170+ Best Useless Facts That Sound Like Lies

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The ultimate list of funny, random, & mind-blowing facts
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Do you love useless facts and weird trivia? If so, we’ve got a list for you! Whether you want to sharpen your trivia skills or want to show off your smarts, learning useless facts is a great way to do it. That’s why we put together an article with over 170 funny , random , and useless facts about the world , animals , food , and more. Plus, we spoke to trivia expert Roy Cohen to get his advice for remembering useless facts and a few of his favorite bits of trivia.

Top Useless Facts

  • Dutch pink is a shade of yellow.
  • Platypuses sweat milk.
  • The Pope can't be an organ donor.
  • Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
  • Animals can also be allergic to humans.
  • Hasbro has trademarked the scent of Play-Doh.
  • Honey never goes bad.
Section 1 of 9:

Best Useless Facts

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  1. Cohen says, “People love learning little facts… because they're surprising and easy to remember.” Give your friend group one of these fun little facts to help them leave everyone speechless with their dazzling intellect:
    • Cohen offers the following fact to get you started: Jack White is the real name of the Joker, the comic book supervillain.
    • Dutch pink is a shade of yellow.
    • In 1930s slang, artillery was any food that caused gas.
    • A lightning bolt is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
    • It snows metal on Venus.
    • Peanut oil is one of the key ingredients in dynamite. [1]
    • There’s a planet made almost entirely of diamonds.
    • President Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena.
    • New Zealand has more sheep than humans.
    • Platypuses sweat milk.
    • The Paris Catacombs contain the remains of over 6 million people.
    • There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs were alive. [2]
    • There is a jail specifically for polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
    • In the UK, it’s illegal to wear a suit of armor in Parliament.
    • According to Genesis 1:20–22, the chicken came before the egg. [3]
    • Older maps included fake places to prevent plagiarism. [4]
    • As dogs were domesticated, their eyes evolved to look cuter.
    • Velociraptors had feathers like a bird.
    • Samuel L. Jackson was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral. [5]
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Section 2 of 9:

Random Useless Facts

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  1. If you’ve run through all of the usual small-talk subjects like work, the weather, and your plans for the weekend, a random useless fact can help you keep the conversation going . Try one of these useless facts when you’re ready to shake things up:
    • Cruise ships have morgues that can hold up to 10 bodies at a time.
    • Daniel Craig was an anonymous Stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens .
    • The Pope can't be an organ donor.
    • Around 12% of people only dream in black and white.
    • Bananas grown under a black light will turn blue.
    • You can get cell phone service at Everest Base Camp. [6]
    • The Eiffel Tower has 1,710 steps and 108 stories.
    • The opposite sides of a die always add up to seven.
    • Every US state shares a letter with the word “mackerel” except for Ohio.
    • Your fingernails grow faster on your dominant hand.
    • The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache. [7]
    • There’s a pub in Ireland that’s been running for more than 1,100 years! [8]
    • Comets smell like rotten eggs.
    • Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
    • People once ate arsenic to improve their skin.
    • Neil Armstrong’s hair was sold in 2004 for $3,000.
    • Google Images was created after Jennifer Lopez wore the green dress at the 2000 Grammys.
    • Central Park in New York City is larger than the entire country of Monaco.
    • Salvador Dalí designed the logo for the Chupa Chups lollipop brand. [9]
Section 3 of 9:

