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Don’t tell Metallica where you got these

40 Pricey Bits of Trivia That We Bought at A Store and Shared Online Like Some Listicle Version of Napster

March 05, 2025

In the music, TV and movie realms, file sharing was quite the controversial topic back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some creators were like, “Hey, you’re getting free copies of our work that you should be paying for,” while others were like, “Sweet, our work is getting out there to a massive audience that we weren’t able to reach before.”

The facts luckily stayed out of this mess. No one has ever been pissy about sharing facts. Well, except spies, government agencies, KFC and Coca-Cola. They don’t really want their plans and recipes out there now do they?

Other than that, though, share away!

40

Victorian Christmas

The Victorians saw Christmas as a time to have a laugh. Their Christmas card art included stuff like a child stuck in a teapot, mice riding lobsters, or a clown with a poker attacking a policeman's butt. CRACKED.COM — Source

39

Open Kettle

Dunkin' 1948 Dunkin Dounto ORIGINAL DUNKIN' LOCATION - ESTABLISHED 1950 CRACKED.COM William Rosenberg opened a donut shop originally called Open Kettle. Donuts were five cents while coffee was 10 cents. — Source

38

The Albatross

CRACKED The wandering albatross has an 11-foot wingspan and can travel thousands of miles in a single journey. They sleep on the wing, and can go for a whole year without touching land at all. Good - stay in the sky where you belong, you monsters. — Source

37

Canadian Swifties

CRACKED THREE MPS REALLY WANT TAYLOR SWIFT TO COME TO CANADA An Alberta Member of Parliament has asked the House of Commons to help them get Taylor Swift to bring her Eras Tour to Canada, filing an official grievance. They have the backing of two other MPs. — CTV News / USA Today

36

Star Wars

The TIE Fighter scream is a blend of the sound of a car on wet ground and elephant noises. To create a laser sound effect, sound designer Ben Burtt mixed a slowed-down elephant's cry and the sound of a car driving on wet pavement. Не used that as a TIE Fighter engine effect placeholder once-and everybody loved TIE Fighter footage with it, so Burtt kept it like that. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

Vaudeville

The term Peanut Gallery came from Vaudeville days. CRACKED.COM The audience in the cheapest and rowdiest seats in the theater of- ten ate peanuts and sometimes threw them at the performers. — Source

34

Anthony Burgess

'A Clockwork Orange' was written over a period of three weeks. CRACKED.COM Anthony Burgess was mis- diagnosed with brain can- cer and given a year to live. Не decided to spend that year writing five nov- els to provide for his wife after his death. Ironically, he outlived her. — Source

33

Wristwatches

Wristwatches were exclusively worn by women until the early 20th century. - IIX Men used only pocketwatches, but wristwatches for men came into style during WWI, when soldiers needed precise timekeeping to coordinate military tactics. They were originally marketed as women's bracelets. GRACKED COM — Source

32

Banking

... - AVA 200 PROGRAM-ID. EVALALSO. 300 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION 400 DATA DIVI 500 WOR 600 YOUR SAVINGS DEPEND ON DECADES-OLD SOFTWARE. STALALSO. 2017 APONMENT DIVISION, DATA DIVISION. 500 WORKING-STORA 600 01 AGE FTC 9,831 PVC X(011 0700 01 GENDER PROCEDURE DIVISION, 00800 ACCEPT AGE 000900 ACCEPT GENUER 001000 EVALUATE 001100 WHYN A ridiculously large part of the world's financial system (including ATMs, credit cards, mortage payments, and so on) relies on software written in COBOL, a language created in 1959. And programmers with the skillset required to maintain that are becoming fewer and fewer, as they're all basically dying off. — Source: 18 Amazingly Interesting Facts To Stick In Your Brain

31

The NIH

FOR NITE POLICE a UNK TEXTURE KB46 ONE HUNDRED KB SAVING FEDERAL NOTE HIPSTERS KB 46279860I B2 860 I TOSHA AND - 500 - Done Coca-Cola - - D A CRACKED.COM HS His Coobede Produce The NIH spent $5 million on an anti-smoking campaign targeted specifically at hipsters, those KB4 focused on the alternative music scene, local artists and designers, and eclectic self expression. 60 I Hipsters went on smoking. A — Source

