20 Trivia Tidbits For Trivia Elitists
![20 Trivia Tidbits For Trivia Elitists](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/6/6/852466_320x180.jpg)
I enjoy this list of odd facts quite a lot. It's probably my favorite list on this site. And yet, I find myself unsatisfied. I have always been an admirer of odd facts and this list is full of them. Some are genuinely strange. Some are quite amusing. But there is something else that bothers me about them, something that I can't quite put my finger on. And so, I decided to write an introduction to the list to try and figure it out. I did this for three reasons. First, to see if there is any commonality amongst the facts on the list that might give me some idea as to what it is that is bothering me. Second, to see if I could find any commonalities at all. And third, to enjoy this list of odd facts even more.
But let us begin at the beginning. The first fact on the list is the following.
Banana trees are giant herbs.
![There is no such thing as a banana tree. CRACKED.COM Technically, the flowering stem that bananas (which are actually berries) de- velop on is an arbores- cent perennial herb and the largest herbaceous flowering plant.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/8/852488.jpg)
The ‘Simpsons’ are named after Groening’s real family.
![Matt Groening named many of the Simpsons characters after his own family. CRACKED.COM Matt had a father named Но- mer, a mother named Marga- ret, sisters named Maggie and Lisa, and a grandfather named Abe. Не chose the name Bart, despite his brother be- ing named Mark, because it was an anagram of brat.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/7/852487.jpg)
People in groups look better than individually.
![People look better in groups thanks to the cheerleader effect. CRACKED.COM When we look at a group, we average the features of the individu- al members, and aver- age faces are more at- tractive than when we see them individually.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/6/852486.jpg)
A coma patient woke up for a few hours, and then fell back into their coma.
![A coma patient briefly 'woke up' for 18 hours. CRACKED.COM Officer Gary Dockery had been in a vegetative state since being shot in the head in 1988. Eight years later, after undergoing lung surgery, Dockery woke up and began talking normally with his relatives, only to fall back into a coma hours later.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/5/852485.jpg)
Actor Frank Farnum was in over 1,000 films.
![An American actor named Franklyn Farnum appeared in 1,100 films. CRACKED.COM Farnum had a career span- ning from 1916 to 1961 (the year of his death). Не was also cast in more films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture than any other performer in the American film industry.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/4/852484.jpg)
“Gymnasium” comes from the word for “nude.”
![The words gymnasium and gymnastics come from the Greek for nude. CRACKED.COM The Ancient Greeks commonly exercised naked, and athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would partici- pate in the nude.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/3/852483.jpg)
In 1928, a sailor kayaked across the Atlantic.
![A German sailor spent 58 days crossing the ocean in a kayak. CRACKED.COM Franz Romer crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon, Portugal to the Virgin Islands in 1928 aboard a kayak that looked a bit like a sailing canoe.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/1/852481.jpg)
Mickey Rourke had an undefeated boxing record.
![Mickey Rourke quit acting in the '90s to box professionally. CRACKED.COM After three years and a series of serious in- juries he decided to quit, but he did so with an undefeated record of 6 wins and 2 draws.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/2/852482.jpg)
A ‘Network’ performer won Best Supporting Actress for a five minute long scene.
![Beatrice Straight who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for just 5 minutes of screen time. CRACKED.COM Straight won the Oscar for her role in 'Net- work' (1976), in which she appeared for just one scene that was 5 minutes and 40 sec- onds long.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/9/852479.jpg)
As a joke, Simon Cowell hijacked a bus.
![Simon Cowell hijacked a bus when he was 12. CRACKED.COM As Cowell describes it, he pointed a toy pea gun at the bus driver as a joke, instruct- ing him to take him to a town 10 miles away. Cowell thought the driver was playing along, but police were waiting for him at his destination.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/0/852480.jpg)
A WWI soldier was shot in the head and never slept for 40 years.
![A WWI soldier lost part of his frontal lobe and never slept again. CRACKED COM Hungarian soldier Paul Kern was shot in the head during the war, but he was able to function more or less normally, be- sides never sleeping again. Не died in 1955.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/7/852477.jpg)
Will Smith is glad he turned down ‘The Matrix.’
![Will Smith was happy Keanu Reeves accepted the role of Neo in 'The Matrix' after he turned it down for 'Wild Wild West.' GRAGKED.COM Smith says, When you see somebody do it like Keanu, you think, 'Thank God.' I don't think I was mature enough as an actor at that point to get out of the way and just let it be and allow the directors to make the movie.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/8/852478.jpg)
A male nympho is a satyr.
![The masculine form of nymphomania is 'satyriasis.' CRACKED.COM Nymphomania derives from the Greek nymphe, meaning bride, and sa- tyriasis derives from the Greek satyr, which were half-goat deities that liked to get it on.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/4/852474.jpg)
A teenager literally sold an organ for an iPhone.
![A 17-year-old sold a kidney for an iPad and iPhone in 2011. CRACKED.COM Xiao Zheng said, I wanted to buy an iPad2, but I didn't have the money. When I surfed the internet, I found an advert posted online by an agent saying they were able to buy a kidney.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/5/852475.jpg)
Ryan Gosling was inspired by the movie ‘First Blood’ to throw knives at his fellow classmates.
![Ryan Gosling was suspended from school for throwing steak knives at his classmates. CRACKED.COM Gosling blames the spell 'First Blood' put on him and says, I went to school the next day and bought a Fisher Price kit and I put steak knives in there and I took them and threw them at all the kids during recess.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/3/852473.jpg)
New Jersey was the first state to get MTV.
![MTV was only available in New Jersey when it first launched. CRACKED.COM Only certain cable sub- scribers in NJ were able to watch the new station and the first music video they decided to play, Video Killed The Radio Star, on August 1, 1981.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/6/852476.jpg)
Life finds a way.
![All clownfish are born male. CRACKED.COM If the female of a group dies, the domi- nant male will then begin to gain weight and will become the female of the group.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/1/852471.jpg)
Alas poor Moe! I knew him, Horatio.
![Мое from the Three Stooges was a Shakespearian actor. GRACKED.COM Мое Howard dropped out of school and joined a Shakespearian acting troupe that performed on the riverboat, Sunflower, before the Three Stooges was formed.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/0/852470.jpg)
Sudan still crucifies people.
![Sudan crucified prisoners as recently as 2013. CRACKED.COM Under Article 168 of the Sudanese Penal Code, if you commit armed rob- bery you are to be hanged, and if you kill someone during the rob- bery, crucifixion follows.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/7/2/852472.jpg)
Iceland was almost called “Butterland.”
![One of the early names for Iceland was Butterland. CRACKED.COM The settlers first called it Snowland, although Butterland was also suggested as the grass was so rich it seemed to drip but- ter.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/6/9/852469.jpg)