The internet is chock full of amusing and interesting information. But some of it is so ‘out there’ that your initial instinct might be skepticism. While having that instinct is really important in this day and age (yuck, misinformation), the reality is that some claims are simply weird. Fact really is weirder than fiction in some cases.
One r/AskReddit fan, u/Fairy_Electra, sparked a really fun discussion on the online group by asking everyone to share the most ridiculous facts they know. Not only are they beyond bizarre, but they might reignite your curiosity about the world, too. We’ve picked out some of the best posts, so check them out below!
#1
Crows have the intelligence of a 7 year old human child. They recognize faces, make tools, use currency amongst themselves, understand physics and are self aware. They’ve been seen doing things like dropping walnuts in intersections for cars to run over and waiting for the light to pick up the seeds from the street.
If you p**s them off, they’ll tell other local murders about you and pass that hatred of you on to their offspring, making you a lifetime enemy and do s**t like drop rocks on your car windshield and punch holes in your screen door.
I know this last fact from personal experience because my grandma made enemies with the crows where she lived when they started eating her crops. She would swing her broom at them and accidentally killed one by throwing a shoe at it. Every time I visited her, they’d s**t all over my car and tuck bramble into my car’s vents and exhaust. Even after she died, they peck at her gravestone and leave shells and bramble around her grave.
Image source: Sol-Blackguy, katieb50/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#2
Mars is the only known planet inhabited entirely by robots.
Image source: Way_2_Go_Donny, RDNE Stock project/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#3
Someone booked a press conference at 4 seasons lawn care instead of 4 seasons the hotel. They then proceeded with the press conference anyway.
Image source: surly_duff, BBC News
#4
Cats don’t communicate to one another through meowing. Meowing isn’t cat speak. Cats developed their meows in order to communicate with humans (and get their attention/beg for food).
Image source: amoryblainev, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#5
Cows are really social animals and always have, at least, one friend. And we humans actually can become one of their friends. Resulting in us being able to train them and even being able to ride them and doing horse jumping with them.
Image source: Duelonna, cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#6
There’s a town in Japan with the grave of Jesus Christ. This is based on the story that Jesus travelled to Japan for the 12 years before his ascension to divinity. His brother, Isukiri, took his place on the cross and Jesus fled back to Japan, becoming a garlic farmer until his death of old age, married with 3 daughters.
I greatly prefer this version of events.
Image source: Wang_Fister, atlasobscura
#7
Every “c” in the “Pacific Ocean” is pronounced differently.
Image source: Mustafa_Shazlie, Sascha Thiele/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#8
If you take a leech and put it in a maze, it will eventually find it’s way around. If you take that leech, blend it and feed it to another leech, that leech will already know it’s way around the maze. This is called chemical memory.
Image source: i_like_flies_, lostandcold/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#9
TASER is an acronym. It stands for Thomas A. Swifts Electric Rifle. It’s from a book published in 1911 called Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle.
Image source: Tahkos4life, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#10
Pineapples used to be so expensive and rare that rich people would RENT them for fancy parties as decorations.
Image source: firebluevixen13, Rachel Claire/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#11
You will never find broccoli growing in the wild because it was developed through centuries of careful plant breeding.
Image source: Seraphicly329, Castorly Stock/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#12
Frogs can’t keep their eyes open when eating food . When a frog swallows food, it pulls its eyes down into the roof of its mouth. The eyes helps push the food down its throat.
Image source: BobTheFrog69420, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#13
The Lewis and Clark expedition can be tracked because they left excess deposits of mercury in the soil.
They were all constipated from their meat based diet, so they were taking these mercury based laxatives called Thunder Clappers.
#14
If sound could travel through space, the roar of the sun would be deafening even though it’s 93M miles away.
Image source: cubs_070816, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#15
In the 1970’s there were about half as many people as there are today.
Image source: Get_Froggy, Wendy Wei/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#16
There exists a jellyfish by the name of Turritopsis dohrnii that can control its own aging process making it immortal.
Image source: Peppachu, V101 SPACE
#17
In 1927, a guy named Ebenenzer Byers injured his arm on a train and got prescribed a medicine called Radithor to deal with the pain. He apparently really liked how it made him feel, taking more and more and more until the effect stopped.
He started getting headaches, lost weight and his teeth began falling out. And then in 1931 his f*****g lower jaw fell off.
Radithor, it turns out, was just Radium mixed into water. That’s it. He irradiated himself for about 4 years until eventually he died in 1932.
