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Escape Room Employees Divulge The Funniest Attempts People Have Made To Free Themselves

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Escape Room Employees Divulge The Funniest Attempts People Have Made To Free Themselves
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

I suffer from debilitating claustrophobia so I know all the places I absolutely cannot go! And number one on that list is these oh so popular "escape room" festivities. This escape room craze has become all the rage in group activity and celebrations. The point of these games is to find your way out, not burn down the building and freak out. Can you imagine the amount of blackmail the staff at these places must have? LOL.

Redditor u/ann_ha was hoping those who work the Escape Room establishments would share a few tales about what they've been witness to by asking...
People working in escape rooms, what's the funniest thing that you've seen?

Ha-Ha!

im right told you so GIF by DeRay Davis Giphy

One of the kids says the answer to the final puzzle out loud, rest of his family says,"No, that can't be right,"

They ask for a clue, they figure it out, and i walk in to celebrate with them, and the kid is basically screaming, "I TOLD YOU SO."

Darvog19

Cheater 

Dude brought a set of lockpicks, solved the room in 5 minutes.

SlimGrim602

Hehehehehehe. I can just imagine: "this is the lockpicking lawyer, and today i'm trying out this escape room. they used this really poor masterlock, so i'm just gonna this wood splinter to open it, and yep, we got it open. okay folks, that's all i have for you today."

hakdogwithcheese

$20 Now

I don't work in one but probably the family we were with kept telling their 8 year old son to shut up when he brought up certain things not looking right. Turned out he figured out 2 of the puzzles and demanded 20 bucks and an apology from his dad.

captconfusion

Why are you going to bring your kid to that if you aren't even going to let him play? Deserved both, in my opinion.

TohruH3

Going Up!

fan think GIF Giphy

Don't work in one but last time I was there, we were advised that the ceiling was not the route out. Apparently a group of guys the previous night removed a ceiling tile and tried to crawl up through it...

Hannajandro

Birded....

The funniest thing I've ever seen was when I was hosting a group of school children that couldn't have been older than 8 years old each. This little girl just looks into the camera in the corner of the room and stares right at it, and it almost looks like she's looking right at me. Suddenly she slowly raises her right hand and just FLIPS ME THE BIRD... I was so stunned but immediately burst out laughing with my coworker that had seen it as well. The look on her face made it even better. It's like she knew we'd see it lol.

MisthiosOfOlympus

Bad Exit

Stereotypical "I don't work there" disclaimer. I saw a couple break up once. The guy was being really snappy at the girl for seemingly little things and she started snapping back. The guy ended up cussing at her, turned to storm off and tripped over a piece of equipment on the ground.

Team_Captain_America

Get the Loot

I was in the room, not a worker, but I was part of a work outing with programmers. There was a puzzle that required a password for a computer to get files off of a thumb drive. A coworker booted the Linux box as a default user and loaded the drive there.

3LIteManning

The Gregothy....

scared shock GIF by Skit Guys Giphy

Had a couple of guys do a great little pantomime with the alien skeleton which involved confronting it about one of the clues, getting kicked in the gut for their troubles and dropping to the ground, and putting the alien in a chair facing the corner for a time out as punishment.

I think they forgive it, because after they finished the room they were very upset to leave "Gregothy" behind.

ainteasybeinggreene

Where to Begin....

Finally, something I can comment on. Long time lurker, made an account to respond.

I've worked for 2 different companies and have done 100+ rooms personally. 1 place was a mom and pop escape room company, the other was a Haunted House, Both have their own interesting stories. In the haunted house I got put in blood and makeup and we work INSIDE the rooms with guests. So we see everything in person (someone still watches cameras, but we give clues in person rather than a computer).

  • I've been flashed for a clue by a guidance counselor
  • I've seen more PDA than you'd ever care for
  • I've seen people pee in rooms
  • I've watched someone poop themselves (and smelt it) after I scared them in a room
  • I've seen people get nailed by spring loaded doors that open when they triggered them
  • I've had groups ask me to roast them as I give clues (of course)
  • So much dancing
  • So many people being mean to each other
  • so many break ups

That witty joke you make or pun was made by every single group, every sing hour, every single day. No Im not laughing with you.

EscapeeRoomee

Oh Butter....

poop GIF Giphy

Had a woman get trapped in the room and ended up defecating in a prop butter churner which also had the key in it.

UGLYWULF

Kids are REALLY good....

I worked in one for about a year, and this was surprisingly commonplace (like, virtually every parent/kid group that came in had this happen). I have a few theories.

What I learned was that kids around 9-12 are usually REALLY good at a lot of things in escape rooms because they are comfortable with failing and moving on. Escape room puzzles are usually designed so that you have to do a bit of experimenting before you crack it. Like, you look at a puzzle and will think you know what you are supposed to do, but then once you start doing it you realize there was more too it than you thought.

