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14 Random Facts of Prime Quality

Only the best trivia for our readers.

14 Random Facts of Prime Quality

February 03, 2022

Why do you keep coming to Cracked? Exactly -- to pad your resume with random facts. Hey, you never know which esoteric knowledge that job posting for a grocery store regional manager may require -- what you learn here may make the entire difference. So read on.

14

Cute Animals and Propaganda

Cute animals are used to spread misinformation. Posting adorable critters on social media is an almost foolproof way to get tons of engagement. BS peddlers know this, and will often post kittens and such to prime algorithms in their favor, and build audiences for their COVID misinformation and conspiracy theories. — More: How Cute Animal Pics Help Spread Online Misinformation

13

Robin Williams in 'Flubber'

one second of Robin williams' improv added three months of CGI work to Flubber. Williams shoving his face into the Flubber wasn't scripted - he just did it, as was his usual M.O. The VFX team took three full months to get the goo to properly interact with William' face. — More: 4 Movie Moments That Were More Work Than We Realized

12

Samuel L. Jackson and MLK

ANG samuel L. Jackson was an usher at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. Being a student at Atlanta's Morehouse College, where a funeral procession was held, Jackson volunteered to help people find their way around campus. MLK's assassination galvanized him into becoming politically active. — More: 5 Times Celebs Were Linked By Surreal Connections

11

Mario Kart

M Mario Kart wasn't supposed to be a Mario game. Nintendo was simply trying to create a two-player racing game. A few months into development, they decided to put Mario's face on one of the racers to see what it would look like from the other car, and they liked it. — More: 5 Games That Were Their Own Thing Till The Publisher Threw Them Into A Franchise

10

Rich People's Empathy

Rich people literally don't understand what others feel. Studies have shown that the higher in the socio-economic ladder you are, the more you struggle to read others' expressions and emotional cues. Researchers theorize that the reason might be that those of a lower background rely more on other people's help. — More: 4 Ultra-Rich Problems Ordinary People Don't Experience

9

Cliffhangers

cliffhangers as we know them became a thing in victorian England. While the cliffhanger as a narrative device has existed for centuries, it really took off when magazines started publishing serialized fiction in the 19th century. Charles Dickens was a prominent master in the art of keeping readers hooked week to week. — More: Streaming Cliffhangers Are Trapping Us In A 19th-Century Grift

8

Spider-Man's Magic Ring

Spider-Man originally had a magic ring. The first draft of the character, developed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, was a teenager who became a jacked up hero with a magic ring. It was version 2.0 (by Steve Ditko instead of Kirby) that originated the iconic web-slinger. — More: The Most Amazing Thing About Spider-Man (Is That He Even Exists)

7

Iced Tea of Manliness

Iced tea was invented to cater to Americans' masculinity. Tea is not considered manly in the US, English social critic William Hogarth wrote as early as 1757. Lipton started marketing iced tea in the 19th century to be able to sell their stuff to Americans without making them feel emasculated. — More: Why Won't Americans Drink Tea?

6

'The Thing' Comic

The Thing continued in a comic. Dark Horse's The Thing from Another World follows MacReady after he leaves the doomed Antarctic outpost (and eventually finds the Thing again). John Carpenter wasn't involved, but has said the comic is the closest there will ever be to a true sequel. — More: 5 Sequels To Classic Movies We Never Got

5

Dramamine

Dramamine wasn't intended as a pill for motion sickness. In the 1940s, Compound 1694 was being looked into as an allergy medicine - but then a volunteer for the experimental treatment reported that she didn't feel sick as usual on the streetcar. This steered research into a new direction, resulting in the yellow pill. — More: Dramamine Became A Nausea Cure By Accident

4

The Gimp in 'Pulp Fiction'

The Gimp in Pulp Fiction is a kidnapped hitchhiker. According to Quentin Tarantino, the Gimp is a hitchhiker or somebody that picked up seven years ago, and then trained until they broke him. Maybe the reason why that's not mentioned is because it's dark AF, even for this movie. — More: 5 Famous Films' Side Characters With Effed Up Backstories

3

Cheap Recorders

You learned to play the recorder because it's dirt cheap. The recorder is an extremely simple instrument, which is why German composer Carl Orff adopted it as a way to teach music to children in the 1920s. Its simplicity also makes it very cheap to mass produce, allowing schools to buy in bulk for next to nothing. — More: You Learned the Recorder Due To School Cheapness

2

Chinese Sunglasses

chinese judges wore sunglasses to appear impartial. In 12th-century China, judges wore smoky quartz glasses for the same reason you wear your Ray-Bans - to look aloof and above it all. Masking their facial expressions gave them the appearance of being impartial and detached. CRACKED.COM — More: The First Sunglasses Were Meant To Make You Look Like An Emotionless Slab

1

Robot Jesus

A 19th-century preacher built a mecha-Jesus. John Murray Spear was ahead of his time in his ideas about slavery and gender equality - and also about technology, as he tried to build a mechanical Messiah (as commanded to him by the spirits of the Founding Fathers). But Spear's New Motor failed to even start, let alone save humanity. — More: Preacher Who Tried To End Inequality By Building A Robot Jesus

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