Edit: I really hate and love the fact that nearly every comment is a dad joke. This is amazing and I blame all of you for it.
Image source: ChaoticBiscuits, Falk, NY
#18
Charlie Chaplin lost his own lookalike contest.
Image source: dlipy, United Artists (work for hire) – Doctor Macro
#19
The Supreme Court in America has a basket ball court in the top floor and it’s called. You guessed it: the highest court in the land.
Image source: Big-End-9824, Mike/Flickr (not the actual photo)
#20
Birds’ bones are not hollow to be lighter. They are also more dense, which means they end up weighing about the same even though they are hollow. The structure does add some stiffness, but does not really make them appreciably lighter.
The *actual* reason that birds’ bones are hollow is to add volume to the air sacks that are part of their (extremely different) respiratory system.
*The insides of birds’ bones are part of their respiratory system?!*
Also, air only flows one way through birds’ lungs, with these air sacks basically pumping air through them.
Birds are weird af.
Image source: Equoniz, Kevin Blanzy/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#21
Most of the sand on tropical beaches is parrotfish poop.
Parrotfish feed on algae and microorganisms found on coral, they crush it in their beaks, and pass it through their digestive system.
Some species produce 2000 pounds of sand per year.
Image source: WorldClass1977, Herman. io/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#22
You can see your own nose. Your brain just ignores it.
Image source: Redoubtabletrigger, Engin Akyurt Engin Akyurt/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#23
Counting non-stop, it would take you about 12 days to count to a million.
It would take you 31 years to count to a billion.
Image source: tag420, cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#24
Not really ridiculous, but more sad.
We don’t know Albert Einstein’s last words, as he spoke them in German to a nurse who only knew English.
Image source: SolarCube93, Ferdinand Schmutzer / Adam Cuerden
#25
Vikings would use animals bones when creating their weapons are armor which would make it stronger due to the carbon being added to the metal, not due to their belief of the animal’s spirit embodying the weapon or armor.
Image source: ExcaliburHajime, Breizh Clichés/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#26
Queue is just Q with 4 silent letters.
Image source: mickeeman, Krizjohn Rosales/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#27
Kangaroos can’t hop backwards. If you’re ever in a fight with a Kangaroo (looking at you Aussies)…just get behind him.
**thanks Daniel Tosh.
Image source: KSims1868, Sabel Blanco/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#28
The chainsaw was invented to aid with childbirth.
Image source: anon, Sabine Salfer
#29
Space is only 62 miles away.
Image source: Fast_Reaction_6919, Edvin Richardson/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#30
The term for single pieces of confetti is confetto.
Image source: PeptoPinktastic, cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#31
A word you can type on the top letter row of a standard keyboard is TYPEWRITER
And the only word in the English language with 3 consecutive double letters is BOOKKEEPER. I’m a bookkeeper.
Image source: daveb19611961, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#32
Umami can be translated as ” tasty taste”.
Image source: ndraiay
#33
Snails can sleep for 3 years.
Image source: MusielDoodles, SİNAN ÖNDER/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#34
Clouds can weigh millions of pounds, and snails have thousands of teeth.
Image source: radryan78, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#35
Baby Koalas get their immune systems by letting the mother Koala literally c**p in their mouths.
Image source: Chronus88, Flickr/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#36
That following the invention of basketball in 1891 it took another 15 years before someone replaced the peach baskets with metal hoops & nets, which had previously required someone with a ladder to go get the ball out of the basked after each & every point scored.
Image source: ramriot
#37
In all of recorded human history, only one person has survived an untreated rabies infection. Otherwise, for all intents and purposes, untreated rabies is 100% fatal.
Image source: anon
#38
Roses have prickles not thorns. One of the few things I remember from botany class.
Image source: anon, Reshma Chowdhury/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#39
Everyone once held the record for the youngest person in the world.
Image source: jerryelectric
#40
I don’t know if it’s ridiculous but is definitely fascinating. ‘Dreamt’ is the only word in the English language that ends with ‘mt’.
Image source: anon, Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#41
If you properly shuffle a deck of playing cards odds are that the arrangement of those cards has never been seen, nor will be seen again. Another way of saying it..there are 52 factorial (52!) ways if arranging a deck of cards….an impossibly large number.
Image source: kirkrjordan, Israel Garcia/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#42
Cleopatra lived closer to the creation of Pizza Hut than she did the creation of the great pyramids
Trex lived closer to modern day man than he did stegosaurus.