Kids are REALLY good at this because they are used to trying things, failing, and then trying something else. "What if we have to re-arrange the letters? That didn't work. Okay, what if we have to read it a certain way?" Kids know they don't know everything, and are willing to hypothesize, test, and re-focus after learning why their hypothesis was proven incorrect.

Conversely, it turns out people (and in particular men) over 40 years old are REAAAAAAALLY bad at this. They get stuck in their ways, and once they are locked in on a solution they ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT let go of it.... for anything. In my escape room, I played a character in the room with the people, and would drop hints if people were doing bad (we weren't on overly competitive one, so we would kind of gauge whether people wanted a 'pure' experience or a 'just for fun' one).

I can't count number of times I had a dad doing something completely, 100% wrong, leading me to walk over and say "Hmm, I don't think that is it, maybe there is something else in the room that would help", only for them to look up, do a quick glance around the room, and go RIGHT BACK TO WHAT THEY WERE DOING. Like, I'm not going to lie to you. I know the answer. But no, they think that they've cracked it, and they are going to keep on trying until the time is up.

Bufus

You Right. 

My brother insisted he was right. He's the youngest out of all of us, still in middle school, and he kept saying how to do one of the riddles. We all disagreed. Finally we gave up and asked for a hint. All it said was "he's right".

ParadoxialLife

You're Free!

free freedom GIF Giphy

In every escape room I've ever been to they have made it really clear you are not actually locked in and can leave whenever you want. Otherwise I would have been right there with you about being stuck in a room with a recently broken up couple.

Team_Captain_America

LOCK IT DOWN! 

Don't work at one, I was a participant in this story & the employees told me it was the most hilarious thing they've seen so far. My boyfriend & I did an escape room back in January this year. Children's asylum themed, & very well done! We opened a secret door in the back of a closet using an electromagnet. It took two people touching a metal lead on the wall on opposite sides of the room.

It lead to another tiny room only big enough for one person to be in & on hands & knees only. Well somehow my idiot of a boyfriend shut the door, LOCKING it behind him in a pitch black room. I couldn't touch both metal leads on the walls to make it open, so I had to just yell & wave my hands until the employee noticed me & came in with the 'key' to let my boyfriend out. I still won't let him live that one down.

dc_erin

A Stream of Water

I have experience with industrial automation and design locks for the owner of an escape room.

When the owner approached me and said he wanted to try something very different, I came up with the idea of pouring water in to a 55 gallon drum. At the bottom of the drum would be the trigger for the lock -- a water sensor. I didn't know how practical that would be but the owner loved it and worked it in to a story about a prohibition-era speakeasy. At least one bottle of water, provided at an earlier in the room, would need to be poured in to a still -- unlocking the door.

Apparently that worked well until a small group of frat boys came in and slammed the water down because they thought It was free. When they finally figured out that they had to pour water in to the still, one of them unzipped and peed in to it instead. The water sensor was triggered, opening the door.

After that, the owner said he didn't want to use water sensors anymore and asked if I wanted to take them back.

AllAboutTheSullivans

Cure & Blitzkreig


I worked at an escape room from October 2019- March 2020 before the pandemic, and I have a couple of stories.

The company i worked for had 3 rooms you could play, and i was trained in 2 of the rooms. One was called The Cure and one was called Blitzkrieg. The way we ran things at the company was that instead of watching through cameras and communicating via walkie talkies, each room had a character that went along with the theme of the room as a way to be more interactive and engaging.

So in The Cure you have 1 hour to find the cure for a sick girl (ironic given 2020, huh?) and the room is very science-y themed and so are the puzzles. One of the puzzles requires VERY BASIC math skills (literally just the MDAS of PEMDAS AND you get a calculator) but it's lengthy so it can get a little confusing sometimes. ANYWAYS there was a very average family that came in, nobody super bright but not necessarily dumb people either.

Just average. However the dad kept trying to solve the math problem, and after what seemed like the millionth time getting the wrong answer, he turned to his wife and says "I'm an engineer, you think i should be able to get a simple math problem right!" And it just baffled me that this man who is supposedly an engineer couldn't solve the simple problem when middle schoolers come in and solve it no problem all the time.

In Blitzkrieg, it's WWII bunker themed and so it's very dark and the players get flashlights. (+10 for atmosphere amirite?) At the very end of the game you have to "disarm" a bomb to escape and every other puzzle throughout the game leads to the code you need. It's been awhile and i can no longer remember the code (not that i should have pisted it anyhow) so let's pretend it was 1564. A family was at the very very end of the game with mere seconds (less than 10 and counting) and they were trying EVERY combination of 1564 they had except 1564... 5164... 6451... 4561... And so on. It wasn't until the clock had ONE second left they got it right and got out. The energy was very tense and so everyone was laughing their a**es off when they got out.

itbewhitney

Dirty Talk

Not an employee but:

There was one my group did where you attended a dinner party for the king. Well, the king killed someone, and you had to solve the murder. However, when you heard him coming you had to run back to the table otherwise, he would get suspicious.

