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Identical Twins Who've Swapped Places As Adults Explain How It Played Out

Identical Twins Who've Swapped Places As Adults Explain How It Played Out
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Identical twins switching places is a concept that has fascinated storytellers for years. (For every story like The Parent Trap, there's something like Dead Ringers).

We feel many writers have found new inspiration thanks to Redditor pvakil, who asked: "Identical Twins: Have you ever gone inti work, school, or some other occasion to cover your twin? How did it work out?"


50. Keeping The Rotation Going

Giphy

My dad is an identical twin. He and his brother regularly switched places in school. I can't remember the exact subjects but for clarity reasons I'll just say my dad was good at math and my uncle was good at English. The often switched when my dad had an English class and when my uncle had math. The teachers never noticed, but their friends knew the whole time.

CRMOwarrior

49. Caught And Not Rewarded

No, but we did swap classes in primary school. Lasted half the day before the teachers caught us and made us swap back.

Then two weeks later some girls in the year above us got a merit award at assembly for managing the whole day without getting spotted.

BBCnich

48. Assumptions Presumptions

We never covered for each other or anything, but I was working at a casino as a dealer and my twin brother came in the general public entrance and played at a few tables. The floor manager spotted him and asked him "What the hell are you doing? Dealers can't come gamble. You could get fired for this. Get out of there before I report you myself"

Other than that, I've used his ID before to get into a bar because I forgot mine, but that's about it.

svenson_26

47. Close Call; Didn't Matter

My twin brother and I joined a research conference under different teams (my bro & another guy; me & another guy). We were required to make posters, and so we did.

So, day of the research conference comes, my partner and I basically messed up our concluding statement in the poster. We had to reprint our poster with the corrections.

That same morning, my partner and I met in the conference just to leave and reprint our poster. We didn't even register our team.

Luckily, my brother posed as me and registered my team, while his partner registered for his team. In that conference, we missed about 2-3 hours of what could've been the poster presentation or q&a about our respective researches. Sadly, we didn't win anything but thanks for that, twin bro.

Sheeparino

46. Foul!

I am an identical twin! I haven't covered him for work or school or anything like that, but I used to play on his IM basketball team when he was sick and he did the same for me on occasion. No one knew, but I fouled an opponent hard on accident and my brother got dirty looks from that team for the rest of the season lol.

DecentBagel

45.  Saved By The Bell

We were in university and I was in a math class above his. He needed help on his final and just couldnt get a couple concepts so he asked me to take the final for him because he needed an A to get a B for the class. We are identical enough and all you needed was an ID so I thought why not??

Plus he would owe me big time.

I took the test and got him an A. The only hiccup was that his teacher asked me something about their class so I just laughed and walked away.

BrandPlanner

44. We're Good On The Tests

My identical twin brother has covered a few tests throughout my life, and I for him. The biggest occasion was when I was sick for my online final for a class I'd worked my butt off for, and he had already taken the final the week before. So when I got sick and obviously couldn't go take the test, the decision was pretty easy to offer him a $10 to go take the test again (which he did better on the 2nd time, thank god)

jnew119

43. Off-Kilter

I went to college with a girl who had an identical twin sister (Let's call her Laura). We shared a design course and the way the desks were laid out had you facing toward each other. We weren't super close or anything but I saw her nearly every day. One day, she's acting a little different. I sort of stared at her for a sec and it clicked. I had never met Laura's sister before but I knew her name (let's call her Kelly), so I greeted her with it. She said "Damn it!" and went on to explain that her and Laura switched classes for a day just to see if they could get away with it. I advised her that she needed a better poker face but agreed to play along to see if anyone else would notice.

BewareNixonsGhost

42. What Freaky Twin Thing?

My time to shine (kind of) So my brother and I aren't identical, but we look enough alike for people who don't know us to mistake us for twins. Anyways, we've switched our names up a bunch when substitute teachers or something are in class (because normal teachers would know we switched) and then tell them at the end of class. I also know a pair of identical twins who one of them was good at english while the other was good at math. So what did they do? One took both math classes and the other took both English classes. They were never caught. Being a twin has its perks even though you gotta share everything.

Luke11smith

41. Charmed, I'm Sure.

I'm a twin. Not identical, but we still look the exact same. On multiple occasions I have gone to her classes to cover for her. One time my sister had an assignment to go see this play, and to prove she went, had to take a selfie in front of the venue. She was out of town, so I went instead and took a selfie of me in front of the place. Worked like a charm, always does.