30

Fergie

Fergie's voice is a big part of the Black-eyed Peas. And it used to be a big part of Peanuts. When she was nine, Fergie voiced Sally in two classic Pe

29

Christmas

40 Pricey Bits of Trivia That We Bought at A Store and Shared Online Like Some Listicle Version of Napster — Source: History

28

Lightning

CRACKED GETTING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING It's really unlikely that you'll get hit by lightning in any given year - almost a one-in-a-million chance. Most people who do get struck by lightning make it out alive, with around 90% of them surviving. — Source

27

Spartans

Spartans would despise the gun nuts who keep quoting them. Second amendment enthusiasts are fond of the Spartan challenge molon labe (come and take them), unaware that Spartans of that time disdained weapons that could kill at a distance. According to Plutarch, those fighting at the Thermopylae found arrows womanish and cowardly. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Dingoes

Dingoes aren't native to Australia, they were brought there 4,000 years ago. Dingoes are an ancient breed of domestic dog that was introduced to Australia, probably by Asian seafarers, about 4,000 years ago. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

J.R.R. Tolkien

CRACKED.COM J.R.R. Tolkien turned down The Beatles WELCOME WDGY W D There was talk of the Fab Four making a live-action The Lord of the Rings movie, with Lennon playing Gollum, Paul McCartney playing Frodo, George Harrison playing Gandalf, and Ringo Starr, naturally, as Sam. Stanley Kubrick was approached to direct. Tolkien shut the idea down. — Source: Variety

24

Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison said his parents were dead. They were alive-he just didn't like them much. Morrison's father did eventually try to mend the rift, reaching out to the singer and writing a supportive letter to a parole board after he was arrested for indecent exposure. CRACKED.COM

23

The Karate Kid

Billy Zabka got into martial arts because of The Karate Kid. Не didn't know any martial arts going into the movie, and he kept training karate for five years with Pat Johnson, its martial arts choreographer, after filming wrapped up. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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22

Winter Olympics

ELIZABETH SWANEY BECAME AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE THANKS TO A LOOPHOLE. Swaney can't do any freestyle skiing tricks. She just shows up to events with few qua

21

Ketamine

HIGH KETAMINE DOSES SHUT OFF THE BRAIN. Taking a lot of ketamine can make your brain shut off, making you completely forget what's going on and feel like you're not in your own body. CRACKED — chayanuphol/Shutterstock
ScienceDaily

20

Cameos

Minority Report PRE - eather CITY F PM Cameron Diaz is riding the train. Not only that, but director Cameron Crowe is sitting right next to her. Was it Cameron day on that train, or what? CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Oregon

In 1967, Oregon passed a bill to make all beaches public property. That was in response to a motel owner who'd fenced off part of the beach for his motel - the bill made the entire beach up to the line of vegetation public no matter the underlying property rights. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Times Square

NOT 2018 TOSHIBA HAPPY NEW YEAS TOSHIBA OTOK RAPPY NEW YEAR A major building in Times Square is empty. It's the building where they drop the New Year's Ball - One Times Square. There's one tenant: a Walgreens on the ground floor. The building has been used as a gigantic, vacant advertising stand since 1992. It makes $23 million a year. CRACKED.COM

17

Meteorites

In 2020, a regular Indonesian guy became a millionaire because a meteorite fell through his roof. The meteorite fell into his living room when he was outside the house, and it turned out somebody was willing to buy it for $1.8 million. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: GulfNews

16

Blur

Dave Rowntree is a lawyer BLUR CRACKED.COM Не started up an animation company and even became a pilot, before embarking on his most exciting journey: being a paralegal: I've done some amazing things with Blur, but that, for me, was more interesting. Не was inspired to complete law school and become a criminal lawyer. — BBC

15

Black Holes

One of the brightest (and biggest) things in the universe is a black hole. GRACKED COM The mass of the central black hole of Ton 618 is at least 66 billion solar mass- es. This is higher than the mass of all stars in the Milky Way galaxy com- bined, which is 64 billion solar masses. — Source