Anywhoo: So many times he would ask a question such as: "Where does though come from?" My group would answer "on the Oregon Trail, one of us has dysentery, so careful! You might get it to!" One time he got in one of the girls face (an act), and she simply said "careful! I haven't had an orgasm in months, and your sexiness might cause my vagina to explode!"

I don't know how, but he kept a straight face the whole time until the very end. When we solved the murder, we all had to escape the castle. The actor yells at one of the guys who was still sitting at the table: "What have you done peasant? Where did the women go?" He simply shrugs and says, "why bother? They all want to have sex with each other, so I'd rather stay here and have dinner with you."

He literally busted out laughing, and told us all how we made his night by being a bunch of weird people.

IDarnkToMuchCaffeine

Door Opened

I worked at one a few years ago. One time we had a local summer camp rent out all our rooms for a day. The kids (all high schoolers) were actually doing pretty good. One of our rooms had a computer monitor with clues on it, but I noticed in the middle of the game that the computer had gotten into a weird mode and wasn't showing what it was supposed to. It was an easy fix, so I paused their time and went to fix it. As soon as I opened the door, they all started screaming bloody murder and bumping into each other trying to run away from me. Their chaperones thought it was hilarious.

beesareoutthere

Back to the 80's....

like a virgin madonna GIF Giphy

A story as a person in the room. I went with my mom and her friend.

They were both visiting me and it was a great activity in a historic building down town. The room was 80s video rental themed and there was a lot of going back and forth between rooms. My mom's friend had to be talked into going by her adult children and within a few minutes of play this lady went from a bit uninterested to balls-to-the-wall committed. Sprinting for clues. Screaming. Really great for the energy.

Thank god it was just us.

Things that were not clues were clearly marked. We got out successfully and walked outside to 4-5 fire trucks along the curb. We all notice and wonder what happened. My mom's friend says she wants to go back inside and find out. My mom and I think nothing of it. At home she told us what really happened.

Turns out that while my mom's friend was in the other room alone that she had touched everything she could including smashing her fingers in from the side of the plastic cover of a fire alarm, shoving down the alarm to engage it, even though it was clearly marked as a real alarm. She was just so focused on finding puzzles and clues she realized too late what it was she just clicked.

The idea that she shoved her fingers under the cover, from the side of it rather than activate it as it is intended by pulling up the plastic, with such a feverish intensity... I just couldn't believe it.

Bikesandbakeries

On Camera

My friend worked in an escape room and his manager was cool about letting me view the security camera tapes with him. I have a great one.

Essentially, this woman read a letter that said, "Discover the clue outside of the box". She must have thought about it literally and compared that to the room and ripped up the drywall after bashing it in with a Candlestick and started ripping out the electrical wires.

The whole room shut down and Emergency Services had to be called to unlock the door to let them out. Funniest and stupidest thing I had ever seen.

jman857

I Got It

I was a player in one where every puzzle gave you a digit for the combination to the exit. The lock they had on the door was one of those really crappy ones that you can kinda feel out when a number snaps into the right place. Took me about 3 minutes to get it open, much to the surprise of my teammates and the staff.

LookItsEric

Within the Walls

I don't work in a escape room but I did one recently, When we finished there was a booming voice that freaked us all out and we all screamed even the boys, And the voice said 'leave now or forever be locked in these walls' and we all sprinted out which was awkward cause the room was tiny. I feel like the person running it was dying of laughter after we screamed.

Rapture_Prepared

The Message

Not an employee but I went to an escape room with my company as part of a team building exercise. We were all split into teams and I got put onto the same team as my company's CEO. Also the place had a no photography rule that they explained to us at the start.

We got into the room and started getting to work on the puzzles when the CEO whips out his phone and starts taking pictures of us puzzle solving for the company's photo albums.

The employees flashed a message onto the room's TV screen telling him to stop taking pictures. He put it away for a while but eventually whips it out again. "Stop taking pictures" the screen flashed again so we got him to put it away once more.

We got back to work when a few moments later he again started taking more pictures. This time an employee physically walked into the room to warn him to stop it with the pictures. You'd expect he would learn from this. You'd be wrong.

We managed to break out of the first room and into a second room with the next set of puzzles when, once again, he pulls out his phone to take more pictures. This time two employees walked in, turned on all the lights, and stopped everyone mid puzzle solving. They had him hand over his phone to them and they went through and deleted every single picture off the phone while warning him that if he tried it again then they were banning us.