Funny Useless Facts

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  1. Some believe that funny useless facts are easier to remember. Cohen explains, “If information is strange or funny, it sticks with you… Make information fun, interesting, and weird. That helps you remember it.” Make yourself unforgettable with these hilarious useless facts:
    • The German word for a birth-control pill is “Antibabypille.” [10]
    • Starfish do not have brains.
    • Scotland's national animal is a unicorn.
    • A man named Ronald MacDonald robbed Wendy's in 2005. [11]
    • A woman in the United Kingdom once called the police when her ice cream didn’t have enough sprinkles.
    • Animals can also be allergic to humans.
    • Wearing a necktie could reduce blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5%.
    • McDonald’s once made bubblegum-flavored broccoli. [12]
    • A “buttload" is an actual unit of measurement for wine. It’s about 126 gallons (477 Litres).
    • Due to contractual obligations, Frank Sinatra was offered the starring role in “Die Hard”. He was 70 years old at the time.
    • Hasbro trademarked the scent of Play-Doh.
    • Pope Francis was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter in 2015.
    • Vending machines are deadlier than sharks…so are cows and coconuts.
    • Mulan has the highest kill count of any Disney character.
    • Dr. Seuss invented the word “nerd”? [13]
    • People who swear tend to be more honest.
    • Arizona fines drivers under its “Stupid Motorist Law.”
    • The man who invented pop-up advertisements deeply regrets it and says he’s very sorry.
    • The Apollo missions have left 96 bags of poop, pee, and vomit on the moon. [14]
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Section 4 of 9:

Useless Facts about History

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  1. Historical facts can really mess with our minds because we have a hard time imagining what life was like 100, 1,000, or more years ago. “The fact that blows people’s minds the most is this: George Washington's salary as president in 1789 was $25,000 a year,” Cohen explains.
    • Another useless fact about history from Cohen is that President James Polk was born in 1790, and he still has a living grandchild. “His child was born when he was 70, and that child also had a child at 70, which is how a grandchild from the 18th century is still alive.”
    • Pineapples were a status symbol in England in the 1700s.
    • Americans wiped themselves with corncobs before toilet paper was invented.
    • When Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus became the emperor of Rome, he made his horse Incitatus a senator. [15]
    • On May 15, 1800, King George III of Great Britain and Ireland survived two assassination attempts in one day.
    • DNA evidence suggests that one in every 200 people in the world is a descendant of Genghis Khan.
    • Richard the Lionheart only spent six months of his ten-year reign in England. [16]
    • In the 1800s, dentures were made using the teeth of dead soldiers.
    • King Tut’s parents were probably brother and sister. [17]
    • The Great Wall of China was completed 2 years after the first telephone call.
    • Cleopatra lived nearer in time to the first moon landing than the building of the pyramids of Giza
    • Wooly mammoths survived into the age of the pyramids. [18]
    • The Ancient Greeks believed people with red hair turned into vampires after they died.
    • Russia ran out of vodka in 22 hours while celebrating the end of WWII.
    • The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.
    • Tug of War was an Olympic sport between 1900 and 1920.
    • President Andrew Jackson taught his pet parrot Polly to curse like a sailor.
    • A woman named Ching Shih is the most successful pirate in history.
    • Scientists believe Alexander the Great was accidentally buried alive. [19]
Section 5 of 9:

Mind-Blowing Useless Facts about the World

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  1. From pop culture to planetary science, the world has many oddities. Use one of these useless facts about the world the next time you need a quick piece of trivia:
    • Australia is wider than the moon.
    • Hawaii gets 3 feet closer to Alaska every year.
    • The stone heads on Easter Island have bodies.
    • LEGO bricks withstand compression better than concrete.
    • The Earth’s rotation is slowing down, making a day 1.8 seconds longer per century.
    • Walt Disney has won more Academy Awards than anyone else.
    • Headphones can increase the bacteria in your ears.
    • Human teeth are the only part of the body that can’t heal themselves. [20]
    • The Spice Girls were originally a band called Touch.
    • It's illegal to own just one guinea pig in Switzerland.
    • People are more creative in the shower.
    • Competitive art was an Olympic sport from 1912 to 1948.
    • Andy Warhol’s Flowers inspired Christian Louboutin to make the bottoms of his shoes red.
    • A jiffy is a unit of time that’s 1/100th of a second.
    • At the end of “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles, there’s a frequency only dogs can hear.
    • The bamboo plant is the fastest-growing woody plant in the world.
    • You share your birthday with around 19 million people.
    • The continent of Africa is in all four hemispheres.
    • The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134°F in Death Valley, Nevada, in July 1913. [21]
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Section 6 of 9:

Interesting Useless Facts about Animals

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  1. The animal kingdom is filled with strange and interesting animals with odd behaviors. Check out this list of useless—and fascinating—facts about different animals:
    • Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful.
    • Some octopus species lay 56,000 eggs at a time.
    • Armadillo shells are bulletproof.
    • The bumblebee bat is the world’s smallest mammal. [22]
    • A grizzly bear’s bite is so strong that it can crush a bowling ball.
    • The Regal Horned Lizard squirts blood out of its eyes when it feels threatened. [23]
    • There’s a type of jellyfish that’s immortal. [24]
    • Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards.
    • Koalas sleep 20-22 hours a day.
    • An elephant’s trunk has more muscles than the entire human body.
    • Snails have 14,000 teeth.
    • A chicken once lived for 18 months without a head. [25]
    • A cat spends on average 15 hours a day sleeping.
    • Dolphins give each other unique whistles to distinguish between members of a pod.
    • There's an ant species unique to New York City called ManhattAnts.
    • A crocodile can’t stick out its tongue.
    • An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
    • Humans are the only animals that blush.
    • You can hear a blue whale's heartbeat from over two miles away. [26]
Section 7 of 9:

Useless Facts about Food

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  1. Vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores have one thing in common. They all eat food. Impress your friends no matter what they eat with these mind-blowing facts about different types of food:
    • Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1927. [27]
    • Avocados and watermelons are berries.
    • Ketchup used to be a type of medicine.
    • You can bounce a ripe cranberry like a rubber ball.
    • Honey never goes bad. [28]
    • An 11-year-old boy invented Popsicles in 1905. [29]
    • Cucumbers are 95% water.
    • Figs are actually inverted flowers.
    • Froot Loops all taste the same, no matter what color they are.
    • Thomas Jefferson popularized mac and cheese in America.
    • Wine is older than recorded history.
    • The world’s oldest surviving recipe is over 4,000 years old.
    • It can take over 400 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
    • If you eat too many carrots, your skin can turn orange.
    • Tonic water glows in the dark.
    • Mustard is one of the world’s oldest condiments.
    • Ancient civilizations used chocolate as currency.
    • M&Ms are named after their creators: Mars & Murrie. [30]
    • Pretzel twists were meant to look like arms crossed in prayer. [31]
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Section 8 of 9:

Weird Useless Facts about the English Language

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  1. The English language has inconsistent spelling, words that look the same but have different meanings, and pronunciation that can seem random to non-English speakers. [32] So, there are a lot of weird facts about it. Make everyone think you're the smartest person in the room with these useless facts about English:
    • Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words. [33]
    • “Saturday wit” was Tudor-era slang for dirty jokes.
    • The words “a,” “and,” “be,” “have,” “he,” “I,” “in,” “of,” “that,” “the,” and “to” make up 25% of all written English.
    • The “skate” in the word “cheapskate” is an old American dialect word for a worn-out horse.
    • A group of dragonflies is called a dazzle.
    • Use of the word selfie increased by 17000% between 2012 and 2013.
    • In Elizabethan English, a clap of thunder was nicknamed a rounce-robble-hobble.
    • In its earliest known written record, the English alphabet had 29 letters.
    • The word comet comes from a Greek word meaning “long-haired star.”
    • Cowards have been called chickens since the 14th century. [34]
    • “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,” a lung condition caused by inhaling ash or dust, is the longest word in English.
    • Some of the oldest words in the English language are still in use today, including “I,” “love,” “black,” “mother,” “fire,” “hand,” and “hear.”
    • The word “goodbye” came from an Old English phrase that meant “God be with you.”
    • Most English words originate from French and Old English. [35]
    • “The” is the most commonly used word in the English language. [36]
    • The word “cereal” comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and the harvest.
    • The last letter added to the English alphabet was ‘J’ in 1524.
    • The real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe.
    • The fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. [37]
Section 9 of 9:

What is the most useless fact ever?

