In our primary school years, many of us took great pride in the weirdest, most fun facts we could spout out to our friends and family members on command.
Some of us, though, never lost that passion and continued collecting factoids about the world around us.
Redditor lovedump44 asked:
“Reddit, what is the weirdest FACT you know?”
Some talked about the state of Maine.
“Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa.” – Donald_Keyman
“[Maine] is also the only state with one syllable in its name.” – BatskyStarman
The state of Ohio had something going for it, too.
“Ohio is the only state to not share a letter with the word ‘mackerel.’” – hunter07100
There was quite the unexpected fact about sea cucumbers.
“I know that sea cucumbers, to protect themselves from enemies, will hurl their own internal organs at anything threatening them.”
“Pretty wild, I think, but it doesn’t hurt the critter none. The sea cucumber can regrow whatever organs he lost with ease.” – aintyourma
Penguins have an unexpected skill, too.
“Penguins have a gland above their noses that removes salt from seawater.” – Servb0t
Some Redditors loved sharing facts about otters.
“Otters have a secret pocket where they carry their favorite rock.” – theoldraven
“[Otters] also hold hands when they sleep.” – jellyshoes11
“[Otters hold hands]…so they don’t drift apart. We can’t forget the adorable reason!” – biospark02
LEGO was represented on a technicality.
“LEGO is the world’s largest producer of tires.” – UncensoredChef
This inspired a piece of trivia from the first LEGO Movie.
“In the LEGO Movie, they put fingerprints and scratches on pieces to make the legos looked like they were well played with.” – hannakah_ham
Speaking of yellow characters, Pac-Man was also mentioned.
“If you put your finger in your ear and scratch, it sounds just like Pac-Man.” – Donald_Keyman
And while we’re on the subject of scratching…
“Bonus Fact: If your throat is itching, you can make it stop by scratching your ear.” – Rywell
Some startling timeline facts had to be shared, too.
“Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid.” – Donald_Keyman
“More time has passed between 9/11 and today, than 9/11 and the fall of the Berlin Wall.” – chicochic
“The Tyrannosaurus Rex was more likely to have gone to a Miley Cyrus concert than to have ever fought against a Stegosaurus (chronologically).” – Baldybeardy
Two Redditors enjoyed thinking of how we’re all connected.
“Astronomer here! If you look at the large-scale structure of the universe, it looks an awful lot like a brain cell.”
“I always thought that was really weird, but also a neat coincidence.” – Andromeda321
“We are more empty space than we are solid matter.” – its_the_peanutiest
Three Redditors considered how fantastically small some things are.
“There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world…” – hotbuk**ke
“Russia has a larger surface area than Pluto.” – Swaily_P
“You can fit 3 Jupiters in the space between the Earth and our Moon.” – Question_4_you_guys
Two Redditors mentioned some surprising finds.
“A tomato plant was found on a 40-year-old volcanic island by the name of Surtsey. Scientists were baffled about how it got there.”
“Turns out a scientist took a dump which contained tomato seeds, and the plant grew.” – speeds_03
“Antarctica has two ATM machines. However, only 1 of them is working…” – Nebih
Three Redditors couldn’t choose just one factoid to share.
“Here are some interesting and odd facts:”
“Mammoths went extinct over 1000 years after the building of the great pyramid in Egypt.”
“A strawberry isn’t a berry, but an avocado is.”
“The can opener was invented 50 years after the can. They used bayonets or smashed them open with rocks in the intervening time. The rotating can opener that we’re familiar with took over 100 years to finalize.”
“The spikes on a stegosaurus’ tail are known by paleontologists as the thagomizer, which is a term coined by none other than Gary Larson in the Far Side cartoons.” – techniforus
“The world’s deepest postbox is in Susami Bay in Japan. It’s 10 meters underwater.”
“Light doesn’t necessarily travel at the speed of light. The slowest we’ve ever recorded light moving at is 38 mph (miles per hour).”
“In 1567, the man said to have the longest beard in the world died after he tripped over his beard while running away from a fire.”
“There are more fake flamingos in the world than real flamingos.”
“[Until 2016] the last time the Chicago Cubs won the baseball World Series, the Ottoman Empire still existed, and women did not have the right to vote in the United States.”
“John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, has a grandson who’s still alive today.” – Donald_Keyman
“Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Service on the day he was fatally shot. At the time, it wasn’t charged with protecting the President, but still…”
“John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved Lincoln’s son’s life.”
“Furbies are banned from the NSA’s offices — as they may be spies. (They’re not really spies, but the NSA is being extra-careful.)”
“If your name is Richard Parker, stay the hell away from boats.”
“In March of 1951, both the US and UK were introduced to Dennis the Menace comics. But the two Dennis [characters] were totally different and their creators didn’t know about the other one across the Atlantic.”
“The US Civil War started on Wilmer McLean’s farm. He left the area shortly thereafter but couldn’t avoid the war, as it ended at the home he fled to.”
“The code names of the beaches used for the D-Day landings appeared in crossword puzzles before the campaign.”
“The people who make government pens will never see the words those pens write because all those people are blind.”
“Mountain Dew once admitted that mice would dissolve into a jelly-like substance in order to win a lawsuit.”
“There’s a massive, burning pit of natural gas aflame in Turkmenistan which has been burning since the early 1970s.”
“The US once considered nuking the moon, and Carl Sagan worked on the project.” – MrDNL
From facts about space to the strangest finds on Earth, combined with animal oddities and surprising timeline overlaps, these facts left many a fellow Redditor stunned, as well as wondering what other odd trivia they could uncover.
(@UwuValence) 
(@sharanya_saha_) 