So that is how our company CEO almost got us banned from an escape room.

urbanhawk1

Giggles

giggle laughing GIF Giphy

I have a God complex.

My victims are made aware of this before they enter the room. They know I have cameras on them & I can communicate with them. The deal is, if they want a clue, I want something in return. Naturally, I have to keep it pretty tame, but there's just something about making a group of grown men twirl like ballerinas for as long as I like that really gets me in the giggly places....

culdesaccolony

The Brat Boys

Context: We get idiots who are there to speed run and self congratulate themselves all the damn time. We call them frat boys because they are the biggest offenders. They rarely listen to or obey the rules. Half the time they just kick in doors or windows to impress their skanky arm candy plus ones. We always tell them they were disqualified but they don't give a crap, they reached the end and they won. They're usually too busy making out or high-fiving afterwords to even hear us when we tell them they broke the rules and lost. We try to bill them for damages but I can tell you exactly how often that works.

Anyhow one such foolish frat boy tried to kick in a locked door and failed. I put it there as a red herring, anticipating this behavior. I reconfigured the room to have another solution but the door was the most obvious. So the douche goes to break down the door and breaks his foot on the third attempt. I'd barricaded the other side with an iron bar. His rolling around and threatening to sue us (no case at all) while his buddies laughed at him was a memory I cherish.

Kalehfornyuh

Hearing Steps

Oh man, so many funny stories (game designer & game master here).

Most of my favorites are when players are SO confident in something so wrong. Once we had a simon-says game where you hear a cat meow so you press the button under the cat.

Well one family spent about 20 minutes of their 1-hour game time meowing at everything to see if it did something.

Another group of teens heard footsteps in the background music of the room (pirate them) so they all started screaming, ran to the first room and hid until eventually a game master had to go ask them what happened.

luarne

Breaking Metal

mad the rock GIF Giphy

We had metal tables and this one guy literally broke the lock open on the table in 5 minutes, when he actually did it I freaking died.

PotatoMaster11173

Break it... pay for it...

Damage deposit my friends. You get a pending charge of whatever several hundred dollars your damage deposit is on your credit card or you don't get to do the room. Don't break anything and it comes back to you. Break something and the company keeps the money.

Educational-Candy-17

Right on me....

Not really to funny but in sixth grade we had a Halloween one and i was part of scaring them once they unlocked one door and what happened was a child like a 5 year old came in by him self and peed on me. It wasn't to funny for me it was a gag for my friends though.

Swampertloveisback

Lessons 

I only worked there a week but two parents brought in their homeschooled son, and said it counted as a that weeks math lesson. Ya know, since solving the puzzle takes logical thinking.

icewally

Suspicions. 

I don't work in an escape room but me and few friends tried one once then one them proceeded to force nearly all puzzles (guessing numbers on locks, managed to get an envelope from a locked box without opening the box, and ignored all the clues) he didn't actually break anything but I am seriously surprised the one person that owns the puzzle didn't stop him.

I have suspicions he already knew all the answers though.

Chelsea_Is_Grinning

The Devil

devil satan GIF Giphy

I was with a group who failed an escape room awhile ago.

The theme was getting a contract back from the devil (Faustian deal kind of thing). When the timer ran out the speakers suddenly BLARED music, I think it was Sympathy for the Devil, and the owner kicked open the door and stormed in theatrically.

Everyone else froze but I fully dropped to the floor and rolled under a desk. Got a good laugh from everyone including the owner.

Bunny36

Flying High

Another funny story (for you; dear reader, not for me) was when a couple booked a late night game but were high as a kite. The girl greened out and ran outside and started puking everywhere. Seemed okay after so we let her back in the room. Turned out she had puked on her shoes, so dragged it all through our lobby and hallways, and then just puked again in the room anyways. We kindly asked them to leave and charged them a cleaning fee.

luarne

The Jewels

Didn't work in one but my younger cousin had a birthday party in one, I went and it was mostly girls from her sophomore class one of them read a clue that said something along the lines of "The passkey to clue three is in the place you store jewelry" cue a jewelry box being on the table and it has a layer of felt in the bottom not attached this one girl, not seeing that the strip of paper with the password on it had been removed proceeds to hold the piece of felt to the light and tells us she can see the numbers and begins reading them off to us all in the room.

It was just a piece of felt no numbers what so ever.

Lonestar1999

LOCKDOWN

Don't work in one, but at when i did a thing in a room. So basically the room was in a Prison setting, and it started with getting handcuffs on and put into a cell, they cuffed our hand in front of us so we still could use them easily. But no i thought that would be too easy for me and decided that i should step over the handcuffs so that my hands would behind my back.

