Hey there! I’m John Green, and welcome to Mental Floss on YouTube. Did you know that PETA once asked the band Pet Shop Boys to change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys? That’s just the first of 100 amazing facts I’m going to share with you today!
In 1939, Adolf Hitler’s nephew wrote an article titled “Why I Hate My Uncle.” He later moved to Long Island. Nikola Tesla once said that Thomas Edison had no hobbies and didn’t care for fun, which sounds like his hobby was annoying Tesla. Speaking of rivalries, the actor inside R2-D2 didn’t like the actor who played C-3PO, calling him the rudest man he ever met.
Here’s a cool math fact: 12 + 1 equals 11 + 2, and both are anagrams of each other! Also, the sum of the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666. Did you know “Jay” used to be slang for a foolish person? That’s why people who ignored street signs were called jaywalkers.
There’s a genus of ferns named after Lady Gaga, with 19 ferns starting with the word “Gaga.” If you’re trying to fill out a perfect March Madness bracket, your chances are one in 9.2 quintillion! But if you’re a basketball expert, your odds improve to one in 128 billion.
Before Google launched Gmail, Garfield the Cat’s website offered it as a free email service. The giant inflatable rat at union protests is named Scabby. The Procrastinators Club of America’s newsletter is called “Last Month’s Newsletter,” and members read it whenever they get around to it.
Here’s a shopping tip: touching an item makes you more likely to buy it and pay more for it. The Tony Award started in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for excellence in theater. Winners received a scroll and a cigarette lighter if they were male or a silver compact case if they were female.
The ship that rescued Titanic survivors, the Carpathia, was sunk during World War I by a German U-boat. A study at the University of Leicester found that cows produce more milk when listening to relaxing music. An early ATM was considered a failure because its only users were “prostitutes and gamblers” who didn’t want to deal with tellers face to face.
Hawaiian Punch was originally developed in 1934 as a tropical-flavored ice cream topping. Albert Einstein never learned to drive a car. In 2006, a California pastor urged his congregation to go to bars and convince young people to delete their MySpace accounts. Little did he know, people didn’t need encouragement to delete their MySpace accounts.
When fruit flies are infected with a parasite, they self-medicate with alcohol, seeking out food with higher alcohol content. In 2008, the iTunes Store sold an app called “I Am Rich” for $999.99, which served no purpose. Eight copies were sold before Apple shut it down in less than a day.
John Cazale died in 1978, and every film he appeared in was nominated for Best Picture. In colonial America, lobster was not a delicacy; it was so cheap and plentiful that it was often served to prisoners. Between 1900 and 1920, tug of war was an Olympic event, as were art competitions between 1912 and 1948, where medals were awarded for architecture, music, painting, and sculpture.
According to a Wall Street Journal study, there are only 11 minutes of actual football action during the average NFL game. In 1991, Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, married Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse. The tallest jockey on record, at 7’7″, was licensed by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to race in a charity event.
The nursery rhyme never actually states that Humpty Dumpty is an egg, so for all we know, he could be a pterodactyl. Alton Brown, who once appeared on a Mental Floss cover, was the Director of Photography for R.E.M.’s 1987 video “The One I Love.” In 1997, Bloomsbury printed the first 1,000 copies of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Today, each of those copies is worth between $20,000 and $440,000.
When Canada’s Northwest Territories considered renaming itself in the 1990s, one name that gained a lot of popular support was “Bob.” Vince Neil has said that Mötley Crüe decided to add “Möt” to its name while drinking Löwenbräu beer. In 1989, Walmart pulled Listerine off the shelves after a woman claimed it burned her mouth, but after testing, it was restocked because it turns out that’s just how Listerine tastes.
Hootie and the Blowfish performed at Tiger Woods’ wedding in 2004, which makes sense because when it comes to marriage, Tiger Woods was about to face challenges. The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 handbook classifies caffeine withdrawal as a mental disorder. I just classify it as 11:00 in the morning.
After coffee beans are decaffeinated, the caffeine is sold to soft drink makers and pharmaceutical companies. Caffeine can be an effective treatment for low cerebral spinal fluid headaches. Coffee was banned in Mecca in the 16th century because it was believed to stimulate radical thinking.
Every scene in the movie “Fight Club” contains a cup of Starbucks coffee. In 1999, the U.S. government paid the Zider family $16 million for the film of JFK’s assassination. George Washington insisted his Continental Army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations. Speaking of alcohol, college students spend more than $5.5 billion on alcohol per year, more than they spend on textbooks.
