December 28, 2023 | Eva Blanchefleur

Twisted Facts For Total Trivia Tweakers


The world is a weird place. Just how weird? Well, read on to find out.


Trivia Tweakers Facts

42. Smells Bad…

Viking warriors who had received stomach wounds were given strong onion soup. After a few minutes, someone would smell the wounds, and if the scent of onions could be detected it meant that there were serious abdominal injuries leading to an unavoidable end.Viking and cauldron of soup split image

41. Night-time Drones

Every night, FedEx flies empty airplanes that roam the country’s skies in circuitous flight paths, ready to divert on demand in order to accommodate unexpected package volume. Each flight can cost up to $30,000, per trip.

Weird Delivery factsPixabay

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40. That’ll Teach Them

Nirvana once played a concert in Buenos Aires where the crowd threw mud and trash at the all-girl opening act. Kurt Cobain was so upset by the display of disrespect and sexism that he sabotaged the show by playing mostly lesser known songs and teasing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” several times without ever playing it.

Lil Wayne factsGetty Images

39. Best Way To Go

Once a colony’s queen bee is deemed to unfit to serve (due to old age or disease), worker bees cluster tightly around her body until she dies from overheating. This process is known as "cuddle demise."

Dumbest Idea Worked FactsPxHere

38. Dangerous Mistake

In 1969, a Miami-bound flight with Candid Camera host Alan Funt on board was forcefully redirected to Cuba. As several of the passengers of the plane recognized Funt—and were familiar with the pranks played by his show—they assumed it was part of a stunt and didn’t realize the gravity of their situation. The passengers of the flight were treated well by the Cuban government once they arrived, and were returned safely.

Star Trek FactsWikimedia Commons

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37. Truly Twisted

Adjusted for inflation, the US federal minimum wage actually dropped 20% from 1967 to 2010.

Tony Bennett FactsShutterstock

36. New Industry

Domain names can fetch a fine price today—the top-selling domain name "insurance.com" sold for $36 million in 2010. But few know that domain names were free until 1995.

Trivia Tweakers FactsPicpedia

35. Fixed Game

In Russian Roulette, a well-oiled and maintained revolver has a greater probability of not discharging the projectile if it is permitted to halt on its own. This is because gravity pulls the loaded chamber down, while the active chamber is on top.

Biggest secrets from parentsUnsplash

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34. Consolation Prize

Each Academy Award loser receives a consolation bag of goodies—a “swag bag.” The goody bag in 2013 was worth over $48,000 and included a $5,000 “vampire facelift,” jewelry, circus tickets and a $24 book on how to cope with loss.

Trivia Tweakers FactsPxHere

33. Misquoted

The oft-misattributed phrase, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime,” comes not from an ancient Chinese proverb, nor from the Torah, the Bible, or any other such place. It was coined in 1885 by Anne Isabella Ritchie, daughter of Vanity Fair author William Makepeace Thackeray.

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikimedia Commons

32. Eyyyyyy!

The act of hitting something until it works is known as “Percussive maintenance”.

Trivia Tweakers FactsShutterstock

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31. Oops!

In a “man of the match” speech after a soccer game, Ghanaian soccer player Mohammed Anas accidentally thanked both his wife and his girlfriend.

Identical Twin Stories FactsPixabay

30. Undercover Sisters

The famous female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny both disguised themselves as men. The pair discovered each others’ real genders when Bonny told Read that she was attracted to her, causing Read to reveal herself as a female as well.

Model in pirate costume on a blue background100 files, Pexels

29. Sneaky Scam

The “World’s Littlest Skyscraper” scam was committed in 1919 on investors in Wichita Falls, Texas. The designer said the Newby-McMahon Building would be “480” in height. Investors assumed it was 480 feet not 480 inches and soon realized they had invested $200,000 in a 4-storey building. Investors had apparently not inspected the blueprints, and as the plans didn’t include a staircase (and the elevator company refused to honor the contract after they’d learned of the scam), the upper floors can only be accessed by ladder. The investors sued the builder, but lost and the scammer was able to flee with their funds.

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikipedia

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28. Extremely Inaccurate

In 1988, Cosmopolitan magazine published an article suggesting that women could not contract HIV from intimate contact with a man in the missionary position, as they believed HIV could not be transmitted in this manner. This fact is in no way true.