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  1. One of the facts Cohen shared might be a candidate. He says that the oldest bottle of condiment continuously sold in the U.S. is Worcestershire sauce from England. But we’ll let you be the judge. Here are a few more candidates for the most useless facts ever:
    • Times Square was originally known as “Longacre Square.”
    • The tiny pockets in jeans were originally designed to store pocket watches.
    • A woman's heart rate is faster than a man's.
    • From 1886 to 1902, the Statue of Liberty was a federal lighthouse.
    • Sloths can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes. [38]
    • The quietest place on earth is an anechoic chamber in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
    • As many as 80% of Hong Kong’s toilets are flushed with seawater.
    • The FBI had a 1,427-page file on Albert Einstein.
    • 9 out of 10 people experience phantom phone vibrations.
    • Costco’s hot dog and soda combo has remained at the same price since 1985. [39]
    • The letter “Q” doesn’t appear in any American state’s name.
    • Over 60% of the world’s lakes are located in Canada.
    • The average golf ball has 336 dimples.
    • The average person blinks 14 to 17 times per minute.
    • The sun is about 400 times larger than the moon.
    • The deepest part of the ocean is approximately 35,876 feet down.
    • Winds on Neptune can blow faster than 1,200 miles an hour.
    • A silverback gorilla can lift over 1,763 pounds.
    • The oldest living land animal on earth is a 192-year-old tortoise named Jonathan. [40]
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      References

      1. ↑ https://parade.com/living/interesting-facts
      2. ↑ https://www.today.com/life/inspiration/interesting-facts-rcna130243
      3. ↑ https://www.bible.com/bible/114/GEN.1.20-22.NKJV
      4. ↑ https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-100-useless-facts-you-don-t-need-to-know
      5. ↑ https://www.thefactsite.com/facts-everyone-should-know/
      6. ↑ https://parade.com/living/interesting-facts
      7. ↑ https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-100-useless-facts-you-don-t-need-to-know
      8. ↑ https://www.thefactsite.com/facts-everyone-should-know/
      9. ↑ https://www.today.com/life/inspiration/interesting-facts-rcna130243
      1. ↑ https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-100-useless-facts-you-don-t-need-to-know
      2. ↑ https://parade.com/living/interesting-facts
      3. ↑ https://www.today.com/life/inspiration/interesting-facts-rcna130243
      4. ↑ https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-100-useless-facts-you-don-t-need-to-know
      5. ↑ https://www.thefactsite.com/facts-everyone-should-know/
      6. ↑ https://www.weareteachers.com/history-facts-kids/
      7. ↑ https://www.historyhit.com/amazing-historical-facts-figures-and-fascinating-finds/
      8. ↑ https://www.rd.com/list/disturbing-history-facts/
      9. ↑ https://www.historyextra.com/period/general-history/strange-weird-historical-facts/
      10. ↑ https://parade.com/1099930/marynliles/history-facts/
      11. ↑ https://www.weareteachers.com/weird-fun-facts
      12. ↑ https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a64055094/fun-facts-random/
      13. ↑ https://www.rd.com/list/interesting-facts/
      14. ↑ https://www.boredteachers.com/post/fascinating-animal-facts
      15. ↑ https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-cheating-death.html
      16. ↑ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/facts-about-animals
      17. ↑ https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a64055094/fun-facts-random/
      18. ↑ https://www.eatfirst.com.au/en-au/c/blog/fun-facts-about-food
      19. ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/
      20. ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/07/22/425294957/how-an-11-year-old-boy-invented-the-popsicle
      21. ↑ https://www.weareteachers.com/fun-food-facts/
      22. ↑ https://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/religious-history-pretzels
      23. ↑ https://snaplanguage.io/articles/2019-08-15
      24. ↑ https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-words
      25. ↑ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/100-random-language-facts_b_6272224
      26. ↑ https://www.englishcollege.com/post/13-fun-surprising-facts-english-language
      27. ↑ https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/english-language-facts/
      28. ↑ https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a64055094/fun-facts-random/
      29. ↑ https://parade.com/living/interesting-facts
      30. ↑ https://www.thefactsite.com/facts-everyone-should-know/
      31. ↑ https://www.today.com/life/inspiration/interesting-facts-rcna130243

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