rare

31

The MoMA

The MoMA hung a painting upside down for 47 days before someone realized INCORRECT CORRECT A visitor was one who caught the wrong orientation of Matisse's Le Bateau. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED COM — Source: Art Net

30

Step Brothers

BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACTS WILL FERRELL'S FAKE TESTICLES COST A LOT OF MONEY. STEP BROTHERS The prosthetic testicles Ferrell's character slams on the drums cost a whopping $10,000. The comedian says he decided to keep the prop testicles and that he regularly brings them out during dinner parties. CRACKED.COM — The Big Lead

29

The Walking Dead

Lauren Cohan auditioned for The Walking Dead by sticking her head out of a castle window. She was in an Irish castle for a wedding, and they asked her to film herself with more light, but it was super dark so she poked her head out and filmed that. CRACKED.COM — Source: Vulture

28

Kraft Mac and Cheese

CRACKED KRAFT MAC AND CHEESE WAS ORIGINALLY SOLDIER RATIONS. Kraft mac and cheese was created in 1916 and was first sold to the U.S. military to feed troops during World War I. — Smithsonian Magazine

27

Dyers

It became Jewish law that any woman could divoce her husband if he became a dyer. CRACKED.COM Making a purple pigment used to dye clothes for royal- ty in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome involved harvest- ing the pigment from rotting snails, which smelled so bad that the divorce law was spe- cifically written. — Source

26

Fleas

IF FLEAS WERE AS TALL AS PEOPLE, THEY COULD JUMP OVER 15 CARS And that's bumper to bumper. Fleas can jump 38 times their body length. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan Не has an extensive list of injuries. Doing his own stunts comes with a price: dislocated shoulders, spinal damage, a lacerated lip, broken teeth, and around ten broken bones. While shooting 1986's Armour of God, he hit his head with a rock, and a piece of bone got into his brain. CRACKED.COM — Sources: Showbiz CheatSheet, /Film

24

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston narrated the nuclear industry's training films. When a Los Alamos worker complained about their boring videos, another one asked Who

23

Ophelia

CRACKED DAME JUDI DENCH'S CONNECTION TO SHAKESPEARE. As a Shakespearean actor, her first ever role was as Ophelia in Hamlet. The play is set in Denmark's Elsinore castle (where Ophelia lived), and Dench's 10x great-aunt was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Denmark in that very castle. BFI LON FESTIVA — Source

22

Tucker Carlson

TUCKE Tucker Carlson used to be for truth in reporting (and was booed for it). Carlson was never progressive, but there was a time when he cared about facts. The New York Times is a liberal paper ... but it's a paper that cares about accuracy, he said at CPAC 2009. Conservatives need to ... mirror those institutions. The audience booed him. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Keith Richards

CRACKED.COM Keith Richards literally composed (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in his sleep. Richards woke up in the middle of the night, recorded about 30 seconds of the song on a tape recorder, and then fell back asleep. In the morning he didn't remember any of it, until he played the recording. — Source: 15 Of Our Favorite Songs (Have Surprising Backstories)

20

Bad Predictions

HOME 50 5 APPLIANCES 1955 CRACKED.COM Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years. -Alex Lewyt, vacuum company president. We have nuclear power today, but it makes a lot more sense to produce it centrally than to stick a reactor in every appliance. — Source

19

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

18

Golf

A green jacket from the Augusta National Golf Club was purchased at a thrift store for $5. CRACKED COM The famed green jack- et had a tag that said it was from the 1950s and was bought from the thrift store in 2017. It sold at auction for $139,000. — Source

17

Chisso

A Japanese chemical company polluted a bay so much, they mined the mercury from it. CRACKED COM The bay polluted by Chisso Corporation had sediment containing up to 2 kg of mercury per ton. This con- centration made mining economically viable, so the company set up a subsidi- ary to do just that. — Source

16

The Conjuring

CRACKEDCON CONJURING THE is based on a real haunted house in Rhode Island... And its current owner Norma Sutcliffe is now constantly haunted by fans

