Tigers are not female lions. Pickles are just cucumbers in vinegar, living their best fermented life. Reindeers aren’t mythical creatures, or Santa’s pets – they do actually exist.
These are things we generally should know by the time we reach adulthood. But some people missed the memo and ended up having hilarious lightbulb moments way too late in life. It doesn’t make them dumb. The internet has proven that even some of the smartest souls have at least one glaring gap in their knowledge. And many don’t discover it until someone looks at them like they still believe in Santa.
Someone asked, “What fact did you learn at an embarrassingly late age?” and thousands of answers came flooding in faster than Santa could come down the chimney. Some were hilarious cases of “lost in translation,” like a person thinking the Sistine Chapel was the “16th Chapel.” Others were more dramatic. Pure, unfiltered human cluelessness.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the funniest times people were humbled by common knowledge too late in life. We also share some facts that many people don’t know – yet. You’ll find those between the images.
#1
I didn’t know pickles were just cucumbers in vinegar until I was 19.
greebshob:
I too didn’t learn this until I was around 25. Not only that, but I thought that pickles were used to pickle other things. I envisioned harvesting them from the pickle farm, juicing them, and then soaking other things in the juice to “pickle” them.
Image source: anon, SuckerPunch Gourmet / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
I thought until I was 18 that dishwashers cleaned dishes by filling all the way up like a bathtub. I was always so afraid of opening mine up in the middle of a cycle and having all the water flow out!
Edit: Oh my god, I’m so happy I’m not alone!!
2thousand15:
I’m just finding this out now and I’m 32 and own my own home!!
Image source: orangehoody, Kateryna Hliznitsova / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#3
My housemate at 21 only recently came to the realization tigers were not female lions.
anon:
Someone on here once posted about the shock of finding out that rhinos are not male hippos.
Cassandj:
My aunt found out at 35 that mice aren’t just female rats.
Image source: grayson-of-gotham, Frida Lannerström / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
My 25 yr old roommate didn’t know how I knew that a tree was a maple tree. She’s born and raised Canadian. It’s on the flag!!!
Image source: new_epi, Bailey Burton / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#5
Till i was in my early twenties, i thought duct tape was duck tape, used to tape ducks after going duck hunting.
anon:
It’s only called “duct tape” by virtue of people thinking “wait, ‘duck tape’ can’t be right, that sounds dumb it must be ‘duct tape'” and that’s become the actual name for it now.
But it was originally called duck tape and it’s certainly not meant primarily for use on ducts (even though I’m sure it is used on them by misinformed janitors).
Image source: dlashruz, Cj / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
That lemons and limes are not the same fruit. I always thought a lemon was ripe and a lime was not a lemon yet. 28 when I realized that.
Damn_Dog_Inappropes:
I was in my 30s when I realized that green bell peppers are just unripe red bell peppers. I love red bell peppers, but I hate green ones, so I’d never really looked at them on display in a store before.
Image source: somebrero, Kateryna Hliznitsova / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#7
The piggy going to market isn’t buying groceries
Edit: The first little piggy guess to market to be sold as meat.
The second piggy stays home as breeding stock.
The third piggy eats roast beef and other leftovers from the table to fatten him up.
The fourth piggy has none, as you usually don’t feed shortly before slaughter.
The fifth one didn’t sell, so it makes pig sounds (or cheers “Oui!”) All the way home.
BartlebyX:
I learned this a few days ago. I’m 44.
ChocolateSporks:
Omg.. Well I’m 22, I had to learn sometime. Now I’m sad. Why are nursery rhymes always so [messed] up when you actually get into the meaning of them..
Image source: mutedsilver, Kenneth Schipper / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
This may seem too ridiculous to be true, but I assure you, it is…
Until she was in her mid-twenties, my sister believed Mount Rushmore was a naturally occurring rock formation. Until somewhere in her teen years, she thought earlier Americans had used Mount Rushmore to select presidents, and was very concerned we had “used up all the good ones.”
