The world is a fascinating, sometimes hilarious place. Even some of the most everyday things have surprisingly funny backstories, and some of the most seemingly bizarre happenings are shockingly common. From quirky places you didn't know existed to facts that you wouldn't believe if we couldn't actually prove them, there are so many random facts circulating around and about this world—and they can make for great fodder at your next cocktail party. Read on for 54 fun, random facts that can also help you win first place on trivia night.
RELATED: 67 Weird Facts So Strange, You Won't Believe They're True.
50+ Random Fun Facts You Definitely Need to Know
Whether you want to be the most popular person at the party or the smartest patron at the bar, these fun facts will help you achieve the title.
1. Vegetables can make you tan.
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Eating veggies has plenty of health benefits, but it also has cosmetic ones, according to researchers at Leeds University and the University at St. Andrews. They found that those who consumed vegetables with high levels of red and yellow pigments had a healthy yellow glow compared to those who did not. This is due to a process called "carotenoid colorization."
2. Humans are the only animals that blush.
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Speaking of getting a little color, it appears that humans are the only animal that tends to get a little red in the face. While scientists don't know why this is, many believe that it's because we are the only species capable of feeling embarrassed.
3. There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any U.S. state name.
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Nope, it's not "z." Remember Arizona? If you haven't already guessed, the answer is "q." It doesn't appear in a single name of a state or territory.
4. Ben's Original Rice was air-dropped to U.S. troops during World War II.
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The product was actually only used to help feed military personnel up right until the end of the war.
5. You'll spend almost nine years looking at your phones throughout your lifetime.
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According to a recent survey, the average person spends a little over 76,500 hours on their smartphones over the course of their lifetime. If you do the math, that works out to 8.74 years. Yikes!
6. You poop out the equivalent of an adult panda bear each year.
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Yes, you read that correctly. In a year, a single person yields about 320 pounds of poop—just a little more than a typical adult panda weighs. And those stats get even wilder when you apply them to what you produce over an average lifetime. Let's say you live until just over 80 years old. That means you'll produce about 25,920 pounds of waste throughout that stretch, or the equivalent of three adult male hippos.
7. There's a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding.
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The black sapote is a tropical fruit native to Central and South America and known for its flavor, which happens to be strikingly similar to that of chocolate pudding. It also has a creamy, cocoa-colored flesh that only adds to the comparison.
8. St. Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman.
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Sadly, this is totally true. The Caribbean nation was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse, the patron saint of the blind. According to local legend, French sailors were shipwrecked on the island on Dec. 13, the feast day of Saint Lucy, and decided to name the island in her honor.
9. Headphones increase the amount of bacteria in your ears.... by a lot.
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Wearing headphones for just an hour could increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 percent. Now how's that for a disgusting, albeit interesting fact.
10. The actors who played Mickey and Minnie Mouse were married.
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Yup, actors Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, who gave Mickey and Minnie Mouse their voices, were actually married in real life. The pair stayed together for almost 20 years until Allwine died in 2009.
11. You can't own just one guinea pig in Switzerland.
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If you're interested in investing in this kind of pet in Switzerland, you better make room for two. Apparently, these animals are so social that the country considers it animal abuse to get just one.
RELATED: 55 Fascinating World Facts You Need to Know.
12. The woman who holds the world record for "Most Prolific Mother" has 69 kids.
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According to the Guinness World Records, Mrs. Vassilyeva of Shuya, Russia birthed more children than any other mother to date. The case was reported to Moscow by the Monastery of Nikolsk on Feb. 27, 1782, asserting that Vassilyeva had given birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.
13. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."
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Only the word's derivatives, including undreamt, daydreamt, and redreamt, end with the same letters.
14. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous."
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They include: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
15. Kim Kardashian knows the alphabet in sign language.
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Apparently, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star used the skill to cheat on tests with her friends in high school.
16. The Spanish national anthem has no words.
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The "Marcha Real" is one of only four national anthems in the world that has no official lyrics. The others include those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and San Marino.
17. Maine is the only state that has a one-syllable name.
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caption="" photo_credit="Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock" title=""]Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
Keep that one in your back pocket. The question tends to pop up across crosswords.
18. The inventor of Frisbee Golf was turned into a frisbee.
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Edward "Steady Ed" Headrick, who invented the game of Frisbee golf, made as one of his dying wishes that his family would cremate him and mold his remains into a Frisbee. "When we die, we don't go to purgatory," Headrick reportedly said shortly before his passing. "We just land up on the roof and lay there."
19. The inventor of Pringles was buried in a Pringles can.
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Similarly, Fred Bauer, the Procter & Gamble employee who devised the idea of stacking Pringles into cans, eschewed an urn upon his death and instead asked that his family bury him in one of his signature cans.
20. A coffee pioneer was buried in a coffee pot.
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One more: Renato Bialetti, the guy who popularized the stove-top, octagonal espresso maker that still bears his name, also asked that his remains be buried in the receptacle that was most important to him in life. When he died in 2016 at the age of 93, his ashes were placed in one of his pots and buried next to his late wife.
