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28 Trivia Tidbits for the Inquisitive

Maybe these will come in handy on a trivia night... Or something!

28 Trivia Tidbits for the Inquisitive

September 12, 2023

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a human is amassing a wide range of unexpected knowledge. Random, amusing facts can be used to start a conversation, wow a date or win bar trivia. So, needless to say, these random, intriguing bits of trivia could come in handy at any time…

28

CRACKED.COM Scream was inspired by a real murderer. The movie is a comment on the horror genre and not real events, but still Ghostface is based on an actual spree killer. Danny Rolling, a.k.a. The Gainesville Ripper, didn't wear a mask or taunt his victims over the phone, but did have a penchant for maximizing the shock value of his crimes. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

27

Hamlet

CRACKED.COM Hamlet productions often use real skulls The 2008 production of Hamlet starring David Tennant uses composer André Tchaikowsky's skull, which he willed for that specific purpose. While not every Hamlet skull is a celebrity, stagings of the play have been using real human heads since at least 1755. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

26

The 12-Year Coma

CRACKED.COM A guy spent 12 years in a coma, but completely aware. South African Martin Pistorious slipped into a coma at 12. At 16 he began to regain consciousness, but he still couldn't move or speak for years. His strongest memory of his time locked in is Barney & Friends reruns on the TV. Today, he hates Barney more than any other living person. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

25

CRACKED.COM Captain America was a werewolf. A In a 1992 comic, Cap investigates a plot involving werewolves-and gets turned into a werewolf himself. In the end, however, CapWolf defeats the villain by becoming the leader of the furry squad. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

24

CRACKED.COM A Yugoslavian granny was a prolific serial killer. Ana Draxin, also known as Baba Anujka, prepared potions to help women with their marital troubles -which were often of the husband is an abusive asshole variety (and the potions were carefully measured arsenic). She killed between 50 and 150 people before she was caught in 1928. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

23

CRACKED.COM Peppa Pig's teacher is a vampire (maybe). In a Halloween episode, the narrator remarks that Madame Gazelle has no reflection in a mirror. That might be a throwaway, spooky-season joke- but the fact remains that in other episodes she's way older than she looks, and bats remind her of the old country. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

22

CRACKED.COM Loggers found a mummified dog inside a tree. Back in the 1980s, a group of loggers had the scare of their lives after cutting down a chestnut oak. The nightmare sight they found is believed to be a hunting dog that got stuck while chasing a prey, and was preserved by the tree's tannins. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

21

A chicken lived without a head for 18 months. Colorado farmer Lloyd Olsen botched the killing of a chicken in 1945, and the bird was left only mostly beheaded, but still with part of its brain. Mike the Headless Chicken lived for a year and a half after that, and became a sideshow attraction. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

20

CRACKED.COM Andrew Jackson collected noses. Jackson didn't exactly like Native Americans, regardless of whether they were hostile or peaceful. Yes, he adopted an orphan Creek child - after being the reason the kid was an orphan in the first place. Не had his soldiers cut off the noses to keep track of how many they killed. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

19

CRACKED.COM Gas lamps might have contributed to Victorian ghosts. DE With gas lighting being a new thing and regulations being not a thing at all, Victorian people weren't unlikely to inhale gas (not to mention the fires and explosions). Hallucinations caused by carbon monoxide poisoning might help explain the uptick in ghostly activity in the mid-1800s. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

18

New Delhi

CRACKED.COM New Delhi's deputy mayor was murdered by a gang of monkeys. About 30,000 Rhesus macaques live in New Delhi. The monkeys are a pest-they often break into homes to steal food. Not even government officials are safe from the monkey menace- in 2007, monkeys caused the city's deputy mayor to fall off a balcony to his death. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

17

CRACKED.COM A Dead Pope was put on trial For political reasons, Pope Stephen VI really had it out for his predecessor's predecessor, Pope Formosus, and accused him of all kinds of pope- ish crimes. In 897, Stephen had Formosus' rotting corpse carried to the courtroom, where he angrily interrogated him in front of the bewildered clergy. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

16

Red Dead Redemption 2 references a real (and very recent) massacre. D The murdered athletic team that makes the game's creepiest mystery? That really happened-and not in 1899, but in 2009, when an amateur soccer team was kidnapped and murdered in Colombia. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

15

CRACKED.COM Queen Victoria had a really creepy stalker. The young Edward Jones was obsessed with the newly crowned Victoria. Не would cover himself in grease to squeeze through Buckingham Palace's chimneys, and then remain hidden, just to be near the queen and steal her personal items. — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

14

Rock ‘n’ Roll

CRACKED.COM Rock 'n' roll is, actually, the devil's music. Rock makes heavy use of the Devil's Interval - a chord SO dissonant that the Church banned it in the Middle Ages. (On the other hand, it's not very likely that pearl clutchers are actually talking about chords and the history of music, is it?) — Source: 15 Creepy Random Facts for Spooky Season

13

X-Men

Before filming X-Men, Hugh Jackman didn't know what a wolverine was. Не thought it was a made-up superhero name, so he studied wolves and watched wolf documentaries to prepare. Director Bryan Singer had to explain things. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

12

Mark Hamill ad-libbed his Star Wars line about not being able to see in Stormtrooper armor. Не complains he can't see with a Stormtrooper helmet on, and that wasn't scripted - since everyone liked it, he kept the line in later takes. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

11

Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky considers The Wrestler and Black Swan closely related. Не started writing a movie about love between a wrestler and ballet dancer, but he had to split it up. He'd like to see them shown as a double feature. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

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10

Rushmore

One shot in Rushmore is a nod to French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. YANKEE RACERS FOUNDER Lartigue partly inspired the movie, and the shot of Max as the Founder of the Yankee Racers is closely based on a photo of Lartigue's brother. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

9

The Twinkie thing in The Iron Giant is based on something director Brad Bird did as a kid. When Hogarth eats a Twinkie, he fills it with whipped cream - Bird suggested that. The animators weren't sold at first, but a live demonstration convinced them. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

8

For years, Iceland secretly banned the US from keeping Black troops there. The ban was there to protect Icelandic women and maintain a homogeneous national body .. it was revealed in 1959, and lifted in a few years. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

7

There's a frog that headbutts and poisons anybody who tries to attack it. Corythomantis greeningi has spines on its head that let it secrete venom, and it can move its head in unique ways that let it release that venom. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

6

Pregnant women sometimes crave eating dirt (that's called geophagia). It's been recorded throughout history in all regions of the world, but actually eating dirt carries risks (including, say, exposure to parasites). CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

5

Saudi Arabia is a big importer of sand all the way from Canda and Australia. Desert sand, which is abundant in Saudi Arabia, is nearly useless for construction, because those grains are very round and have no grip. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

4

In Liberia, a new lake formed where a pit mine was abandoned long ago. A mining company abandoned operations in Bomi County in the '60s and '70s, and didn't fill in the pits. One filled up with water, creating a new lake. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

3

In a movie-style twist, two pairs of identical twin babies got mixed up in Colombia in 1988. It's not clear why, but apparently there was a hospital mix-up - a nd when they grew up, 25 years later, they found each other, and all four became close friends. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

2

Seattle's metro area transit agency has a mascot called Zap Gridlock. JAPAN 4236 1236 They created him in 1999, and they wheel him out for events like fairs, festivals, service launches, and anywhere there's a lot of kids around. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

1

In Czechia, you can get beer that's basically all white foam and not much else. It's called mliko (AKA milk beer), and any type of beer can be poured this way. It's been called kind of like drinking a beer cloud. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Interesting Facts (About Movies And More) To Tickle The Ol’ Grey Matter

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