Lyeta:
During a finals week in college, one of my hall mates was reading something about philosophy and conspiracies or something and they for whatever reason it was talking about mt Rushmore. She comes out to where some of us are working at like 1am and goes ‘I think I’m just really tired, but this book just said mt Rushmore is a natural creation. That’s not right, right? It’s man made, right?’
Sleep deprivation+intellectual stimulation= brain rot.
Image source: whimbrel, Dennis Guten / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
I used to spell ‘put’ as ‘poot’ for the longest time…
I am not proud of this.
I’m not sure how I made it past elementary school let alone being a Computer Engineer.
Image source: mranonymousone, Marcos Paulo Prado / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#10
I didn’t know narwhals were real until sophomore year of college. I knew what they were, but I thought that they were like a mermaid or a sphinx.
ramengirl10:
To be fair, sailors thought narwhals were mermaids.
Image source: 1pptouch, пресс-служба / wikimedia
#11
Okay. This is really embarrassing. I thought Spongebob was a cheese.
Edit: Just wanted to let you guys know english is my second language and I didn’t know what sponge was. :l.
lawyerlady:
You are not alone. I used to be a suit character at a theme park and while in sponge bob i had a large greek family approach. I heard the mother in a thick accent start shouting, “OH MY GOD ITS A GIANT BLOCK OF CHEESE! TAKE A PHOTO! TAKAFOTO!!!!”
When ever i see something worth photographing i put on my best greek accent and shout that. My husband ia often embarassded in public.
anon:
I had a 30 minute argument with my four year old about this. He kept insisting he was a cheese. It took a trip to the kitchen, where I showed him an actual sponge, and a complete description of what sponges are and why one might be at the bottom of the ocean to convince him otherwise. Kids can be persistent.
Image source: strangepath, Nickelodeon
#12
In 3rd grade we had a spelling test, one of the phrases was ‘human being’.. I soon found out when we graded the quizzes that we were, in fact, not ‘human beans’.
boss_a**:
In the movie the Borrowers they refer to human beings and “beans” because they don’t understand it.
HoodedStranger90:
This is really similar to something that happened to me in third grade too! A question on a test was something like “Which of the following species typically produces only one baby at a time?” and two of the choices were rabbit and human. I had never seen the word human written down before so I while I was reading it I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it, so I didn’t know what a “Hoo-man” was. I had no idea how much offspring rabbits produced, so I went with that answer. Not my brightest moment.
Image source: reabae5, Kübra Arslaner / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#13
Thought the Sistine Chapel was called the “16th Chapel” until I was in my early twenties. I just figured there were at least 15 other chapels that predated the famous 16th one.
unicorn-jones:
Similarly, I thought the Taj Mahal was called the “Tajmah Hall” until I was in my early teens.
Image source: anon, airbr3ak3r.zh / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#14
Growing up I knew there was word spelled *rendezvous* that meant ‘to meet up with’ but I had no idea how it was pronounced. I also knew there was another word pronounced ‘ron-day-voo’ that meant ‘to meet up with’ but I had no idea how it was spelled.
I think I was in my twenties before I figured it out..
Image source: WeirdAlCapone, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#15
That people are supposed to primarily breathe thru their nose? Finally went to doc today, nose is jacked up and there’s hardly an airway. I always just thought you were supposed to breathe thru your mouth and your nose is just a smeller. :(.
Image source: wild_muses, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#16
After watching a video of astronauts sleeping in space, I asked my husband why they didn’t just turn the artificial gravity on. He explained it’s not real, then pat my head. This was a few months ago, I’m 27.
Image source: smellthatrabbit, Absa Flores / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#17
My dad had me convinced that Alice Cooper and Anderson Cooper were the same person and that “Alice” was his stage name before he became a reporter. Figured it out at 16…
Image source: capsbackpack, Kreepin Deth / wikimedia
#18
I didn’t know how many months were in a year until I was about 10. My parents flipped out when they found out, and trained me 80’s montage style with a calendar.
