The internet has given us more opportunities than ever to learn and share random tidbits of knowledge, from historical facts to scientific anomalies to obscure music trivia. And as the saying goes, fact often tends to be stranger than fiction. Some of the most jarring things you may ever hear are completely real, even if they sound fully made up.
Twitter users came together to share some of those things recently, after writer Eric Michael Garcia asked, “What is a fact that sounds like a sh*tpost but is 100 percent real.”
What is a fact that sounds like a shitpost but is 100 percent real?
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) March 21, 2022
So the next time you need to pull out a “fun fact” at a social gathering, just make sure you have a handful of these strange truths filed away — after you’ve checked them out for yourself, first.
1.
Another one: Jeb Bush and Bill Belichick went to high school at Phillips Academy in Andover at the same time.
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) March 21, 2022
2.
That must have been awful, but it doesn't excuse what they did.
— Michael Stoyanov (@MikeStoyanov) March 21, 2022
3.
Johnny Cash kept a pet ostrich on his farm. One day in 1983 the ostrich kicked him and broke Cash’s ribs, which led to a relapse of his painkiller and alcohol addiction. He went to the Betty Ford Clinic to get sober and met and befriended Ozzy Osbourne. https://t.co/leTxbjHwXz
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) March 22, 2022
4.
Barack Obama was elected President because the husband of the actress who played Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager wanted to sleep with other women https://t.co/X2waDoYNlG
— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) March 21, 2022
5.
American architect William Wesley Peters married twice. Both of his wives were named Svetlana. The first Svetlana was the daughter of Frank Lloyd Wright. The second Svetlana was the daughter of Joseph Stalin
— Brendan AE (@AnimalExtender) March 21, 2022
6.
My teenage brain learned this fact and assumed that same enzyme was in all tropical fruits. Anyway, at 33 I learned I have a mild allergy to mango and kiwi, because I told my friend I like the way they sting when you eat them.
— Trash Muppet (@glowwormgoop) March 21, 2022
7.
Which means she ever said "Ain't I a Woman?" She wouldn't even speak that way. She gave a speech and white people "slave-washed" it.
— Acey Deecey 🚀🚀 (@mcgarrygirl78) March 21, 2022
8.
This is honestly beautiful.
— 2AM headache (@BatSqrl) March 21, 2022
9.
Ground up remains of mummified Egyptian people were also a popular pseudoscientific "cure-all" for everything (especially bruises).
The best part is that this practice is all based off a MISTRANSLATION of the arabic term "mūmiyā" which actually means bitumen (asphalt) pic.twitter.com/6B55E3i3us— Ada McVean (@AdaMcVean) March 21, 2022
10.
Seriously, read .@carolinefraser #PrairieFires which is all about Laura and Rose and also Laura's parents, sisters and both women's husbands. It's very eye-opening and one of the best biographies written in the past decade.
— maraleia (@maraleia) March 21, 2022
11.
The text of the legislation passed by the Ohio State Legislature naming their State Rock Song https://t.co/j88RVESHFm
— State Song Threader (@sayer_of_stuff) March 21, 2022
12.
LOL. If this is true, there is no argument against it. I see you have ruffled the Randies feathers! And on que they chime in with irrelevant statements. It is either true or false.
— Rusty IsaGod (@OppThumb) March 21, 2022
13.
Probably didn't make a difference but still incredible to see. pic.twitter.com/P46h1OL72T
— Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) March 21, 2022
14.
Sadly, we will now never know what hippo gumbo would taste like. (Of course, hippos are one of the most dangerous land animals on earth, so it's very likely that we would not HAVE a state of Louisiana as we know it today. "We can't stop here, this is Hippo Country")
— Adam Regrets Giving Up Booze For Lent (@StickmanSouza) March 21, 2022
15.
On a related note, just stumbled into this 1960s recipe from the custom cookbook of the Royal Air Force (Fairford, UK) Officers' Wives Club. Proof that somebody in England was excited about hot dogs however many years later! pic.twitter.com/GIb3CWVjmF
— Steph Yanez Wormleighton (@sywormleighton) March 21, 2022
16.
A witness to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination appeared on the game show I’ve Got a Secret. https://t.co/kPNtGRcJku
— Drewl9102 (@drewl9102) March 21, 2022
17.
Honorable mention : Gavin Newsome was married to Kimberly Guilfoyle 🥴
— Emily (@EmilyMinno) March 21, 2022
18.
niagara is downstream of several hydro dams in canada and the flow rate to the falls is set by international treaty. They also turn it down in the off-season and at night
— your himbo boyfriend (@swolecialism) March 21, 2022
19.
Did they ever walk into a bar?
— Ms Anne Thrope (@everydayangst1) March 22, 2022
20.
Yeah, Robert Lincoln. Not only that, but out of the 4 presidential assassinations, Robert was present or near the site of 3 of them (Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley). He stopped going to presidential events saying, “there’s a certain fatality about [them] when I am present."
— David Acheampong (@DavidApong) March 21, 2022
21.
Hey quick question is this Jim Steinman? pic.twitter.com/MBJygiS93b
— Ahsoka Tano (@AhsokaKnows) March 21, 2022
22.
There's a Shakespeare statue in Central America. Early US loved Shakespeare bc his works had free will while classical Greek plays were all about fate.
— tanagers from mars (@FunWithTeeth) March 22, 2022
23.
Related: for the last several years of her life, her rent was paid for by the founder of Little Caesar's.
— S. T. Ismail (@STIsmail) March 21, 2022
24.
I had always assumed people were speaking metaphorically when they talked about visualizing something. When my eyes are closed I see dark.
— Ellen (@ellen_mariele) March 22, 2022
25.
Would’ve thought the beards would be a dead giveaway. Same thing happened to Orpheus and one of the ringers was Chevy Chase. @JahHills details it in ‘Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968’ and the band tweeted about it a few years back 👇 https://t.co/yjq20sTnXy
— Hindsight (@hindsightrcrds) March 21, 2022