A "fun fact" refers to a piece of information that might not be widely known.
Though, the "fun" in "fun fact" is often widely debatable.
Indeed, more often than not, people find or are told a "fun fact" about anything from an animal species to a famous celebrity which might make them want to cry or even throw up.
"What is a NOT fun fact?"
Consdider Putting A Newspaper Down First...
"Bus seats are designed so that you cannot tell how dirty they really are."- SmallAndScarred
Alone in The Ocean...
"There is a whale called 52 Blue that only sings at their frequency meaning it can't communicate with other whales."
"It is nicknamed the loneliest whale on the planet."- TheLegendaryJet
Definitely Not Dry As a Bone...
"Your skeleton is w e t."- Genesis-Bae
Dance Halloween GIF by aurelGiphyPuts The Movement in Bowel Movement
"Your intestines will 'wriggle' themselves back into the correct position."
"Doctors who do any type of intestinal surgery don’t have to worry, too much, about how they put the intestines back in."-H010CR0N
Body And Soul Is An Understatement
"A certain type of angler fish reproduce via the Male burrowing into the side of the female, eventually fusing."
"The Male life is lost in the process."- Allceleatial
Never Actually Free
"People who survived the Holocaust and get Alzheimer's often think they are back in the camps."
"So they escape one of humanity's greatest horrors only to die in it 50 years later."- digitaldavegordon
One And The Same
"If you are an identical twin it is possible that you and your siblings identity’s were swapped and your parents never caught it."- m00n-b4b3
shining stanley kubrick GIFGiphyYou're Not Fooling Anyone
"Sometimes you're the bad guy."- StrenuouslySexy
Worth The Pain And Discomfort?
"When you get a sunburn, it's actually your cells dying so they don't get tumorous." - Reddit
Lasting A Long Time Might Be Cause For Concern...
"The reason you’re supposed to contact a doctor if you have an erection lasting longer than four hours is because prolonged priapism can lead to gangrene of the penis."
"Blood goes in, deoxygenates, but can’t leave, so there’s no way for fresh oxygenated blood to come in, causing the tissue to turn black and die."
"Don’t worry, though!"
"This can be treated by using a big syringe to suck the trapped blood out."- boopbaboop·
someone erection GIFGiphyWhen sharing a "fun fact" with a friend, it might be worthwhile to think about the information you're about to share.
And whether or not it is, in fact, "fun".
Instead, maybe share a tidbit, or "info"?
Even if neither roll of the tongue quite as easily...
It's so helpful to have an interesting personal fact in your arsenal.
That little tidbit of information might save a lull at a party, come in handy during a job interview, or keep things flowing during a date.
And some interesting facts are made even more interesting by how unbelievable they are. Sure, it often gets annoying to provide a backstory or context every time you share, but at the very least it's a great conversation starter.
Some Redditors shared the personal facts that nobody ever seems to believe.
MrAntiquity47 asked, "What is a fact about yourself that nobody ever believes?"
Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Multiple Times
"I've been on fire, twice. As a child. I f***ing hate fireworks" -- IDontHave20Letters
"Let me guess, you didn't light it." -- Ganondorf66
"And fireworks seem to hate you" -- yournanna
A Lot Going On Here
"White guy, born in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and spent most of my childhood in Kingston, Jamaica."
"People didn't believe me in high school, but these days this fact mostly elicits raised eyebrows and a 'oh really'?!"
-- drkesi88
Almost Sounds Impressive
"Banned from China for life"
"My father is a listed as a political refugee and apparently because of that our family is blacklisted from ever entering."
"I tried to go when I was younger and was turned away at the border. I ended up seeing Bhutan and Nepal instead."
-- AceValentine
Grade School Must've Been Tough
"My first name is very unique. People always ask where it's from and if it's foreign."
"I have to explain that no, my dads just dyslexic and misread my name in the baby book so changed the spelling to suit his pronunciation."
"No one ever believes me."
-- Myneckmyguac
A Unique Entry Point
"I got vaccinated as a baby, like any normal person. BUT the nurse who did it thought it would be a good idea to not put the syringe in my arm, but in my forehead."