Image source: 95accord
#43
Teddy Rosevelt wanted a wrestling ring in his NY Governor’s office. When he didn’t get one, he told people to meet him at the governor’s mansion until he tweaked his back.
When he was president, he learned Jujitsu in the Oval.
Image source: piratecheese13
#44
You know the Challenger explosion? It was caused by launching during conditions that were too cold for one of the critical o-rings. That type of o-ring smells like cinnamon.
These are the kind of weird tidbits that you pick up while learning materials science.
Image source: SmartAlec105
#45
The Telletubbies are around 10 feet tall.
Image source: Omny87, Teletubbies – WildBrain/Youtube
#46
In Japan in the 1980’s, an unknown person or group of people kidnapped the president of a candy company, taunted the police, claimed to poison said company’s candy (no poisoned candy was found), targeted another candy company, poisoned a few packs of this company’s candy, and then taunted the police some more. They stopped because a chief of police committed suicide by lighting himself on fire. Over a million officers worked on the case, yet no leads ever lead to capturing whoever was dubbed “The Monster with 21 Faces”. One of my favorite unsolved mysteries, especially considering how many hints the perp/s gave to police.
Image source: clownastartes
#47
The incident where Michael Jackson caught his hair on fire in the ’80s was, within a day, the exact halfway point of his life.
a) 8/29/1958 – date of his birth
b) 1/27/1984 – date of burn incident
c) 6/25/2009 – date of his death
Days between a and b – 9,282 days
Days between b and c – 9,281 days.
Image source: MisterFives
#48
After mating, the male anglerfish will bite into the female and be fused and eventually absorbed into the female’s body.
Image source: Wannagetsober
#49
The Outerbridge Crossing is a bridge that connects Staten Island to New Jersey. It’s the southernmost bridge in New York State and arguably the outermost bridge in New York City.
Anyway, it was named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge.
Image source: Starbucks__Lovers
#50
Playing the lottery numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6 has just as much of a chance of winning as any other number combination. You’re more likely to have to split it with others that also guessed that way though.
Image source: Beginning-Bed9364
#51
The probability of a shared birthday exceeds 50% in a group of only 23 people.
Or that there are more ways to arrange a 52 deck of cards, than there are atoms on Earth. If you shuffle 52 cards well, that particular deck arrangement is almost certainly unique, and has never occurred in history! You are the first person holding it.
Or that time dilation is an actual thing. GPS systems, to be able to work with this accuracy, have to take both gravitational time dilation and relativistic time dilation (velocity) into account.
Another one is that matter can display characteristics of both waves and particles, it is the wave particle duality of quantum mechanics. It may sound a bit boring, but look into the double-slit experiment, it is mind-blowing. This experiment is the generator of many “crazy” theories and interpretations.
I kind of broke the rules and shared 4… but this crazy stuff sometimes keeps me up at night!
Image source: haz0r1337
#52
Ants out number humans one million to one.
Image source: anon
#53
The Caesar Salad was invented in Tijuana Mexico.
Image source: ejrizo
#54
The number of the trees on earth is more than the number of the stars in the milky way.
Image source: Mustafa_Shazlie, Matthew Montrone/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#55
An adult male of average height has enough iron in their blood to make a 2 inch iron finishing nail.
Image source: mordenty
#56
There are *more* bacteria in you, than there is *you*. Due to the human gut flora.
Scientifically accurate estimates of the bacteria vs human cells ratio: 38 trillion microbial cells (3.8×1013) versus 30 trillion human cells (3×1013), which leads to a 1.3:1 ratio.
Image source: letsreticulate
#57
Project Acoustic Kitty
In the 1960s, some people at the CIA thought it would be a brilliant idea to use a Cat, wired up with a microphone and antenna, to spy on Soviet Agents talking in Washington DC parks (where you couldn’t setup reliable bugs).
There’s a couple versions of how the project came to an end. Either:
A) The prototype cat was hit by a cab immediately at the start of it’s first field trial.
B) The Cat(s) were proving too difficult to train/control (duh), so those that were surgically ‘enhanced’ with microphones and antenna were returned to normal.
Image source: F19AGhostrider
#58
If the earth was covered in glass and something cracked it, it would take approximately 3 hours for the crack to travel the earths entire circumference.
Image source: anon
#59
One of the main reasons syphilis has become such a serious STD over history is largely due to Christopher Columbus and his crew. They got it from llamas they encountered in the Americas. While it’s probably that some of the crew, unfortunately, had an infected llama spit at them, the most likely reason why so many got it is because they were sleeping with llamas.
Image source: holyquiznakanotaku
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