I quickly noticed that that wasn't the smartest decision and tried to put them back in front of me, but somehow i only could step with 1 leg over my arms and was stuck with my cuffed hand between my legs. Needles to say we didn't escape the room.

jaene8383

"the game masters"

Don't work in one but the "game masters" told us how they couldn't help but laugh at our group. It was a horror themed escape room and it was pretty dimly lit. Mind you, I had to take 3 shots prior to have the guts to do this one.

There were two floors and a bunch of rooms throughout. On the first floor, there was a gate that was locked from the other side; we weren't sure if it actually led to anything or if it was just a prop for the room.

The upper level, there was a portion that had a slide leading down to pitch black God knows what. So the two guys in our group decided to brave it out and go down the slide while the rest of us faint of heart females stayed upstairs. We had no idea where the slide led to or what was going to be down there considering there were animatronics and things falling from the ceiling in the other rooms.

They slide down to the first floor, we ran downstairs expecting screams or something but all we heard was confusion. They commented saying the slide was fun but they couldn't see anything because the room was pitch black, and then after some scuffling and movement. Apparently they climbed up the slide because there was no other way out and ended up on the second floor again so they could try and scare us even more. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could complete the puzzle because we couldn't figure out what that other room was for.

The "game master" comes in to explain the puzzle. Turns out after you go down the slide, all you had to do was feel around for the barrel lock which would've opened the gate on the first floor. They also told us how they were watching the video cameras. Apparently they couldn't really see much in that room either so all they could do was listen. They heard nothing and couldn't tell what was going on until they saw them pop out of the slide in the other room. The "game masters" realized they climbed the slide and the camera room must've been close by because I swear I could hear them roaring with laughter.

_killingreality_

SUCCESS!!!

It wasn't really me who was working on it, but my little brother kept flipping over tables and looking at the bar codes saying OH THIS IS A CLUE LOOK, it was really funny.

Fudgecakeboi

Look for the Bat signal....


For this room we were investigators trying to catch a criminal who was a spoof of Batman's Riddler who was last seen in a subway, of course it's a trap and he's not there but a bomb is and we have to escape before the bomb goes off

At the end of the escape room this box has the key to get out and beat the room but above the key is a large box with LOTS of fake (uncut) keys with a big red button above it.

We all tell this one guy to NOT push the button as we all knew what would happen............

He pushed the button and the key we needed and the fake keys fell to the ground like we all said would happen

We still found the key and got out with decent time left despite the needle in a haystack we to search through.

Jaydog1986

HACKED AWAY! 

This guy got so freaked out he started hacked at the walls with the fake axe we had in there for decoration.

FiveNightsAtFurries

Open Sesame....

house GIF Giphy

someone hit the doors and they opened.

SmurpleSmorange

The ones i've been in don't actually lock the door, or there's a switch right next to it that will unlock it in an emergency. Its a big safety risk to actually lock someone in a room.

PM__ME_YOUR_PUPPIES

It's LIT! 

I went to my friend's birthday at and escape room with my brother. he had just gotten some sick light up shoes and in the escape room there was one of those things where you all hold hands from one handle to the other and complete an electric current. we did this and my brother's shoes lit up and for some reason we lost it. it was way funnier if you were actually there.

DragonArt

10 Fools

the three stooges GIF by IFC Giphy

Buddy of mine worked at an escape room. He texted me this video recording the security cam screen showing this family that had 5 minutes left and were stumbling all over each other. Imagine the 3 stooges, but 10 people.

moist-pizza-roll

Going Crazy

My friends look at a bunch of letters, I was trying to point out maybe we can rearrange them... We were LITERALLY 98% of the way there.... And my one dumb butt lying friend goes "maybe if we correspond them to numbers we can figure it out" and they all listened to him, then the guys let us out, mind you were were like, 14 at most... And he goes "if you rearrange them properly they give you the 4 digit code you needed to enter into the lock pick and get out" I went crazy to say the least. xD

Thotus_Maximus

Scribbles....

My friend once told me there was writing on the walls as part of the design. There was also a whiteboard in the room and markers in case the group needed to take notes. The players, without asking, thought they were allowed to write on the wall using the given markers. The comments were apparently funny enough that he just let it happen. But he had to create a note for future players not to do it.

Brusk_Dinosaur78

Knockout

the office comedy GIF Giphy

Some dude punched a whole in the secret door, then forcefully pulled off a covering for the button that would lead to the exit. Done in 10 minutes since the first 9 they spent actually trying.

ImNoScarZuko

The 'Click'

a Cruise last year, my brother picked the bloody lock and we won the escape room, we thought we couldn't as we were so living the puzzle with 2 mins left. Then 'click' followed by the sound of the box containing the key to signify we won was in opened.

Edit: it was a number lock.

RaphaelandRaphael

Take it Off

I one had a group of drunk guys go in and they ran through their allotted hints pretty quickly. They asked for another hint and we said over the speakers that they were out of hints.

