140+ Useless Facts To Read While You're Hiding In The Bathroom

Holy Cow. It’s been 84 years of quarantine, Mama. If you’re still alive and unscathed, we’re proud of you. At this point, you’re probably feeling a little less guilty about hiding in the bathroom from time to time to sneak chocolate and cry into your wine. We feel you. You might not have the headspace or heart to read one more depressing or infuriating article about the times. You can be proactive about the current political and social climate but still need a break from time to time.

In a way, we’re actually preparing you for all those super cool trivia nights you’ll be attending post quarantine. And eventually, you’ll have enough overlooked facts in your head to win Jeopardy! The point is, knowledge is power, and however useless, facts are good to know. So get ready, because these facts are all incredibly pointless. Some are weird. Some are funny. All are useless. They are, without a doubt, the exact escape you need. Enjoy.

Interested in expanding your mind further? Check out our fact pages on coffee, scary facts, fun facts, and more!

Useless Facts

1. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

2. No number from one to 999 includes the letter “a” in its word form. 3. Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin. 4. Jupiter is twice as large as all the other planets combined. 5. The Super Soaker was designed and invented by a NASA engineer. 6. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down. 7. Salt used to be a currency. 8. Alaska is the only state whose name is on one row on a keyboard. 9. There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. 10. There are 32 muscles in a cat’s ear. 11. The chicken and the ostrich are the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex. 12. Junk food is as addictive as drugs. 13. The largest bill to go into circulation in the United States was a $10,000 note. 14. In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10. 15. A cubic inch of human bone can bear the weight of five standard pickup trucks.

More Useless Facts Comin’ Up!

16. A dragonfly has a lifespan of only one day.

17. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. 18. Toy Story helped sell the Etch-a-Sketch. 19. Four out of five children recognize the McDonald’s logo at three years old. 20. Barbie and Ken broke up in 2004. (Don’t worry. They got back together in 2011.) 21. One single teaspoon of honey represents the life work of 12 bees. 22. It’s impossible to tickle yourself. 23. It’s also impossible for you to lick your own elbow. 24. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. 25. Pope John Paul II was an honorary Harlem Globetrotter. 26. Mulan has the highest kill-count of any Disney character. 27. 3.6 cans of Spam are consumed each second. 28. The average American looks at eight houses before buying one. 29. Chalk is edible. 30. Most pandas in the world are on loan from China.

Even More Useless Facts

31. Oreo has made enough cookies to span five back and forth trips to the moon.

32. Dr. Seuss invented the word “nerd.” 33. A giraffe can go longer without water than a camel can. 34. Due to a genetic defect, cats can’t taste sweet things. 35. Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic. 36. Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch. 37. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer. 38. The average American spends about 2.5 days a year looking for lost items. 39. Apple seeds contain cyanide. 40. The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross. 41. Montpelier, Vermont, is the only U.S. capital without a McDonald’s. 42. There’s a city called “Rome” on every continent except Antarctica. 43. There are around 16 million people alive today that are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. 44. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. 45. Your body contains about 100,000 miles of blood vessels. 46. Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have a bellybutton. 47. A blob of toothpaste is called a nurdle. 48. If you plug your nose, you can’t tell the difference between an apple, a potato, and an onion. 49. Most babies are conceived in December. 50. A group of hippos is called a bloat.

And Still More Useless Facts

51. Slinkies are 82 feet long.

52. Most car horns are in the key of F. 53. New Jersey grows two-thirds of the world’s eggplants. 54. Almonds are members of the peach family. 55. Riding roller coasters can help you pass kidney stones. 56. Marie Curie’s 100-year-old belongings are still radioactive. 57. About 11,000 Americans injure themselves while trying out weird sexual positions every year. 58. Each year, Americans eat enough burgers to circle the earth more than 32 times. 59. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. 60. Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. 61. You spray 2.5 drops of saliva per word. 62. Mary Shelley allegedly lost her virginity on her mother’s grave. 63. If you open your eyes in a pitch-black room, the color you’ll see is called “eigengrau.” 64. A shark is the only animal that can blink both its eyes. 65. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. 66. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 67. If your stomach doesn’t produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, it will digest itself. 68. Every time you lick a stamp, you consume one-tenth of a calorie. 69. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. 70. Most American car horns honk in the key of F. 71. 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, and Mulan are the only Disney cartoons where both parents are present and don’t die throughout the movie. 72. A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. 73. To escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly. 74. In 1912, a law passed in Nebraska where drivers in the country at night were required to stop every 150 yards, send up a skyrocket, and wait eight minutes for the road to clear before proceeding cautiously, all the while blowing their horn and shooting off flares. 75. More Monopoly money is printed in a year than actual money throughout the world.