14

El Terron

El Terron was Jonestown, but barely yesterday. There were no fruity beverages in EI Terron, Panama, but members of the New Light of God sect were beaten and tied up in their jungle church. And that wasn't the worst -when authorities intervened in 2020, they found seven bodies in a mass pit, killed during an exorcism. — More: Creepy AF Deaths That Popped Up In The News

13

Dairy Farmers

Dairy farmers in San Francisco sued to get almond milk relabelled as Nut Juice. CRACKED.COM The Federal District Court dismissed the suit, in 2013, as No reasonable consumer would mistake a product like soy milk or almond milk with dairy milk from a cow. — Source

12

Libraries

Someone returned a book 81 years late (with a bad review). A book was returned to a library in Washington that had been checked out 81 years earlier. The person who borrowed it wrote on the inside cover, I wouldn't read this book even if I was paid to. CRACKED — Source

11

Sharks and Orcas

Great White sharks will avoid an area for a year if they spot a Killer Whale. CRACKED COM The sharks are so terrified of their only natural preda- tor that they'll vacate their preferred hunting ground and will not return for up to a year if they encounter one, even if it's just pass- ing by. — Source: 15 Ice-Cold Facts To Beat The Summer Heat

10

Easter Eggs

32 In Mission 6 of Halo 4, you'll find two marines standing near a forklift. If you wait around long enough, they 'Il begin talking, and you'll hear the voices of Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter. CRACKED COM — Source

9

Lions

ETHIOPIAN KIDNAPPERS TOOK A 12-YEAR-OLD. THEN THEY RAN INTO A PRIDE OF LIONS. They fled. For half an hour, the lions just kinda ... hung out with the kid, lounging about with seemingly no intention of devouring her. A police sergeant said it seemed as if the lions had left the child unharmed as a gift. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Henri Poincare

+ax =x Henri Poincaré was the foremost expert on relativity in the late 19th century and was a most likely the first person to formally present the 2 theory of 1200111+ 120 relativity. To.ad Despite having read his work, Albert Einstein does not cite Poincaré at all. CRACKED.COM adx Vely 1200

7

World War I

As many as 20,000 dogs were trained to serve in World War 1, from running messages to seeking out wounded. MICHAEL Roughly 7,000 of these were actually retrained family pets. And they thought going to the vet was bad. CRACKED.COM — Source: BBC

6

Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller got the idea for Tropic Thunder while he was working on Empire of the Sun. A number of his castmates were getting roles in war movies, and they'd compare the work to boot camp. It inspired Stiller to wonder what would actually happen to actors in a war zone. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Ben Affleck

CRACKED BEN AFFLECK GOT GROPEY IN CANADA. SMSOCIET AU Lives of All Affected by Au ÉAL FES CAL Premium Autien Society amo I HYUNDAI MO In 2004, he wrapped his arms around Canadian journalist Anne-Marie Losique's waist, suggested she take off her shirt, mocked French accents, and commented on her firm breasts. She sat in his lap for the entire interview. — Source

4

Wine

MYTH8 THE OLDER THE WInE, THE BETTER IT IS. FACT8 MOST wInes ARe BEST WITHIN A YEAR OR TWO OF BOTTLING. There are some rare exceptions, but most wines

3

Flanderization

NED FLANDERS became the face of Flanderization THE SIMPSONS CRACKED.COM Flanderization: The act of taking a single (often minor) trait of a character and exaggerating it over time until it completely consumes the character, In Ned's case, his genial level-headedness was swallowed by a hyper-focus on his devout Christian faith. — CBR

2

Bats

Vampire bats smell heat. CRACKED.COM They can sniff out the juiciest vein to chomp into using heat sensors located inside their nostrils.

1

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks produced Mamma Mia with his wife, Rita Wilson. THRUT - AVAN Winto MAMMA MIA! CRACKED.COM Hanks even auditioned to be one of the three main men but was de- nied because his sing- ing voice wasn't quite up to snuff. — Digital Spy

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