"I have a scar on my forehead because of that. People never believe it, but my mom has a picture of me with the syringe in my forehead."
-- minjaeiii
If It Works, It Works
"I wake up at the stroke of 3am seven days a week with no alarm."
"What people have a hard time believing is that I enjoy it greatly."
"I've worked early shift six days a week for about a decade now. I used to sleep in on Sunday, then I couldn't fall asleep on time Sunday night and I'd be sleep deprived and feel like sh** on Monday."
"I resolved to keeping the same hours every day, and within a week I didn't need an alarm anymore."
"Before the pandemic, 24h businesses afforded me great convenience, and a socially distant laundromat and shopping experience."
"On my day off, I was a 4am regular at the deserted laundromat, hit the grocery store around 5:15, and would have all my sh!t done by sunrise."
-- Washjockey
Twin-Laws
"Both of my parents have a twin sister named Jenny" -- ParwasHately
"Is... Is it the same twin sister?" -- Gosenco
"I'm a twin, and married to a twin" -- Sd022pe
Basically Tom Cruise
"I had sex with a girl who had sex with a guy who had sex with a girl who had sex with Tom Cruises former publicist." -- Bucket_O_Beef
"Sex Telephone" -- Yoylecake2100
A Good Excuse for Lazy Sundays
"I'm allergic to sunlight, like, actually, not in a 'haha i like to play video games' way - it doesn't matter how I say it, it's always understood the other way" -- Signal-Presence8867
"THE SUN IS A DEADLY LAZER" -- MichaelOchE
"There's a girl I went to high school with who's allergic to sunlight. That, combined with her fashion sense (very goth) and the field she went into (mortician/funeral director), makes her seem a lot like a vampire." -- probprocrastinating1
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Not all fun facts are fun. Some are disgusting, cringe-worthy, or totally disillusioning.
And there is one essential quality shared by all noteworthy tidbits of information: they can't be unlearned. That little fact hits your ears and colors your brain with the strange, curious epiphany that often follows--this is the "fun" part.
But what if it's a piece of information you wish you'd never learned?
Maybe it re-frames a cherished idea or casts total uncertainty over a closely held truth about the world. Or perhaps its just a disgusting natural phenomena happening all around that you have to be aware of forever now.
A recent Reddit thread asked for the very best of the worst of fun facts. They'll leave you with a whole list of regrets.
Ddeddffddvvf asked, "What was a fact that you regret knowing?"
A Dedicated Performance
"There was a woman in the 18th century called Mary Toft who stuffed dead rabbits into her vagina and later acted as if she gave birth to them. The doctors believed her till one of them examined found corn in one of the rabbits stomachs (it couldn't have been in there)."
"She also did the same with a hogs bladder and a cats legs. (also with about 15 rabbits) Don't know why I even know this."
Tough News
"My dad and I both took DNA tests for "fun" and I found out we aren't related. 0% match." -- SethsWomanInfinity
"Lifehacks for when you don't want to tell your child directly they're adopted." -- Thendrail
"Look up chimera DNA, it's a small chance but possible. The DNA in your dad's sperm could be different than the rest of his body. I'm assuming they didn't check his sperm." -- For_one_if_more
A Striking Image
"My parents are swingers, and now well Into their 70's..." -- browncoat47
"So you know that old folks homes have the highest percentage of STDs, as they won't have to worry about getting pregnant..." -- the_syco
"That's kinda wholesome actually. Just a couple of old swingers out enjoying the last of their lives" -- AffectionateDealer3
You Just Don't Know What Your Getting
"From my first job at KFC .......you cant really tell the chicken is spoiled once you put it in the fryer" -- Chuck_yoo_Farley
"A friend that used to work at KFC said that they were told not to throw away the spoiled chicken. They would just boil it before frying :l so yeah.. No more KFC for me." -- lepakko42
Beginning First--And Last--Incision
"Chainsaws were originally meant to be a surgeons' instrument." -- Ujrt_94
"To aid in childbirth! No joke google it." -- septic_tongue
"I couldn't figure out what part of childbirth that could possibly help with, so I looked it up.