KTyo12

40. Accidental Coverage

Giphy

I'm a twin. We don't ever use this skill to cover one another, but it's a big perk when I go into the coffeeshop or the various other food places in the mall she works in. The staff assumes I'm her and they give me free coffee or discounts on meals.

la-noche-viene

39. Wasn't Me

Not even twins, but looked a lot like my older brother apparently, enough so the teachers who did not have our class could not tell us apart, he was a trouble maker and i took advantage those few times i did stuff i should not, like sneak into the computer room, and got caught. When the teachers asked who i was i said my brothers name and class and my brother, who is a little technophobic, did not remember sneaking into the computer room or why he would do it and why my classmates where there with him, but he soon realized it was me and not him, he did not rat though.

mvoigt

38. Get Out Of Jail FREE

I know a set of twins that would have frequent run-ins with the law. Each twin would always say they're the other twin when arrested. And then that other twin would show up to court with a rock solid alibi.

MrRuby

37. Guyz It's Me

My twin brother and I are both EMTs but we worked at different companies in the same city at one point. For about a month after he started working I kept getting comments from his coworkers whenever I ran into them like "you're working over there now" or "don't you work with us". And I got so many confused looks from his coworkers and patients too whenever they would see me they'd just stare at me like didn't this guy just leave.

IsmaelH11

36. It Didn't Work

Back in the time when ATMs didn't exist, I sent my identical twin with my ID to the bank to cash a check. The sharp eyed tellers didn't go for it And made him come and get me to give me my ID back. Lucky I didn't get in more trouble than that.

U-GO-GURL-

35. This...Got Away From Me

So I'm not a twin, but...

I've pretended to be. When I get my haircut I would quite often amuse myself by telling interesting lies about my life in responses those questions the hairdresser asks.

'What am I doing at the weekend? Well, I'm going to the Orkney Islands as part of a team trying to re-introduce wolves into the wild...'

'What do I do for a living? Actually I've just got a new job posing the waxworks at Madame Tussaud's...'

I didn't have a regular barber at a regular barbers so I let it run away with me a bit. Eventually it seems I must have stood out a bit too much. I sit down to get my haircut and am asked how my project mapping the tunnels and sewers beneath Barcelona had gone.

So I blamed that on my (non existent) twin brother, and proceeded to describe my upcoming work trip to do specialist pest control at CERN.

tonnellier

34. New Practice Techniques

Not one myself, but i knew a pair on school.

They'd mess around a lot and switch places just for the fun of it. Gonna call them "Drake" and "Josh" for this. Josh was in the band and Drake wasn't, and Josh gets his leg injured a day before a concert, And he has a solo in the concert. Drake decided to go in Josh's place. Problem was, he had no clue how to play trumpet. He had 1 day to learn about 3 years of Trumpet.

No one saw Drake at school the day of the concert. Josh was not there either(obviously.) At the concert, Drake shows up dressed in Josh's concert outfit, nervous as hell. When Drake has to do the solo, he gets up there, and NAILS IT LIKE A PROFESSIONAL.

Turns out, Josh could've gone to school that day with crutches, but didn't because he stayed home to teach Drake how to play. They only stopped practicing to either eat lunch or when one of them had to use the bathroom.

Walrus_Onion

33. Professional Level Fun

Not me but this reminded me of two NBA players who were twins and one game people started theorizing that one of them started illegally playing instead of the other mid game when the other one was hurt, they judged this by how at one quarter of the game the player played like one of the brothers, but the next he started playing the the other brother, they're called the Morris twins if you're wondering, Markieff and Marcus if I'm not mistaken

Dev1cer

32. Even The Teachers

I remember one of my elementary school teachers was a twin. She'd tell us stories about how sometimes in school they'd switch classes to give speeches or presentations the other didn't want to do. She said it was fun but sometimes it was very nerve wrecking because they always felt like they were gonna get caught.

armadillana

31.  Nobody Is Looking

Not a twin story, though I have a lot of twins in my family:

My grandmother and my great-aunt (my grandfather's brother) have the same first name. Right after my grandparents got married (so now they have the same last name as well), my great-aunt wanted to go on vacation, but didn't have enough allowed-missed-classes in college to do so.

So my grandmother went and sat in all the lecture hall classes and answered "present" when attendance was taken. No professor ever caught on.

VeryFineDiary

30. Detention, Mr. Potter

Giphy

Identical twin.

Switched classes twice.

Caught instantly in first one. Teacher said nothing during class but given hour detention after.

Second, elderly, absent minded shop teacher took roll by lining everyone up on their "number" painted on the floor.

He walked along the line looking down for empty numbers marking his list.

Never noticed a thing.