When asked who owned the patent on the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk said, “Well, the people. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” The letter “J” is the only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table. The Pledge of Allegiance was written as part of a plan to sell flags to schools.
Gwen Stefani wrote “Hollaback Girl,” Justin Timberlake wrote “Rock Your Body,” and Kelis wrote “Milkshake.” When he was younger, Jake Gyllenhaal got driving lessons from a family friend—Paul Newman, who was both a race car driver and a race car owner.
Larry King and Snoop Dogg hang out together. Jeopardy contestants stand on platforms that are adjusted so they all appear to be the same height. Richard Gere went to UMass Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship. The light emitted by 200,000 galaxies makes our universe a shade of beige that scientists call “Cosmic Latte.”
You could fit 75 New Jerseys into Alaska’s area, but why would you want to? Just kidding, people from New Jersey! In other geography news, Reno is west of Los Angeles. Dapnophobia is the fear of dinner party conversations. I have that one, but then again, I do have most of them.
Yawning is so contagious that it can spread from humans to dogs or chimpanzees. In 1964, years before the Constitution recognized her right to vote, Janette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. Speaking of politics, in 1958, Larry King smashed into John F. Kennedy’s car. JFK said he would forget the whole thing if King promised to vote for him when he ran for president.
The very first webcam watched a coffee pot so researchers at Cambridge could monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks. Why don’t we have one of those? The last time a Republican was elected president without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket was 1928.
For a time, Kurt Vonnegut was Geraldo Rivera’s father-in-law. In 1980, Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to their city. In a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, Admiral John Fisher used the phrase “OMG.” I personally believe that Abraham Lincoln coined the abbreviation “LOL,” but I don’t have proof yet.
I don’t know why I find the idea of Lincoln inventing “LOL” so funny; I just picture him rolling on the floor with his stovepipe hat falling off. A baby can cost new parents 750 hours of sleep in the first year. That seems low, actually. Only two non-humans have ever testified before Congress: Elmo and Ben Affleck.
On a slow news day in 1930, BBC Radio simply reported there was no news and then played piano music. Oh gosh, imagine if Fox News did that today! Speaking of slow news, ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen originally wanted to put on a Connecticut sports show featuring Hartford Whalers highlights. We wanted to make a joke here about the Hartford Whalers because Meredith’s ex-boyfriend was a Hartford Whalers fan, but then we decided that the Hartford Whalers were enough of a joke on their own.
The last time the French government used the guillotine to execute a convicted criminal was in 1977. In 2006, an Australian man tried to sell New Zealand on eBay; the price rose to $33,000 before eBay shut it down. By the way, the first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer, which a collector bought for $14.83.
Canadians eat more donuts per capita than any other country. There’s a city in Turkey named Batman. In 2008, the mayor sued Warner Brothers for using the name without permission. The necktie originated in Croatia. In 1968, Wilt Chamberlain endorsed Richard Nixon for president, saying it was intriguing to know he might have some hand in shaping the future of this country.
Before settling on the Seven Dwarfs we know today, Disney considered names like Chesty, Tubby, Burpy, Deyhickey, Wheezy, and Awful. In development, Disney’s “Aladdin” was drawn based on Michael J. Fox, and then animators switched the model to Tom Cruise. The state vegetable of Oklahoma is watermelon. Pull it together, Oklahoma!
In 1493, Christopher Columbus thought he saw mermaids. He wrote that they were “not as pretty as they are depicted; somehow in the face, they look like men.” They were probably manatees. The Scots have a word for that panicky hesitation you get when introducing someone whose name you can’t remember: “tartle.”
The Beatles were offered the roles of the four vultures in the movie “The Jungle Book.” The average American three-year-old child can recognize about 100 brand logos, which means that my child is above average. John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” was almost called “Something That Happened.”
General George Custer graduated last in his class at West Point in 1861. In 1998, a Georgia student was suspended for one day for wearing a Pepsi t-shirt at his school’s Coke in Education Day. In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that by 2000, Americans would be working 20 hours a week with more than seven weeks of vacation per year.
Film critic Leonard Maltin’s complete review of the 1948 movie “Isn’t It Romantic?” was simply “No.” The Iron Man edition of Mr. Potato Head is named “Tony Starch.” Okay, let’s speed it up here at the end. Why can Goofy talk but Pluto can’t? Well, according to Disney, Goofy was created as a human character, as opposed to Pluto, who was a pet.
Neil Armstrong’s astronaut application arrived a week past the deadline, but a friend slipped it in with the others. In the 2011 Czech Republic census, 15,700 people listed their religion as Jedi. Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest in San Francisco and lost.