Cyrus The Great factsShutterstock

27. Occupational Hazard

The snow in The Wizard of Oz was made of asbestos. The Wicked Witch’s broom was also made of asbestos, as was the Scarecrow’s entire outfit—despite the fact that asbestos’ health risks were already known at the time the movie was made in 1939.

The Wizard of Oz factsThe Wizard of Oz, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

26. Act of Kindness

In 2013, an elderly care home in California was shut down, leaving many residents with nowhere to go and nobody to care for them. After the rest of the staff left, a cook and a janitor decided to stay behind and, unpaid, they looked after them 24/7.

Natalie Wood FactsShutterstock

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25. Comes With The Job

While animating Ratatoullie, the film’s animation team paid close attention to detail. In addition to studying formal chef techniques to correctly animate delicious-looking food, a Pixar employee jumped into a pool while wearing a chef’s outfit and hat to determine how it would cling to a character’s body and what parts would become translucent.

Trivia Tweakers FactsRatatouille,Walt Disney Pictures

24. Close Enough

Psycho (1960) was shot in black and white because Hitchcock believed the blood during the shower scene in color would be too much for audiences.  To film the iconic scene, chocolate syrup was used in place of blood, which appeared the same shade on camera.

Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis ScreamingGetty Images

23. Avoidable Accident

In 2001, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline experienced a major leak of 4,238 barrels of oil (285,000 gallons) after being punctured by a .338 calibre firearm by an inebriated hunter named Daniel Carson Lewis. Nearly 2 acres of tundra were soiled—this was the second-largest mainline oil spill in pipeline history.

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikipedia

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22. Dreaming Big

Rebel Wilson pursued an acting career after she contracted malaria and hallucinated that she was a famous actress winning an Oscar. No Oscar yet, but she’s starred in films like Pitch Perfect (2012) and How To Be Single (2016).

Pitch Perfect Franchise factsGetty Images

21. Makes Me Feel Better Too

In 2010, a British goat milk farmer reportedly discovered that his goats produced more milk when Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You” was played for them on a loop. The goats apparently know what they like and what they don’t—“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” by Alvin and the Chipmunks allegedly made the goats stop producing milk altogether.

Medical Practices factsPixabay

20. No Appreciator of Art

When art collector and museum benefactor Walter P. Chrysler (son of Chrysler automotive founder Walter Chrysler) was 14 years old, he displayed a small watercolor landscape featuring an inch-high figure devoid of clothing, in his dorm room. His dorm master, considering it was unseemly and inappropriate for an image of a woman without clothing to be displayed in the dorm, seized and destroyed the picture. The painting was in fact by done by Renoir, a near priceless piece.

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikimedia Commons

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19. Surprise Hit

In 1985, Scottish new wave group Simple Minds rearranged and recorded a song called “Don’t You Forget about Me” in just 3 hours, then promptly forgot about it—until The Breakfast Club came out later that year and the song (which played during the film’s end credits) became a #1 hit.

Carrie Underwood FactsShutterstock

18. Aptly Named

The bolt that holds the rotor onto the body of a helicopter is called the “Jesus nut,” because if the nut fails, the helicopter would detach from the rotors and “the next person you see will be Jesus.”

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikipédia

17. What A Waste!

In 2011, Portland, Oregon disposed of a reservoir containing 7.8 million gallons of drinking water. This was not due to the animals that were routinely found in the water supply, but because a 21-year-old under the influence had urinated in it. After hearing about the incident, City Commissioner Randy Leonard was heard to quip "I think I'm going to have a Coke with my lunch today."

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikimedia Commons

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16. Breeding A Problem

In 1954, the city of Bombay, India (now known as Mumbai) faced such a severe rat issue that they started accepting rats that were no longer alive as a form of tax payment. This motivated resourceful citizens to mass breed rats and then humanely euthanize them specifically to utilise them for payment.

Classic Kids’ Movies FactsWikimedia Commons, Sarah Fleming

15. Enshrined Rights

In Nevada, public intoxication is not only expressly permitted, but it’s also prohibited for any city or town in Nevada to enact a bylaw prohibiting it.

Homeles Drunk Man Sleeping on The Floor.Getty Images

14. Good Investment

Michael Birch, the founder of social networking site Bebo, sold his site to AOL for $850 million in 2008—only to later buy it back for only $1 million in 2013.