Useless Music Facts

76. Finland has the most metal bands per capita.

77. According to research, fans of classical music and those who love heavy metal have shown to have similar personalities. 78. Singing in a group boosts morale. 79. In 1993, Rod Stewart hosted the largest free concert. 80. Somali pirates have such a hatred for Western culture, that the British Navy uses music from Britney Spears to scare them off. 81. Metallica is the only band to have played on all seven continents. (Yes, including Antarctica.) 82. Music has some pretty interesting effects on living things. It makes plants grow faster and cows produce more milk. 83. In 2016, Mozart sold more CDs than Beyonce. 84. Prince is credited with playing 27 different instruments on his debut album. 85. In 2015, astronaut Chris Hadfield released an album while still in space. 86. Listening to music can improve your physical performance. (This could mean in the gym or between the sheets.)

Other Useless Facts

87. Women see more colors than men.

88. Women hiccup less than men. (If you live with a dude who scarfs dinner in three bites and then has massive hiccup attacks, you’ll understand this better.) 89. The two highest IQ scores in history both belonged to women. (Honestly, we’re not surprised.) 90. Know the name Ada Lovelace? You should! She was the very first computer programmer. 91. Studies found that women also have a more heightened sense of smell. 92. It’s been calculated that the average woman will “eat” about four pounds of lipstick throughout the course of her life. Blech! 93. Heels were originally created for men, but women adopted them in the 1600s to show status. 94. Women usually live longer than men. 95. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used softened papyrus, lint wrapped around wood as pads during their periods. 96. A woman’s clitoris grows throughout her life. 97. The country of Russia is bigger than Pluto. 98. Women have more tastebuds than men. So there you go, another reason why women deserve chocolate more than men do. 99. Many oranges are actually green. 100. The opposite sides of a die will always add up to seven. 101. Playing dance music can help ward off mosquitoes. 102. The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache. 103. “Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends with “mt.” 104. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year. 105. It’s possible to turn peanut butter into diamonds. 106. Nearly 10 percent of all dreams include sex. 107. Dragonflies have six legs but can’t walk. 108. Linda Lou Taylor of Indiana holds the Guinness World Record for the most married person. She’s been married 23 times. 109. Bears don’t poop during hibernation. 110. The world’s most expensive dessert from New York City’s Serendipity 3 cafe came in at a whopping $25,000. 111. You are 13.8 more likely to die on your birthday than any other day, something William Shakespeare can relate to. 112. Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons. 113. Mosquitoes are attracted to people who just ate bananas. 114. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backward. 115. Children tend to grow faster in the spring. 116. On average, a human being will spend up to two weeks kissing in his/her lifetime. 117. Rhubarb can spring up so fast that you can actually hear it grow. 118. Caterpillars have 12 eyes. 119. A “jiffy” is about one trillionth of a second. 120. A frigate bird can sleep and fly at the same time.

Useless Facts About Food

121. The oldest known soup recipe dates back to 6,000 B.C. Among the ingredients? Hippopotamus and sparrow meat.

122. In the 1830s, ketchup was used medicinally. 123. The number of hot dogs consumed on the Fourth of July could stretch from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles five times over. (Cue Legally Blonde quote: “You look like the Fourth of July — it makes me want a hot dog real bad!”) 124. Due to their high oil content and lower water content, pistachios are prone to self-heating. In fact, if transported in large groups, they can spontaneously combust! 125. Nectarine means, “as sweet as nectar.” 126. Raspberries are a member of the rose family. 127. In the episode “The Coup,” the Stamford branch members play what video game with each other? 128. Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were invented by a janitor who worked in the Frito-Lay plant. 129. In the 14th century, the Aztecs and the Mayans used chocolate as currency. 130. In the Middle Ages, black pepper was considered a luxury. It was even used to pay rent and taxes on occasion. 131. In 1965, astronaut John Young snuck a corned beef sandwich into space for a six-hour mission. Spoiler alert? The sammie didn’t do well in the zero-gravity environment.

Useless Facts About Space

132. Neptune orbits the sun once every 165 years.

133. Dark Matter accounts for over 85 percent of the universe. 134. If the moon dropped out of the sky tomorrow, it would influence our oceans, the weather, Earth’s axis, and even the length of our days. 135. Fruit flies were the first living creatures sent into space. 136. Space is completely, totally, and utterly silent. 137. No one knows just how many stars are in space. 138. A NASA spacesuit costs a cool $12,000,000. 139. The footprints made on the moon will be there for 100 million years. 140. Scientists have found a mass of water vapor cloud 10 billion light-years away from earth that is 140 trillion times the mass of water on Earth’s surface. 141. The moon was once a piece of the Earth. 142. Venus looked just like earth two billion years ago.