Before Beverly Hills was known for rich people, it was known for its soil being great for growing lima beans. It’s been estimated that 10% of living Europeans were conceived on an IKEA bed. After he won the Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr was given a perpetual supply of beer piped into his house. By the way, in some European spas, you can literally bathe in beer.
There are 293 ways to make change for a U.S. dollar. And finally, I return to my point to tell you that when Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase designed the first $1 bill in 1862, he put his own face on it. Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people. Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Nick Gardell, who asks, “What was the first thing bought on the internet?” Well, Nick, you will be unsurprised to learn that it was pizza—specifically, a Pizza Hut pizza bought in 1994. If you have a mind-blowing question, please let us know in the comments. We’ll endeavor to answer as many as possible. Thank you again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome!
Choose a topic that interests you, such as history, science, or pop culture. Research an amazing fact related to your topic and create a short presentation to share with the class. Make sure to include why you found this fact interesting and any additional information that helps explain it.
Work in pairs to create a list of five statements: three true amazing facts and two fictional ones. Present your list to another pair and see if they can guess which statements are true and which are false. This will help you practice distinguishing between factual information and made-up stories.
Pick one of the amazing facts from the article and create a piece of art that represents it. You can draw, paint, or create a digital artwork. Once completed, write a brief description of the fact and how your artwork represents it. Display your art in the classroom for everyone to see.
Form small groups and choose a fact from the article that you find particularly intriguing. Prepare a short argument on why this fact is the most amazing one from the article. Present your argument to the class and engage in a friendly debate with other groups. This will help you practice public speaking and critical thinking skills.
Choose an amazing fact and write a short story inspired by it. Your story can be fictional but should incorporate the fact in a creative way. Share your story with the class and discuss how you used the fact as a foundation for your narrative. This activity will enhance your writing and storytelling abilities.
Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to Mental Floss on YouTube! Did you know that PETA once asked the Pet Shop Boys to change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys? That’s the first of 100 amazing facts everyone should know that I’m going to share with you today.
In 1939, Adolf Hitler’s nephew wrote an article called “Why I Hate My Uncle.” I haven’t read it, but I assume it includes some personal grievances. The nephew eventually moved to Long Island. Nikola Tesla said of Thomas Edison that he had no hobbies, cared for no amusement of any kind, and lived in utter disregard of basic hygiene. Sounds to me like his hobby was annoying Tesla. Edison’s other hobby, of course, was taking credit for Tesla’s ideas.
Another pair of famous rivals: the actor inside R2-D2 disliked the actor who played C-3PO, calling him the rudest man he had ever met. That’s why C-3PO doesn’t get to be on the wall of magic in David Hasselhoff’s divorce settlement. He retained possession of the nickname “Hoff” and the catchphrase “Don’t hassle the Hoff.”
12 + 1 = 11 + 2, and 12 + 1 is an anagram of 11 + 2. Speaking of addition, the sum of the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666. “Jay” was once slang for a foolish person, so when a pedestrian ignored street signs, they were called a jaywalker.
There’s a genus of ferns named after Lady Gaga, which means that 19 ferns start with the word “Gaga.” You have a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of filling out a perfect March Madness bracket unless you’re very knowledgeable about basketball, in which case your chances improve to about one in 128 billion.
Before Google launched Gmail, it was offered as a free email service by Garfield the Cat’s website. The giant inflatable rat that shows up at union protests is named Scabby. The Procrastinators Club of America’s newsletter is called “Last Month’s Newsletter,” and members read it whenever they get around to it.
Shopping tip: touching an item makes you more likely to buy it and also willing to pay more for it. The Tony Award started in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for excellence in theater. Winners received a scroll and a cigarette lighter if they were male or a silver compact case if they were female.
The ship that rescued the survivors of the Titanic, the Carpathia, was sunk during World War I by a German U-boat. According to a study done at the University of Leicester, the milk yield of cows increases when they’re listening to relaxing music. An early ATM was deemed a failure because its only users were quote “prostitutes and gamblers” who didn’t want to deal with tellers face to face.
Hawaiian Punch was originally developed in 1934 as a tropical-flavored ice cream topping. Albert Einstein never learned to drive a car. In 2006, a California pastor urged his congregation to go to bars and try to convince young people to delete their MySpace accounts. Little did he know that people didn’t need encouragement to delete their MySpace accounts.