But a few minutes later he walked over to me, Put his face close to mine and I was busted.

Apparently my brother who had switched into my class had been discovered and the office called the shop teacher saying the wrong twin was in his class.

Once, in Junior High, the girl sitting in front of me turned around and slapped me. "I think you're mean", she says.

When she saw the surprised look I had she realized she slapped the wrong twin. Some minor grievance she had had with him.

Talkin2ya

29. Peepers

I used my twin sisters license when I was pulled over by the cops. I was 16 and my sister had gotten her license before me. Technically I wasn't doing anything illegal because where I am from once you do the written test you can drive with any licensed driver. However, the police look for bribes and I should have been more careful about where I was driving. For context I was practicing in a school parking lot (on the weekend when nobody was there). The problem is this parking lot neighbors a police station and the fence is made of wire so the police probably just got curious and bored.

InternallyPuzzled

28. Serving Size

Back in school, we found it absolutely hilarious to swap. We'd attend each other's classes and all but the teacher were in tears. More recently, I was working behind a bar and my brother walks in with my family. My manager, absolutely fuming, begins walking over to my brother and then looks at the bar to see me serving someone. He confronts me about it and instantly bursts into laughter, glad he took it well, but that could've gone badly!

Tekagee

27. Unnoticed Duplications

I have a good story. My history teacher senior year was a total jerk and was very full of himself. I had my identical twin come down from his study hall and sit in class, with me. Same period. He never noticed and we did it several times. We would both ask and answer questions right after each other and he somehow didn't notice! Absolutely hilarious everyone else in the period was really silent the whole time (very rare in his class) and were dropping hints to my teacher in their responses to his questions.

Fargibus

26. It's My Twin And I'll Switch If I Want To

I don't have a twin but a guy I went to school with (and had a huge crush on for years) has a twin brother. On the last day of school I wanted to tell him that I always had a crush on him just to get it out and see what he says but of course on that exact day they wanted to see whether their switch would work or not. The teacher didn't notice and handed him his degree but I did immediately. Never saw him again and never told him either.

juliajolina

25. The #Queen

My mom has a twin and once told me that her sister wanted to break up with her boyfriend, but did not know how to, so my mom went on a walk with him and pretended to be her sister, to break up for her.

On The walk he started to talk about how weird her sister (my mom) was, and my mom god mad and was like "yeah, she never liked you, she's breaking up. Btw, I'm (my moms name)."

He was totally baffled and had no idea, while my mom walked away like a queen.

Makes me laugh every time. Poor mom.

signemrk1

24. The Joke Sailed Over Our Heads

Managed to switch midway through a double period of English, he had his blazer on the back of his chair and I came in with mine on, people knew and were laughing but the teachers didn't cotton on. Which is a shame, because my brother proceeded to write a sexist piece on how women can't park for an advertising task, which didn't win me any favours with my female teacher.

GfordsMikeRoss

23. There's Secretly Three Of Us

I'm a fraternal twin. The plot twist here is that my older sister looks exactly like my twin instead. So while my twin and I would never be able to do a switcheroo, they actually pulled it off once for an April Fool's Day prank. They switched for two class periods with one teacher's permission. I was in Chinese with my older sister (instead of my twin like usual) and halfway through the class my twin shows up because she couldn't do any conducting (my older sister was band president). My poor teacher was so confused.

DreaDreamer

22. You're Just Now Me Too

I'm an identical twin, my brother and I apparently are 'so identical' that people I went to school with and worked around sorta have up on telling us apart. It got to the point where I now just answer to his name as well as mine. Even though we have very different personalities we always got away with covering for each other when we weren't together. On the whole no real issues came up, probably because both of us are quite unassuming.

zacharysalexander

21.My Twin's Failures

My sister is older than me by 14 months and we would get mistaken for twins all the time. I was slightly shorter and skinnier than her but not by much.

When she was 5yo, she had a chance to get into this very prestigious competitive all girls' elementary school. To get in, they had a bunch of things you had to do: family interview with the school, an entrance exam, second set of interviews, so on.

My parents and my sister went to the first interview and it went well ; they had high hopes. But right before the written exam, in typical kid character, my sister fell sick. She could not go. Did my parents say, "oh, well. Sucks for us" ? Nope. They dressed me up, coached me to call myself by my sister's name and took me to the written test. I was 4. I could not write. I didn't even take a pencil to the test. I looked out the window almost the entire time, longing to go out and play at the playground below.

As soon as the test was over, the kids were expected to gather in a room for a play session type thing. The teacher remarked to my parents, "Your daughter looks smaller." I don't remember anything after that. Maybe my parents died of embarrassment and hauled me out?