"'Before the invention of the Cesarean, if the baby was too large, parts of the pelvis would be removed.'"
"I really regret knowing that now." -- waltjrimmer
A Very Upsetting Backstory
"Bob Ross actually hated his Afro; when he started out it was the cheapest hairstyle to maintain and once he picked up some traction it was too iconic to get rid of." -- fueselwe
"This is the saddest thing I've read. I'm not going to share it with anyone. Now this is the burden I carry." -- always-aimee
"So it was a sad little accident instead of a happy one 😢" -- HeWantsTheP
Rolling the Dice
"An octopus penis is actually one of their tentacles. So if you would go and pet an octopus at Sea World or some other place you could be groping their penis." -- Tilly0Tilly
"There are also some species that will just rip their penis off and throw it at the female, in order to allow her to inseminate herself, being the most literal 'go f*** yourself' nature has to offer." -- mtflyer05
Just Very Good At Being Alive
"Cockroaches can fly at 5km per hour and can live 3 weeks without their head. They eventually die of starvation. They have a main brain in their head and also a primitive brain near their abdomen. Cockroaches also pre-date grass."
"The last one is not that scary but kinda scary knowing they've been here so long so getting them out will be harder and they will probably out live humans."
-- CrazyMiith
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Learning new information is a wonderful thing. Every single day, we expand our knowledge at least a little bit.
Sometimes, we put ourselves into environments that cultivate learning at quite the pace. It could be a new and challenging job, an undergraduate or graduate program at a college, or a day long workshop.
Experiences like that bring the reward of new skills and understanding in exchange for our commitment of time and money.
But what about the other stuff we learn: the strange tidbits we hear from a friend, those tiny morsels that have stuck with us ever since ninth grade history class, the statistics we come across in the occasional TED Talk.
They may not make us more hireable or change our lives, but they sure are fun to spout off when we have the opportunity.
Winologue asked, "What's the most ridiculous fact you know?"
Proportions Askew
"A blue whales throat is the size of a coke can despite being the largest known animal." -- MalFibber
"And that's largest known ever." -- ILoveLongDogs
"Blue whales have liver parasites the size of bananas." -- Madhighlander1
Those Guys Have Been Busy
"Of the 195 nations in the world, Britain has invaded 173 of them." -- No-regerts136
"I believe this includes nations that were once controlled by Britain but have not been invaded since officially becoming their own nation such as Canada but still an interesting fact." -- Tom_Bombadil_Ret
Collective Conscious
"It is estimated that one in 10 Europeans are conceived on an Ikea bed." -- Winologue
"In the store?" -- whisperingrabbit
"Yea those are all the people that gave up finding the exit" -- YeetMeatToFeet
Heck of a Show
"Disney is the world's second largest buyer of explosives, behind the US Department of Defense." -- Vinny_Lam
"Mickeys got to enforce his copyright laws somehow." -- Distant_Past
"The last WW2 Japanese soldier to surrender did so in 1974" -- haasbrein
"He surrendered but he didn't give himself away." -- oldmannew
Plenty of Reasons Not To...
"The average ejaculation travels at roughly 27 miles per hour, which technically would make ejaculating illegal in school zones." -- Herobrinedanny
Largest of the Smallest
"Lego is the world's largest tire distributor" -- AshtonH06
"And also the number one cause of excruciating foot pain in adults with two kids under 5." -- unnaturaldisorder
A Very Powerful, Life-Changing Strawberry
"The entire internet weighs about as much as a large strawberry." -- BullishFinances
"What? The internet is a computer network made up of all of the computers and networking infrastructure on it. Your home router is apart of the internet. So I the cable to it...."
"Myth busted." -- Altruistic-Fun-8278
"They tend to mean the charge differences and photons currently encoding the information, exchanging the energy for mass." -- arcosapphire
Banished
"A Russian bell was convicted of treason and exiled."
"That's not a euphemism for a beautiful but seditious Russian woman but an actual bell that rang cacophonously when prince Dimitri, son of Ivan the Terrible, was assassinated in 1591."