15

Pear Cider

There is no such thing as pear cider. CRACKED.COM Perry is the alcoholic drink made from pears, which was popular in England un- til the 20th century and then revived as pear ci- der. Cider, however, is ex- clusively made from fer- mented apples. — Source

14

The SMS Cap Trafalgar

In WWI, the German ship SMS Cap Trafalgar was disguised to look like British ocean liner RMS Carmania in order to raise hell behind enemy lines. But the first ship the Trafalgar encountered was the real Carmania, which laid waste to the imposter. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Bambi

Bambi made no money early on, and critics called it stuff like entirely unpleasant. They said the movie was awful because the animals were so animal-like, unlike Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. CRACKED.COM — Source: 24 Pop Culture Iconic Things (That Bombed Initially)

12

Monopoly

The Royal family is not allowed to play Monopoly. CCADIL WATER WORKS CRACKED.COM There is no law against it, but the Duke of York disclosed that the game is no longer played simply because it gets too vicious and too competitive. — Source

11

Star Wars

J.J. ABRAMS' TEACHER INSPIRED MAZ KANATA. The character of Maz Kanata, who provided inspiration for Rey, was herself inspired by J.J. Abrams' English teacher, Rose Gilbert. Abrams calls her timeless and wise. CRACKED.COM — 12 Bizarre Inspirations Behind Star Wars Movie Characters

10

American Psycho II

WORST SEQUELS EVER AMERICAN PSYCHO II: ALL AMERICAN GIRL The very definition of a cash-grab, this movie was supposed to be called The Girl Who Wouldn't Die, (which sounds splattery enough), but the title was changed mid-production in order to make it a loosely-connected American Psycho sequel. CRACKED.COM — 5 Trash Sequels That Failed Beloved Films

9

Nothing Compares 2 U

Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U was written by Prince for a band he assembled. Prince chose not to release the song himself, so he gave it to The Family, a band he created but wasn't a part of. — Source: The Guardian
Listen to the original

8

Jeff Richards and Taran Killam

Only two actors appeared in both MADtv and SNL Feedpo RK MIC CRACKED.COM ACULA The only two comedians to become cast members on both MADtv and SNL were Jeff Richards and Taran Killam. Despite the success of MADtv's illustrious alumni, Richards and Killam were the only ones who managed to jump ship and join MAD's arch nemesis, not counting Keegan-Michael Key, who hosted an episode of SNL in May 2021. — Source: 12 Angry Facts About MADtv, SNL's Wilder, Louder, Messier Little Brother

7

Fukushima

Fukushima, Japan, has become a tourist attraction. There are tours organized by the local authorities or you can ride a bus across the nuclear disaste

6

November 22nd

CRACKED NOVEMBER 22: DEATHS OF C.S. LEWIS, JFK, AND ALDOUS HUXLEY On November 22, 1963, C.S. Lewis died in Oxford, England, John F. Kennedy died in Dallas, Texas, and Aldous Huxley died in Los Angeles. — NC Register / ABC

5

The Moon

AUSTRALIA IS WIDER THAN THE MOON The moon has more square area, but Australia is almost 4000 kilometres, compared to the Moon's 3,475 km. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Titanic

James Cameron made the drawing of Rose in Titanic (and those are his hands in the shot). CRACKED.COM — Source: 6 Actors Hidden In Your Favorite Films

3

World War II

WWII landmines are being dug up, and reused, by ISIS. Because the Sahara's dry, hot climate is great for preserving things, plenty of the 17 milliom landmines left there after WWII still work. So ISIS has been digging them up and MacGyvering them into IEDs. CRACKED.COM — Source: 18 Historical Facts That Don't Get Mentioned

2

Modern Slavery

Warrington, England - The couple who trafficked people and kept them as slaves - A couple in their thirties were caught luring two separate Luthuanian — Source: BBC

1

The Most Relaxing Song in the World

ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF SOUND THERAPY, THERE IS A MOST RELAXING SONG. CRACKED It was determined to be Weightless by the Marconi Union. — Source

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