One of the guys threatened to start taking off his clothes until we gave another hint.

EDIT: For everyone asking, we didn't even have to give him the extra hint. His friends chilled him out and ended up finding the next clue pretty shortly after that.

trash_confetti

Takers

Giphy

A kid I knew from school, his family owns an escape room business. The most things that happen is people trying to take things when it's clearly nailed down or nailed to the wall then he said that a little kid pissed in a bottle.

Reddit

Infamous Internet Rumors That Ended Up Being True

Reddit user strakerak asked: 'What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?'

boy playing at laptop inside room
Photo by Ludovic Toinel on Unsplash

In 2017, I returned to my office after my lunch break to hear my supervisors discussing Tom Petty. This seemed like a random topic to me until one of my supervisors told me Tom Petty had passed away. He was a huge fan of Petty and spent the next hour or so combing through the internet to get more information.

He came back into the room my other supervisor and I were working in and announced that Tom Petty wasn't dead after all. News outlets had jumped the gun to announce his death, but he was actually still alive.

The next day, I came in to find out that Tom Petty was dead; the news may have been premature, but true.

This is a classic example of the rumor being started on the internet. Sometimes, like with the news of Tom Petty's death, the rumor can run wild and appear everywhere. Other times, the rumor can be seen by just a few people and dismissed. However, a lot of times, these rumors turn out to be true.

Redditors know a lot of internet rumors that turned out to be true, and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor strakerak asked:

"What started out as an internet rumor that ended up being infamously true?"

The King Of Pop

"Michael Jackson writing the music for Sonic 3."

"He actually did, but was never credited on the game because it would breach his contract with his record label."

– -WigglyLine-

"He did the same when he appeared on The Simpsons. He appeared under a pseudonym, and the Producers said it was an impersonator."

"Only years later they confirmed it really was Michael."

"His singing voice was actually done by an impersonator, though."

– given2fly_

The Truth Comes Out

"In 1998, US Men’s National Team captain John Harkes was shockingly cut from the team right before the World Cup. The coach claimed it was because Harkes wouldn’t fit into his new preferred formation, but rumors flew on the early internet that it was actually because he had slept with his teammate Eric Wynalda’s wife. The rumor was so well-known in soccer circles that Harkes expressly denied it in his autobiography the next year."

"Fast forward 12 years to 2010 and Wynalda admits it’s true. The coach then came out and admitted it was why he dropped Harkes, but that he’d planned to keep the secret as long as Wynalda did."

– guyfromsoccer

Video Evidence

"The Tim Burton Hansel and Gretel that aired once on halloween in the 80's."

"I heard for years that it was fake but I knew it was real because my dad recorded everything in the 80s and he recorded that. We let a good friend of ours borrow it and switch it over from VHS to DVD and soon after that it made its way on to the internet , and there it is now. I know it's our copy because the tracking in the beginning is screwed up. Still have the VHS."

– Frozenthickness

"There was a similar story with a Nickelodeon movie called Cry Baby Lane. It was supposed to be so scary that Nickelodeon got complaints and denied its existence for years. Someone uploaded a taped copy to youtube about a decade ago."

– PattiAllen

The Movie Business

"That North Korea hacked Sony Pictures because of The Interview movie."

"I worked in the movie business at the time and the account managers at Sony all basically needed to get new identities as all of their personal information got leaked online."

OldMastodon5363

"My partner worked on that movie and the production bought all the crew 1 year of an identity theft tracking service."

CMV_Viremia

Keep Away From The Ears Of Kids

"Some banned episodes or scenes of cartoons."

"For example, I remember there was a Dexter’s Lab cartoon where he clones evil versions of DeDe and himself and they swear like every other word (censored of course), and people debated whether it even existed cause they only aired it like once. Now it’s pretty accessible online."

– Spledidlife

Yes, It's True

"Echelon, a massive electronic espionage system by the US and allies to intercept all electronic messages, especially emails."

"In the mid-nineties it was a topic on conspiracy BBS boards. A lot of people in my bubble at the time (mainly uni students in Europe) were including fake threats to the US in the their email signatures as a way to "protest" and "fill the system with false alarms" (obviously useless)."

"Then, in 1999-2000 came out to be true and a lot of security service agencies from UK and other US allies started to admit they were part of the espionage network."

– latflickr

How The Mighty Fell

"John Edward’s love child."

– ACam574

"A reminder that he was cheating on his wife while she was hospitalized for cancer treatment."

– Fanclock314

Ugh...

"Carrie Fisher's heart attack. Some a**hole who was on the same flight was livetweeting the whole medical emergency and justified it by insisting she was just making sure the family was informed."

– everylastlight

It Actually Happened

"Every year around her birthday there was a rumor that Betty White died. When I heard she died, I scoffed, saying that dumb rumor is back.... then saw it on the news. I was in shock."