"Local authorities banished it to Siberia where it was appropriated by congenial company in Tobolsk; its fellow exiles subjected it to confinement, rehabilitation, and restoration before it hung in the Tobolsk church."
"Finally, in 1892, its conviction was rescinded and it was restored to its original tower with full pardon by repentant Uglichians."
New Plan: Commit All Crimes in the Jungle
"Human fingerprints and Koala fingerprints are nearly identical - so close that they can be confused at crime scenes!" -- Mahina_Mele
"I don't think koalas have enough brain capacity to commit any crime" -- stellargd
"So they don't have all the koalafications?" -- ShredderTony
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People Divulge Fun Facts About Themselves They Wouldn't Normally Share
Everybody has their secrets. And often times those secrets are hot and fascinating. We should tell more about ourselves at board meetings and parties. Everybody is interesting and we all have a story that would shock every person in every room. Let's all have some fun with out histories. For instance.... I failed my driver's test nine times and ran the car into a ravine; yet still got my license. Intrigued? Call me.
Redditor u/dr_peabrain123 wanted to know a few quirks and secrets some of us have been hiding that pertain to a slightly personal nature by asking.... What's a fun fact about yourself that you don't tell anyone, simply cuz no one asked?Oh Jerry....
Cheese Pizza Fight GIF by The Jerry Springer ShowGiphyI was on an episode of Jerry Springer back in the day. I saw my episode on TV a few years later and it might be the most cringe worthy thing I've ever done/seen. The trip was a blast though.
Also, I have 4 nipples. Those 2 things are unrelated though.
being 7....
When I was 7 I stepped on a pop can while barefoot and cut my big toe off.
The woman I had my first serious relationship with is now in jail for murder.
Archive of Our Own...
I used to have a really popular fan fiction account on Archive of Our Own, my top post got something like 30,000 views. I just went back and read them, and I am confused as to how they were so successful. I wrote about musical theatre, Glee, rock bands, and some of my favorite books. I sadly no longer have any links, the other day I found copies of my works in google documents which have since been deleted. I really appreciate your interest, though!
The Flushing Girl....
Shocked The Nanny GIFGiphyI just have to see Fran's outfit to tell you which The Nanny episode it is and to give you a short recap of it.
I can do something similar with Criminal Minds and Reid's haircut. I can tell the exact season, usually the episode just by a screenshot of only that character. It's such a weird skill that I never asked for.
Maury?
I was not the father on a popular trash tv show, I didn't jump for joy or try to hog the camera. I came in knowing that it was extremely unlikely that the child was mine took the test for peace of mind and went home. I don't tell people because in hindsight it was extremely embarrassing for me. I had to share a stage with a lot more guys than I was expecting, some of which were total scumbags. The company she kept made me ask myself a lot of questions.
Second Nature....
I hardly ever bend over to pick up things when I'm at home. I almost exclusively use my toes and pick things up with my feet. Im really really good at it too. I'm so proud because my kids all have the same prowess as their old man, it's like second nature now.
kaboom!
I made homemade explosives my first year in college with simple household ingredients. I stopped the night I was nearly caught, like I had suddenly realized that what I was doing was not a simple prank.
I think about that every now and again when someone says that people are not fully formed adults until later in their twenties.
I don't know about him, but my dumb butt made an explosive when I was younger. Didn't really know what I was doing just wondered what would happen if I took a bunch of sparklers, wrapped them in tape, and then light them. Crap is dangerous as hell and they sell that crap to super cheap for little kids to play with.
I'm not looking....
I can identify major credit card brands by their first digit, thanks to a seasonal job I had 11 years ago. 4 is Visa, 5 is Mastercard, 6 is Discover. AmEx starts with 3, which will always be followed by either 4 or 7. AmEx cards also have fewer digits but longer security codes.
I also just set my keys down and don't know where they are. So I guess a fun fact about myself is that my short term and working memory are absolute trash, but I have a pretty great long term memory.
Smartypants....
danny devito wow GIF by QuickBooksGiphyI worked really hard studying for the SATs back in the day, and I raised my score from 1100 to 1540 out of 1600. I'm proud of that, but I can't exactly go around bragging.
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