Needless to say, I did not pass the test and my sister still jokingly whines about it.

Silver0000

20. Deliberately Misleading

Giphy

I lived with twins and made the biggest fool of myself.

Enough time had passed that I was definitely expected to know the difference between them. Well, I didn't. One day I dropped by their work, a burger joint. One of the twins was there wearing a name tag, perfect. I said "hi Lydia!" And Lydia smiled and said Hi!!

Then I drove home and saw the other one. "Hey Steph how's it going?" -Uh, I'm Lydia...

"Haha nice try Lydia's working right now."

-Oh, no Steph's covering for me at work today.

UNFAIR

DigNitty

19. Punchéd

Had identical triplets at school. At the time Andrew was in my class, Richard and Simon were in other classes.

April 1st they swapped around and we had Simon in my class. Teacher had no idea so Simon deliberately got a detention for his brother.

Next day Andrew served the detention and Simon had a very conspicuous black eye.

sirgog

18. Fred And George If They Were High School Girls

I'm not a twin myself, but I used to have identical twin step-sisters (Not anymore due to the calling off of an engagement and other complicated stuff). When we lived together, they were in high school and I was in fourth grade.

One year for April Fool's Day, they decided to switch schedules with each other and see if their teachers and classmates would notice that they switched out. They were good students, and before they went through with it got an okay from the principal. If I remember right, it went pretty well and nobody really noticed.

They were also on the basketball team together and were known for tricking the other team and giving the announcer a really hard job. They had the same theater class too, and would work on scenes together, switching parts if they ever needed to.

plague-thyself

17.  Setting Identifiers

We've never covered for each other since we're in health care and that could be bad but we have switched places at school before. The teacher didnt believe we would do that to him even though the whole class told him we did it. We told him after and he got a good chuckle out of it.

Currently we work at the same place and the first thing I do when meeting new people is warn them I have a twin. She wears glasses now so we can't switch like we used to. Some of the Residents still get confused.

huebnera214

16. I Wasn't Distant; I Just Wasn't

My sister had to go to my chemistry class because it was required that I attend both a chemistry class and a nursing school meeting at the same time. Obviously couldn't been in two places at once so I said something to both colleges about my predicament and both stated I'd have to choose and face the consequences.

So I had her attend my horrible chemistry class. In the end no one really knew the difference except my friends in chemistry ended up asking why I acted weird last time, and didn't talk to them. When I told them its because it wasn't me they were SHOOK.

HasuHeart

15. No Driving

My brother took my driving test for me and passed. HOWEVER, i live in Vanocouver Canada which is like 80% asian and they previously cought a asian guy doing over 100 tests for people if you paid him and they installed some crazy face recognition cameras and 3 weeks after my brother passed... we were called in by a police detective looking at identity fraud. We managed to convince him we did identity sharing at best lol

I had to give back my license. ( i must also specify i had been driving for 3 years prior, never had a crash, i only had my brother do it because it was convenient to me as i was out of the city )

i've had many other twin situations that did pay off though.

temptemp230

14. A Cute Little Crush

My Grandmother was a twin and told me this story, she passed now unfortunately.

Back when they were younger, she had a crush on a boy in school, but the boy had a class with her twin, and actually asked her twin out.

Her twin knew my grandmother had a crush on the boy, so she said yes to the date, and they switched for the date... Apparently it worked, and she still smiled thinking back about that date.

I loved how innocent and cute she was when she told that story. They also tried switching classes one day but the teacher caught them. The principal just laughed and told then not to do it again!

FRIENDLY_CANADIAN

13. Seeing Double--That's Why I'm At The Doctor's

This reminds me of my old boss and his identical twin. This was in a small, doctors office (most days just me and the doc working) and his twin came in and was sitting in the waiting/reception area talking with me. A patient walked in and said "hey doc, slow day?" his twin says "yep so I'm just chatting with Darth". They start chatting and then real doc comes out, patient does a double take, and both doc and his brother start laughing. It was great.

DarthSamurai

12. Playing The System

There is a set of identical twins who share a house next-door, 28 year old guys, and we get each other mail all the time. Just today I was checking for mail and one had a Costco flyer delivered (Costco is like a religion in California and practically everyone has a membership) and I thought, "How brilliant! Bryan has the membership and he can say he lost his card, get a replacement and give it to Steven to use!" (Costco membership cards have the member's photo on it.) An hour or so later later I remembered that the membership is for two people per household and Steven probably has a legit card.