Image source: saltnotsugar, Brooke Cagle / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#19
First time I saw chihuahua in print I had to look it up because I had no clue what it was. I was well into my 20s.
Image source: TheReal_JimmyK, David Vives / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#20
I was around 21 when I realized it wasn’t “old tomatoes” but actually ultimatum.
2OQuestions:
Well, bad performers were pelted with rotten tomatoes, and people put in the stocks in old times were pelted with rotten tomatoes, so if someone is given ‘old tomatoes’ it means they did something wrong.
‘It’s me or the dog! I’m giving you old tomatoes!’
That makes sense in a way.
Image source: lilangeles, Lesli Whitecotton / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#21
That the song I saw mommy kissing Santa clause, is about the mom kissing the Dad who is in a Santa costume. Thought the mom was cheating
Image source: TheDirtyPowerRanger, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
I thought ponies were baby horses.
Image source: cal-gal, ran liwen / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#23
I’ve lived in the same neighborhoods since I was born (20+ years). It took a person that just moved here a week ago to point out the streets are alphabetically organized from north to south.
Hump_the_yeti:
I’ve lived in Las Vegas NV for the last 10 years… There is a street named Valle Verde here, and the next street, literally one block over is named Green Valley. I didn’t know they were the same names just in two languages until a Mexican buddy of mine came to visit and he just said it off-handedly while we were driving down the street one day.
Image source: spabagel, crystal / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#24
Catholicism is a living religion.
I grew up in an extremely Lutheran area — the question wasn’t what religion you were, it was whether you were LCMS, WELS, ELCA, ELS, or some other random smash-up of lettering.
So I’d read about Catholics in history class, but I’ve never actually met one nor heard anyone talk about them in modern times. I was convinced that Catholics were like Pilgrims or Huguenots; a religious sect that d**d out sometime in the 18th or 19th century.
I was in high school before I found out that not only are there still Catholics alive in the world today, but one-fifth of Americans identify as Catholic. And there’s a pope, too! A real, live pope!
cormacredfield:
I was your mirror. Grew up in Louisiana (heavily Catholic). It wasn’t until high school that I realized Catholic wasn’t a synonym for “Christian”.
Image source: Eridanusi, Tobias Doering / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#25
I am 51 years old and just yesterday I learned that a felony and a federal crime are two different things.
Image source: weedful_things, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#26
That Cherries were actually a real fruit, I thought it was a candy. I am 29.
Yoyo_ElDar:
Kind of similar story- my sister thought spaghetti are plants, just like rice until she was 14.
Image source: princetonkane, Olivie Strauss / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#27
Alzheimer’s disease is not called Old Timer’s disease.
Image source: anon, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#28
I used to think that pretzels were made of wood.
Image source: happyflappypancakes, Kateryna Hliznitsova / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#29
That the chipmunks (the cartoon series) didn’t sing original songs. Couldn’t fathom how the chipmunks kept putting out hit after hit.
Image source: Seasonof_Reason, 20th Century Studios
#30
I taught a friend in her 20s that reindeer are not mythical creatures. I told someone this story and I hear another 20 year old behind me whisper to a friend “are they actually real”.
Image source: sbkerr29, shepherd / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#31
Pay-per view, not Paper view.
Image source: Jfm509, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#32
I didn’t learn that fireflies were real until I was 20. The only time I had ever come in contact with anything like a firefly was at DisneyLand. So, I really didn’t think they were real. When visiting friends in Illinois, they were quite keen to tease me
Image source: alleykitten79, Jerry Zhang / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#33
That steak comes from cows, not lions.
Image source: BrokenLetters, Curated Lifestyle / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#34
That whole milk wasn’t 100% fat… 2% vs 1% always confused me because it seemed like such a minor difference in the scheme of things.
Image source: yoyodude64, Debby Hudson / unsplash (not the actual photo)
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