– Known-Committee8679

"The fact that Betty died literally right before she turned 100 is such a Betty White way to go out."

– Paganigsegg

Big Actor, Small Roles

"I distinctly remember some rumors about the reason why Bruce Willis was taking so many roles in sh*tty movies before it was announced he has dementia."

– KampferMann

"RedLetterMedia did a deep dive on his recent movie activity to try and work out why exactly he was taking part in basically scam-movies. They noticed he had an earpiece in one of the scenes and joked that the director was feeding him lines. I remember they even disclaimed over the rumours at the time, and possible made a follow-up vid when it was revealed to the public."

– CardinalCreepia

What To Do Next?

"That the writer of LOST were making it up as they went."

"Turned out to be absolutely true."

– homarjr

That last one was kind of obvious!

Do you have any to add? Let us know in the comment below.

Person holding large stack of books
Photo by Jay Lamm on Unsplash

Whether you're naturally interested in fun facts and trivia or not, it's always nice to know a few that you can pull out of your pocket at a moment's notice as a nice conversation starter.

But there are some fun facts out there that are so weird, people become more preoccupied with how the teller found out that information rather than the information itself.

Redditor Dry_Bus_935 asked:

"What is your 'don't ask me how I know' random fact?"

Nuclear Fail Safe

"You have quite a lot of time, certainly more than ten seconds, to turn back on the main pumps of a nuclear reactor once you have accidentally turned them off."

- egorf

"I'm not surprised. The amount of fail safes, redundancies, and emergency scenario planning for nuclear power plants is insane."

"I toured a nuclear plant and wrote my high school senior thesis on the plans put in place to ensure the Fukushima disaster would not happen at that plant."

"I'm sure the secondary pumps are plenty capable of handling the reactor until the main pumps are repaired or just turned back on."

- Borderlandsman

Happy Cat

"If your cat chews on fresh eucalyptus, they might start hallucinating and fall over repeatedly, leading to a $400 emergency vet bill just to be told she’s just kinda high."

- oddidealstronghold

"And, that's part of why koalas love it. Little stoners."

- littlebluefoxy

Archaeology: Do Not Lick

"Old human bones are very porous, so if you lick them, they’ll stick to your tongue."

- clanculcarius

Sharing is Caring

"A pigeon will only eat a Starburst if you chew it up a little bit first. Just to clarify: chew the Starburst, not the pigeon."

- OhTheHueManatee

"Instructions unclear. Pigeon unhappy."

- Wild-Lychee-3312

Intriguing Anatomy

"Everyone is here with the creepy crime stuff, and I'm just like, 'A soft fur rat has 22 nipples.'"

- horroscoblue

"Okay, so either they have really small nipples, their nipples overlap, or they have nipples in places where there shouldn't be nipples."

"(I've never written the word 'nipples' so many times in a singular sentence before.)"

- GdeGraaf

'Don't Ask Me,' Indeed!

"Turmeric can be used as clothes dye. It is capable of permanently dyeing cotton cloth even after it has passed through the digestive tract of an adult male."

- SlefeMcDichael

"You s**t your pants, didn't you?"

- PMmecrossstitch

"I'd prefer not to answer that question."

- SlefeMcDichael

High-Risk Survival Skills

"If you ever trying to survive in the Arctic, don’t eat polar bear liver. It is so high in vitamin A, it will kill you."

- WrongWayCorrigan-361

"It's also surrounded by a lethal amount of angry polar bear."

- horanc2

Real-Life Spies

"TV shows and movies go out of their way to make military/intelligence officers look bada**."

"But real-life 'spies,' by design and training, are boring. They have regular houses and standard second-hand cars, they dress down, and they have vague, boring job titles (accounts receivable) as cover, and they do not draw attention to themselves. Most come from specialized academia."

- Ok_Worth_1093

Haunting Reality

"Your muscles can keep twitching for several hours after you die."

- JustDave62

"Also, beards can appear to grow. This is however not because the beard itself grows but because the skin shrinks."

- RRautamaa

"I worked at a morgue for over eight years. If you grasp the hand of a dead body to move the arm, the hand will grasp back, but that's just muscles and tendons reacting to the tension."

- goneferalinid

The Sneakiness of Drowning

"When a drowning victim is revived, get them to a hospital as soon as possible. Drowning is the leading cause of death of kids from the age of one to seven and is ruled as accidental drowning when it comes to secondary drowning or dry drowning."

"Basically, your lungs are full of water despite being revived. Your lungs will absorb the liquid, but not before your body acidifies from high levels of carbon dioxide. The only chance to survive is to have the lungs pumped with oxygen via CPAP machine and time."