When fruit flies are infected with a parasite, they self-medicate with alcohol, seeking out food with higher alcohol content. In 2008, the iTunes Store sold an app called “I Am Rich” for $999.99, which served absolutely no purpose. Eight copies were sold before Apple shut it down in less than a day.
John Cazale died in 1978, and every film he appeared in was nominated for Best Picture. Due to a shortage of raw materials like paper and an increase in wartime piety, the United States faced a Bible shortage in 1943. In colonial America, lobster was not a delicacy; it was so cheap and plentiful that it was often served to prisoners.
Between 1900 and 1920, tug of war was an Olympic event, as were art competitions between 1912 and 1948, where medals were awarded for architecture, music, painting, and sculpture. According to a Wall Street Journal study, there are only 11 minutes of actual football action during the average NFL game.
In 1991, Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, married Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse. The tallest jockey on record, at 7’7″, was licensed by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to race in a charity event. The nursery rhyme never actually states that Humpty Dumpty is an egg, so for all we know, he could be a pterodactyl.
Alton Brown, who once appeared on a Mental Floss cover, was the Director of Photography for R.E.M.’s 1987 video “The One I Love.” In 1997, Bloomsbury printed the first 1,000 copies of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” Today, each of those copies is worth between $20,000 and $440,000.
When Canada’s Northwest Territories considered renaming itself in the 1990s, one name that gained a lot of popular support was “Bob.” Harley Simon’s dad is the Simon of Simon & Schuster; he put his own name in the company name, so he’s really pleased with himself.
Vince Neil has said that Mötley Crüe decided to add “Möt” to its name while drinking Löwenbräu beer. In 1989, Walmart pulled Listerine off the shelves after a woman claimed it burned her mouth, but after testing, it was restocked because it turns out that’s just how Listerine tastes.
Hootie and the Blowfish performed at Tiger Woods’ wedding in 2004, which makes sense because when it comes to marriage, Tiger Woods was about to face challenges. The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 handbook classifies caffeine withdrawal as a mental disorder. I just classify it as 11:00 in the morning.
After coffee beans are decaffeinated, the caffeine is sold to soft drink makers and pharmaceutical companies. Caffeine can be an effective treatment for low cerebral spinal fluid headaches. Coffee was banned in Mecca in the 16th century because it was believed to stimulate radical thinking.
Every scene in the movie “Fight Club” contains a cup of Starbucks coffee. In 1999, the U.S. government paid the Zider family $16 million for the film of JFK’s assassination. George Washington insisted his Continental Army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations. Speaking of alcohol, college students spend more than $5.5 billion on alcohol per year, more than they spend on textbooks.
When asked who owned the patent on the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk said, “Well, the people. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” To which several pharmaceutical companies replied, “Wait, can you patent the sun?” The letter “J” is the only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written as part of a plan to sell flags to schools. Gwen Stefani wrote “Hollaback Girl,” Justin Timberlake wrote “Rock Your Body,” and Kelis wrote “Milkshake.” When he was younger, Jake Gyllenhaal got driving lessons from a family friend—Paul Newman, who was both a race car driver and a race car owner.
Larry King and Snoop Dogg hang out together. Jeopardy contestants stand on platforms that are adjusted so they all appear to be the same height. Richard Gere went to UMass Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship. The light emitted by 200,000 galaxies makes our universe a shade of beige that scientists call “Cosmic Latte.”
You could fit 75 New Jerseys into Alaska’s area, but why would you want to? Just kidding, people from New Jersey! In other geography news, Reno is west of Los Angeles. Dapnophobia is the fear of dinner party conversations. I have that one, but then again, I do have most of them.
Yawning is so contagious that it can spread from humans to dogs or chimpanzees. In 1964, years before the Constitution recognized her right to vote, Janette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. Speaking of politics, in 1958, Larry King smashed into John F. Kennedy’s car. JFK said he would forget the whole thing if King promised to vote for him when he ran for president.
The very first webcam watched a coffee pot so researchers at Cambridge could monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks. Why don’t we have one of those? The last time a Republican was elected president without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket was 1928.
For a time, Kurt Vonnegut was Geraldo Rivera’s father-in-law. In 1980, Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to their city. In a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, Admiral John Fisher used the phrase “OMG.” I personally believe that Abraham Lincoln coined the abbreviation “LOL,” but I don’t have proof yet.
I don’t know why I find the idea of Lincoln inventing “LOL” so funny; I just picture him rolling on the floor with his stovepipe hat falling off. A baby can cost new parents 750 hours of sleep in the first year. That seems low, actually. Only two non-humans have ever testified before Congress: Elmo and Ben Affleck.