MysticYoYo

11. Excuses, Excuses

I'm a somewhat fan of Rami Malek (he played Freddie Mercury in the movie bohemian rhapsody) and he tells of a story with his identical twin, Sami. His brother Sami needed to recite a Greek or Roman — I forget —monologue to pass a class. Rami, who was in some sort of theater school had recently worked on this exact type of thing and Sami took advantage of that. Rami agreed and they met outside of Sami's class.

Sami told Rami what to wear so Rami would look like Sami. Rami preformed the monologue and got a standing ovation from the class. The teacher took him outside (Sami was in his car at this time) and questioned him about when he learned that, and why. Rami told her it was a hobby of his. She studied his face, and asked if he "could come in tomorrow and do this again" for her other class. He asked if he "had passed the class", and she said "yes".

He said "no I'm busy tomorrow" and left. He just walked out.

timetest127

10. "My dad..."

My dad is an identical twin... He has some stories.

He did tell me of the time when he was in college that he asked his brother to cover for him in a Friday afternoon class so my dad could leave town early to get back to his girlfriend. My dad and my uncle were majoring in the same subject so that helped, but they had different electives. I did help that most of the students in the class knew both my uncle and my dad, so they helped my uncle out when he got cornered by a question every once in a while. The prof never caught on.

C_Alan

9. "I was working..."

I was working in a department store, and my twin came in to grab something. As he was walking though the store my manager mistook him for me and proceeded to chew him out for being out of uniform and leaving the electric section empty. He let her yell for a bit and then told her he was my twin. Now I don't tell people that I'm a twin (too many stupid questions) so even when he told her she didn't believe him. I happened to be walking nearby when i heard the interaction and finally put it to rest.

zapv01

8. "I'm a twin..."

I'm a twin, we aren't identical, my cousins are though! They would switch spots to take tests for each other in different classes when they were in high school, because one was usually better at certain subjects, it never failed, except a single time, they got suspended, but they managed to convince everyone that it was the first time and they only wanted to see if it would work, even though they'd been doing it all throughout high school, so they didn't get in too much trouble. They still talk about it proudly and we all still laugh about how they managed it, their mother still scolds them whenever they bring it up because even she believed their lie back then

fuzzyoctopus27

7. "My dad..."

Giphy

My dad is an identical twin. Legend has it that on their 16th birthday my dad's twin was sick. My father went and passed his own driver's test, went home to change clothes, and then went back and passed his brother's test for him.

justagirlfromdablock

6. "My aunts..."

My aunts are identical twins, they used to swap places on test days in school. One would take a math test twice, the other would take an English test twice. Since they often dressed the same anyway, it wasn't obvious. Yes they were successful.

fave_no_more

5. "Identical mirror..."

Identical mirror twin here. It never worked out well for us, we look similar but personality wise we're pretty easy to tell apart. The face would get you in the door but 5 minutes later it's straight to the principal's office.

In_Suspencer

4. "No..."

No, but there were a few times where she's gone into my work when I wasn't there and people mistook her for me. I suppose she's lucky they didn't try to get her to cover for me, haha.

idiosyncrassy

3. "One day I was sick..."

One day I was sick in high school but my mom made me still go to school. I had an in-class essay that was 25% of my grade that day, and since my sister had that class earlier in the day and got to see the prompt, I convinced her to do it for me. We have different clothing styles so we switched clothes and she wrote my essay, which I got a B+ on (I was happy with that considering I was pretty sick and couldn't have done that). We decided to just go the whole day like that and no teachers caught on.

Another time that kinda sucked though was also in high school when my twin fell in front of everyone at lunch. It got around that I was the one who fell. My boyfriend even came to me making sure I was okay. I was so embarrassed because literally the whole school was laughing about it. Obviously my sister didn't do much to make it clear it wasn't me lol.

There were times when I have also done embarrassing things and said it was my twin. Comes in handy

Now I have bleach blonde hair and people can easily tell who is who! But we live in different cities so we can't switch much anyways.

blueberrygrayson

2. "Identical twin..."

Identical twin: The issue that a lot of people overlook about this whole swap is that even though you might look like someone, you're behavior is different and there's a ton of detailed information you would need to know to pull it off.

When my brother and I did it in 3rd grade I didn't even bother to ask him what desk was his.

Pilfered

1. "Me and my twin..."

Giphy

Me and my twin have a thing where when we're not together, and someone mistakes us for the other, we just pretend to be the other. I've actually had lunches with people I don't know, because at that point I'm in too deep... and it's scary.

What's also weird is when the person/ people recognizes us, so we play along, but then it ends up that neither of us even knew them.

EpicNations

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.