RELATED: 37 Weird Facts About the Human Body That Will Blow Your Mind.
21. PEZ comes from the German word for peppermint.
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Eduard Haas III, the Austrian inventor of the flat, sort of chalky candy PEZ, came up with the name by riffing on the German word for peppermint—Pfefferminz.
22. No country is allowed to own the Moon.
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The Outer Space Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies), ratified in 1967, prohibits any country from claiming sovereignty over the Moon or any other celestial bodies (and from placing nuclear weapons or other WMDs on them).
23. Bananas can't reproduce.
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Your favorite yellow fruit may have a, let's say, suggestive shape. But as it happens, the Cavendish banana—the most popular variety of bananas that fills supermarkets and sits at the Starbucks counter, is actually impotent. It's a seedless hybrid of two (not as delicious) plant species. To create new bananas, the Cavendish doesn't naturally reproduce but requires farmers to remove and transplant part of the plant's stem.
24. Bananas make great water filters.
Helen89/Shutterstock
Speaking of bananas, their peels could actually replace your Brita in a pinch. A chemist studying the environment in Brazil found the peels' contents of nitrogen, sulfur, and carboxylic acids effectively attached to copper and lead deposits found in polluted waters near industrial plants in the country. When he placed a lot of dried peels into Brazil's Paraná River, they worked better at reducing the levels of heavy metal than all other filtering materials more typically used.
25. Yard work has killed almost 6,000 people in the past decade.
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According to data collected from the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, there have been over 3.2 million injuries from performing yard work logged over the past 10 years, and 5,964 of them have resulted in death.
26. Hewlett-Packard was decided by a coin toss.
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If a coin toss went differently, the company might have been called Packard-Hewlett. When they decided to go into business together, founders William Hewlett and David Packard knew their company name would be a combination of their last names but were unsure of the order. So in Packard's Palo Alto garage, they simply flipped a coin, and Hewlett won.
27. The inventor of M&Ms was allergic to peanuts.
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Forrest Mars, founder of Mars, Inc. and inventor of beloved confections including Peanut M&Ms, couldn't actually eat all of his inventions, since he was allergic to peanuts.
28. The dot over the lowercase "i" is called a tittle.
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Did you know it even had a name? Silly, but true!
29. Spicy food can cut down fat intake.
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Consuming spices has been found to help cut down on how much fat you take in. A study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University concluded that adding significant amounts of turmeric, black pepper, or cinnamon to a fatty meal impedes the amount of triglyceride (the bad fat that increases the risk of heart disease) taken into the blood by as much as 30 percent.
RELATED: The 60 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language—And How to Use Them.
30. Women's tears reduce men's testosterone levels.
urbazon/iStock
As it turns out, tears are a big turnoff. A study had men sniff drops of women's "emotional tears" and a neutral saline solution. Those who sniffed the tears became less aroused. As one of the researchers told the New York Times: "Basically what we've found is the chemo-signaling word for 'no'—or at least 'not now.'"
31. Orgasms were once thought to cure hysteria.
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock
In the mid-1800s, women who could not reach orgasm through vaginal intercourse were considered "hysterical." So, the cure, popularized by French physician Pierre Briquet, was, logically, the la titillation du clitoris.
32. George Washington invented instant coffee.
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It's true! Though it was sadly a different guy than the man who led the American Revolution. The man behind instant coffee was George Constant Louis Washington, a Belgium immigrant to New York who held over two dozen patents for everything from early cameras to food processors. But his biggest hit was "Red E Coffee" (get it?) which required no brewing (but reportedly tasted gross).
33. Women's breasts have gotten bigger over time.
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The average bra size in America in 2013 was 34DD—up from a 34B size just 20 years before. The biggest reasons why? Weight gain and breast implants.
34. You can grow extra nipples.
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Extra nipples, formally known as "supernumerary nipples," are not all that uncommon. Studies have estimated that they occur in amounts ranging from 0.6 percent in Americans to 5 percent for Japanese women, and celebrities including Mark Wahlberg and Tilda Swinton also have them.
35. George Washington was a major whiskey distiller.
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Our nation's first president did try his hand at whiskey making. After leaving the presidency in 1797, the founding father spent some of his retirement planting rye around his Mount Vernon estate and soon had a full-blown distillery underway, producing 11,000 gallons of un-aged whiskey in 1799, the year he died.
36. Cookie Monster is named Sid.
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We know the googly-eyed blue cookie fan simply as "cookie monster," but that's not actually his real name. His creators actually named him Sid, which proved to be less catchy than the easier-to-remember Cookie Monster.
37. Mr. Clean has a first name.
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Like Cookie Monster, that icon for bald earring-wearing men everywhere, Mr. Clean, actually has a first name, too: Veritably. It was selected from (arguably better) options like "Sorta" and "Mean Jean" in a 1962 "Give Mr. Clean a First Name" campaign.
38. The Monopoly Man has a proper name, too.
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Alright, one more: That monocled top-hatted fellow on the board game Monopoly is not named "The Monopoly Man" or "Rich Uncle Pennybags," as you probably thought. In fact, his birth certificate (if one existed) would read "Milburn Pennybags."