"Also, drowning is extremely quiet. You don’t hear the victim go under. And if you see flailing, do not attempt to save the victim otherwise you’ll become another drowning victim. Throw them a lifeline and hope their amygdala realizes that a rope or something is floating near them and grabs on it."

- Dfiggsmeister

Not Everyone's Favorite Chocolate

"Hershey’s chocolate has the strong smell of vomit or feces to some people (me), and that’s because they use butyric acid as a preservative. Butyric acid is the compound that makes vomit smell so bad."

"Edit: Digging further into it, there are some claims that they may not be “adding” the butyric acid, but rather it is occurring from essentially spoiling the milk in their milk chocolate. Either way, the butyric acid and putrid smell remains a part of their product."

- hefewiseman1

"That explains the weird aftertaste I always get! I don’t smell it but their chocolate always has this super unpleasant sharp/acidic aftertaste that I find repulsive. I assume this is why!!"

- PomegranateNo975

Do Not Lick the Asbestos

"Asbestos tastes like chalk. And if you lick it, it has the texture of extremely gritty sandpaper. Which is actually the feeling of microscopic asbestos needles piercing your flesh!"

- TooYoungToBeThisOld1

Mapping Out the War

"Beginning in 1911 in anticipation of the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, two statesmen, one from England and one from France, began visiting locations in France that they believed would be the settings for a number of major battles that would occur during the great war."

"Long bike rides through these future battle zones in the countryside and weeks spent building a foundation for a French-Anglo codebook that would later prove important in helping win the war."

- fjordperfect123

Avoiding Lawsuits > Protecting Patients

"Doctors, or surgeons more specifically, that make too many mistakes during surgery, ie, leaving instruments in patients, frequently gets ‘quietly traded’ to other hospitals where they continue their path of destruction with the patients not being aware of their past record. Hospitals tend to keep quiet about the matter to avoid lawsuits."

- Kittytigris

Bonus Points: Do This While Having Lunch in Your Car

"If you overfill a fast food gravy cup and then put a lid on, it will create a pressurized gravy stream that sprays all over your face and uniform while your coworker looks on in horror."

- thechaosjester776

This subReddit thread was so a roller-coaster of random facts, we've surely all walked away learning something.

But the biggest takeaway might just be: Maybe don't lick so many things.

Shocked woman covering her mouth
vaitheeswaran Nataraj/Unsplash

When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.

But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.

Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.

It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.

Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:

"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"

These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.

Bleeding Out

"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."

"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."

– DongLaiCha

Tragic News

"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."

– accountnameredacted

Bottom Of The Barrel

"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."

– Crotch-Monster

A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.

Like Father, Like Son

"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."

– psycospaz

Busted

"Flashing blue lights."

– FiddleOfGold

"This sobered me up just thinking about it."

– redmaple_syrup

Losing Sight

"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."

– MissHibernia

Quitting The Bottle

"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."

– omgtater

These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.

Unplanned House Guests

"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."

– Oneinsevenbillion75

Serious Health Warning

"Elevated liver enzymes."

"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."

"So I opted for recovery, instead."

"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."

– Far_Meal8674

The Joyride

"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."

– foxfood9116

The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.

But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.

Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.

Woman holding multiple shopping bags
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.

Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.

These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.

From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.

Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:

"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"

"Tale As Old As Time..."

"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","

"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."

"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."

"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."

"Lol!"

"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom

"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."

"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."

"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."

"I think he was a germaphobe."

"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."

"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."

"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.

"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."

"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."

"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000

Money Burn GIF by nog Giphy

Who Wore It Better?

"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."

"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."

"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."

"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'

"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"

"No."- mertsey627

Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...

"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."

"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."

"It was very low key."

"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."

"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."

"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."

"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."

"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa

south park wedding GIF Giphy

See You In Court!

"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."

'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."

"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."

"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."

"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."

"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin

It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!

"I work in a public library."

"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."

"A popular book that just came out."

"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."

"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten

A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!

"My own."

"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"

"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."

"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"

"Unacceptable!"

"This shall not stand!"

"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."

"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."

"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."

"I got over it."- DeathGrover

homer simpson episode 23 GIF Giphy

Holy Matrimony!

"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."

"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."

"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."

"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."

"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."

"It's just a party."

"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree

When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...

"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore

In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...

"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."

"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."

"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."

"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."

"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."

"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."

"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."

"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."

"We don’t offer wrapping services."

"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."

'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae

Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso Giphy

Happiest Place On Earth!

"I used to work for Disney."

"That in itself should tell you everything."

"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."

"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."

"Suddenly got worse huh?"

"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."

"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."

"I'm not kidding."

"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."

"My wife worked booking."

"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."

"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."

"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."

"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."

"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."

"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong

Disney World GIF Giphy

The horror!

Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!

It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...

Said absolutely no one.