On a slow news day in 1930, BBC Radio simply reported there was no news and then played piano music. Oh gosh, imagine if Fox News did that today! Speaking of slow news, ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen originally wanted to put on a Connecticut sports show featuring Hartford Whalers highlights. We wanted to make a joke here about the Hartford Whalers because Meredith’s ex-boyfriend was a Hartford Whalers fan, but then we decided that the Hartford Whalers were enough of a joke on their own.
The last time the French government used the guillotine to execute a convicted criminal was in 1977. In 2006, an Australian man tried to sell New Zealand on eBay; the price rose to $33,000 before eBay shut it down. By the way, the first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer, which a collector bought for $14.83.
Canadians eat more donuts per capita than any other country. There’s a city in Turkey named Batman. In 2008, the mayor sued Warner Brothers for using the name without permission. The necktie originated in Croatia. In 1968, Wilt Chamberlain endorsed Richard Nixon for president, saying it was intriguing to know he might have some hand in shaping the future of this country.
Before settling on the Seven Dwarfs we know today, Disney considered names like Chesty, Tubby, Burpy, Deyhickey, Wheezy, and Awful. In development, Disney’s “Aladdin” was drawn based on Michael J. Fox, and then animators switched the model to Tom Cruise. The state vegetable of Oklahoma is watermelon. Pull it together, Oklahoma!
In 1493, Christopher Columbus thought he saw mermaids. He wrote that they were “not as pretty as they are depicted; somehow in the face, they look like men.” They were probably manatees. The Scots have a word for that panicky hesitation you get when introducing someone whose name you can’t remember: “tartle.”
The Beatles were offered the roles of the four vultures in the movie “The Jungle Book.” The average American three-year-old child can recognize about 100 brand logos, which means that my child is above average. John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” was almost called “Something That Happened.”
General George Custer graduated last in his class at West Point in 1861. In 1998, a Georgia student was suspended for one day for wearing a Pepsi t-shirt at his school’s Coke in Education Day. In 1965, a Senate subcommittee predicted that by 2000, Americans would be working 20 hours a week with more than seven weeks of vacation per year.
Film critic Leonard Maltin’s complete review of the 1948 movie “Isn’t It Romantic?” was simply “No.” The Iron Man edition of Mr. Potato Head is named “Tony Starch.” Okay, let’s speed it up here at the end. Why can Goofy talk but Pluto can’t? Well, according to Disney, Goofy was created as a human character, as opposed to Pluto, who was a pet.
Neil Armstrong’s astronaut application arrived a week past the deadline, but a friend slipped it in with the others. In the 2011 Czech Republic census, 15,700 people listed their religion as Jedi. Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest in San Francisco and lost.
Before Beverly Hills was known for rich people, it was known for its soil being great for growing lima beans. It’s been estimated that 10% of living Europeans were conceived on an IKEA bed. After he won the Nobel Prize, Niels Bohr was given a perpetual supply of beer piped into his house. By the way, in some European spas, you can literally bathe in beer.
There are 293 ways to make change for a U.S. dollar. And finally, I return to my point to tell you that when Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase designed the first $1 bill in 1862, he put his own face on it. Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people. Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Nick Gardell, who asks, “What was the first thing bought on the internet?” Well, Nick, you will be unsurprised to learn that it was pizza—specifically, a Pizza Hut pizza bought in 1994. If you have a mind-blowing question, please let us know in the comments. We’ll endeavor to answer as many as possible. Thank you again for watching, and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome!
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This version removes any inappropriate or sensitive content while maintaining the original context and facts.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – The history of ancient civilizations helps us understand how modern societies have evolved.
Science – The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. – Science has allowed us to explore the universe and understand the laws of nature.
Inventions – New devices, methods, or processes developed from study and experimentation. – The invention of the printing press revolutionized the way information was shared in the 15th century.
Discoveries – The act of finding or learning something for the first time. – The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 led to the development of antibiotics.
Events – Occurrences or happenings, especially significant ones that have historical importance. – The signing of the Declaration of Independence was a pivotal event in American history.
Culture – The social behavior, norms, and practices found in human societies. – Ancient Egyptian culture is known for its impressive pyramids and rich mythology.
Technology – The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. – Advances in technology have made it possible for people to communicate instantly across the globe.
Nature – The physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth. – Studying nature helps scientists understand ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity.
Music – The art of arranging sounds in time to produce a composition through the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. – Music played an important role in the cultural life of the Renaissance period.
Geography – The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these. – Geography helps us understand how natural landscapes influence human settlements and activities.