39. Cap'n Crunch isn't a captain.
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The favorite sugary cereal character has been exaggerating his Navy service for decades. The character (whose actual name is Horatio Magellan Crunch—had to squeeze one more real name in there) wears just three stripes on his uniform cuffs, indicative of a commander, not a captain.
40. The first hot air balloon ride contained a sheep, duck, and rooster.
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The pioneers of hot-air balloon travel were not brave men but a rooster, a sheep, and a duck that were sent up in the innovative contraption invented by brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier at the end of the 1700s. They were placed in a cage suspended beneath the balloon, and, after eight minutes, ended up landing about two miles from where they took off—but all were alive and well.
RELATED: 75 Weird Animal Facts Everyone Should Know.
41. Yoda's look was inspired by Albert Einstein.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
When Star Wars' special effects artists Stuart Freeborn considered what kind of appearance he wanted to give his sage Jedi mentor, he got inspiration from a guy generally associated with smarts: Albert Einstein. A photo of the theoretical physicist hung on his office wall, and his eyes and wrinkles gave Freeborn just the finishing touches he was looking for when he was creating Yoda.
42. In 1930, the BBC reported: "There Is No News."
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On April 18, 1930—Good Friday—BBC skipped the usual news bulletin, instead stating, "There is no news," and broadcasting a Wagner opera from Langham Place, London.
43. Brown bottles are better for beer.
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Say that three times fast. While it may be a tongue twister, it's also a fact—if exposed to sunlight, beer can become "lightstruck," which affects its taste and quality (aka makes it taste skunky). It's not heat or oxygen causing the issue, but light, and one of the best ways to protect beers from this is to put it in a darker bottle, which keeps the flavor-killing wavelengths from ruining your brew.
44. The fear of running out of your beverage of choice has an official name.
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"Cenosillicaphobia" is a great word to break out at a party—it literally means "fear of an empty glass."
45. Lobster bladders are in their heads.
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Lobsters pee out of their faces; their bladders are located right under their eyes, which can come in handy when they're in a fight.
46. When mating, lobsters pee on each other.
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That bladder location also comes in handy during foreplay. When lobsters flirt, they squirt urine on each other. The female's urine is loaded with pheromones which calm the male, so he doesn't get aggressive, and also put him in the mating mood.
47. Garlic attracts bloodsuckers.
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If you're ever caught in a vampiric apocalypse, maybe don't reach for the garlic, as movies have told you to do. In an experiment conducted by Norwegian scientists, it was found that leeches attached to a hand smeared in garlic in just 14.9 seconds, while it took them 44.9 seconds to attach to a hand that had not.
48. Cold cuts are safest when hot.
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Deli meat may be delicious, but it has been linked to cancer, botulism, as well as the food-borne bug, Listeria monocytogenes. To help reduce the danger of this bacteria (which kills 260 Americans annually), scientists urge that processed meats be heated to at least 165 degrees before eating them.
49. Americans are mustard wimps.
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Mustard was popular in Europe for decades in the 19th century, but Americans resisted it until Francis French, and his R.T. French Company created a mild, bright yellow version of the stuff. "It must be mild," wrote French, who developed the recipe with his older brother George, "for I believe that these hot mustards are used sparingly not because they are hot, but because people don't like them."
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50. The first potato chip flavor was cheese and onion.
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Before there was Cool Ranch, Barbecue, or Sour Cream and Onion, there was Cheese and Onion. Invented in 1954 by a fellow named Joe "Spud" Murphy, the flavored potato chip was a novelty at the time, when you could pretty much get your chips salted and that was it. His seasoning would pave the way for lots more flavored snacks on your grocery store's shelves.
51. "Beauty sleep" is a real thing.
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A Swedish study found that when subjects were shown two photos of men and women, one taken after a restful sleep and another after having been up for 31 hours (with all other conditions and expressions identical and no makeup on), the ones who'd slept well were selected as looking more healthy and attractive.
52. Chinese Checkers was invented in Germany.
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Just like French fries have little to do with France, this board game did not originate where its name might make you think it did. A popular 19th-century English game called Hoppity allowed four players to take part in a Checkers-like game. In Germany, the game was adapted into a star-shaped board and called "Stern-Halma" meaning "Hoppity star," before American toy company Pressman Co. rebranded it "Chinese Checkers."
53. The German version of "Average Joe" is "Otto Normalverbraucher."
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Speaking of Germans, when they want to casually refer to a typical guy, they don't call him an Average Joe, but "Otto Normalverbraucher," meaning "Otto normal consumer."
54. Speed dating was invented by a rabbi.
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Rabbi Yaacov Deyo, based in Beverly Hills, CA, created thought up the creative dating concept in 1998, bringing together a handful of single men and women for some matchmaking in a Peet's Coffee & Tea. Romance and efficiency proved to be a perfect match.
Wrapping Up
That's it for our list of random facts, but be sure to check back in with us soon for more trivia! You can also sign up for our newsletter to enjoy health, entertainment, and travel content.