Fastest Quit Job FactsFlickr

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13. All They Need

In the 13th century, Mongolia had the largest navy in the world. In 2010, the Mongolian Navy consisted of a single tugboat called the Sukhbaatar III, which is manned by seven men, only one of whom knows how to swim.

Trivia Tweakers FactsShutterstock

12. Blee Blah Doo

In 1972, Italian singer Adriano Celentano released a song (called “Prisencolinensinainciusol”) with nonsense lyrics meant to sound like American English. The song was designed to “explore communications barriers”—and also perhaps to demonstrate that Italians would love any song in English. The song, of course, became a hit.

Trivia Tweakers FactsWikipedia

11. Cost Vs Worth

Since 2006, pennies and nickels have had a production cost greater than their face value. This has resulted in a net loss to taxpayers of more than $436 million.

Wildest Things Found Inside Houses factsPixabay

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10. Good Pivot

Daisy Outdoor Products began in 1882 as a company that primarily sold windmills. In 1888, they started bundling their windmills with a complimentary BB weapon, a marketing approach that gained such popularity, they eventually stopped selling windmills. By 1895, they fully transitioned to manufacturing air projectile devices. Way to give the people what they want!

Trivia Tweakers FactsFlickr,Mike Mozart

9. Time For Change!

The Rhinoceros Party was a registered political party in Canada from 1963-1993, led by Cornelius, a rhinoceros. The party’s platform promised to repeal the law of gravity and change Canada’s currency to bubble gum, so it could be inflated or deflated at will.

Gladiator factsPixnio

8. Clever Idea

In 1975, an advertising copywriter named Gary Dahl struck gold when he invented the Pet Rock. He took rocks from a Mexico beach for a penny apiece and, over the course of only half a year, sold four million pet rocks, making himself over $15M. The gag gifts were aimed at those who complained about having to care for living pets, and the rocks came with a 34-page instructional booklet on how to care for one’s Pet Rock.

Susan B. Anthony factsPixabay

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7. Delayed Effect

In 2001, a man named David H. Gunby succumbed to complications from injuries he had received in 1966, due to a gunfire incident.His passing was determined to be the result of harmful intent, despite it taking place 35 years after the individual who caused the harm met his own end.

Trivia Tweakers FactsShutterstock

6. Grand Theft

In 2012, a gang of scrap metal thieves in the Czech Republic managed to take away an entire 10 ton metal bridge to sell for scrap metal. The gang had forged work orders claiming to allow them to remove the bridge, the replacement of which cost taxpayers millions.

Awful First Dates FactsShutterstock

5. Lost Memories

In 1984, Steven Tyler, the vocalist for the band Aerosmith, heard an old Aerosmith song on the radio and didn’t recognize it due to memory loss from years of drug use. He suggested the band record a cover of the song. Lead guitarist, Joe Perry told him “It’s us, f***head.”

Aerosmith FactsGetty Images

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4. Ape Art

An artist named Pierre Brassau exhibited a series of paintings in 1964 to critical acclaim. However, “Pierre Brassau” was in fact a chimpanzee. Even after the hoax was revealed, a critic declared that the chimp’s painting was still the best in the exhibition—however, before the reveal, another critic had observed, “only an ape could have done this.”

Bizarre History FactsPublic Domain Pictures

3. The Spy Who Was Shaggy

The Natural Security Agency, with headquarters in Maryland, were scared of, of all things, Furbies. They banned the furry fad in 1999 from headquarters because they were afraid the toys would repeat classified conversations and blab top secret material.

Truckers Stories FactsPixabay

2. Ah, Those Awkward Teenage Years

It was the 1970s, and Mattel decided they needed to really amp up Barbies. They ended up releasing the "Growing Up Skipper" doll, which was supposed to depict Skipper on the verge of adolescence. Naturally, then, when you turned Skipper's arm, her chest expanded. What can I say, no one made it out of the 70s with their dignity intact—not even plastic dolls.

Trivia Tweakers FactsFlickr,Joe Haupt

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1. Looks Delicious!

Food photographers often use Elmer’s Glue as a stand-in for milk in cereal commercials, so that the cereal won’t look soggy, and so that they can strategically place the cereal in the bowl.

Best Pranks factsShutterstock

 

Looking for more facts like these? We've made a complete list of Random Facts  to scratch your trivia itch.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, , 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44


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