165+ Bizarre Fun Facts about Life, the Universe & More

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Global geography expert Austin Krance shares weird but true facts that sound made up, but aren't (we swear)

Co-authored by Austin Krance and Dev Murphy, MA

Last Updated: April 17, 2026 Fact Checked

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• The Human Body
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• Space
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• Animals
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• Geography
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• Pop Culture
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• Random
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• Video

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Did you know that some fish can walk on land? Or that identical twins don't have the same fingerprints? If you're looking for more fun facts to wow your friends (or to help you demolish everyone at trivia night), we've got you covered. Keep reading for the weirdest, most surprising, most interesting facts about the animal kingdom, geography, pop culture, and more, with exclusive facts shared by wikiHow’s geography and Pokémon experts!

Weird & Interesting Fun Facts

Global geography expert Austin Krance shares some of his favorite weird and fun facts about space, food, and animals:

• The Greek word for “milky" is the origin of the word “galaxy.” So, the Milky Way Galaxy translates to “galaxy way galaxy.”
• Tomatoes aren’t native to Italy. They were brought over from the Americas a couple hundred years ago.
• The land animal that can jump the highest is the cougar.

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Section 1 of 6:

Weird Facts about the Human Body

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1. 
   Earlobes serve no biological purpose. There's a lot we don't know or understand about the human body—and there's a lot we do know, but still don't really understand! Wow your friends with your knowledge of biology and anatomy:

   • Identical twins don't have the same fingerprints.
   • Sometimes your brain is more active when you're asleep than when you're awake.
   • The length of your arms outstretched is roughly equal to your height.
   • Your sense of smell is stronger in the evening than it is in the morning.
   • 61 percent of your body weight is water.
   • Girls have more taste buds than boys do.
   • Newborn babies are mostly colorblind, although they can see some intense colors, like red.
   • Deaf people sometimes use sign language in their sleep.
   • You use seventy-two different muscles each time you speak.
   • Kids' fingerprints fade from surfaces more quickly than adults' fingerprints do.
   • Your eyes produce about a teaspoon of tears every single hour.
   • Humans are the only animals that blush.
   • The human body is made up of more than ten trillion cells.
   • Wearing a hat on your head helps keep your feet warm.
   • Your brain is constantly eating itself.
   • Your teeth are the only part of your body that cannot heal themselves.
   • It's possible to die laughing.
   • About 8–10 percent of people grind their teeth at night. And most aren't aware that they're doing it.
   • Fingernails grow faster than toenails.

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Austin Krance is a global geography and flag expert. He creates short form content with a focus on trivia and geography, and has 100k+ followers on Instagram and TikTok.

   ThePokéRaf is a Pokémon and anime expert who creates content about the Pokémon anime and games on YouTube. He is also a co-host of the Rocket Radio Podcast.
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Section 2 of 6:

Weird Facts about Space

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1. 
   In space, no one can hear you scream. So goes the Alien tagline—and it's true, there's no sound in space! Keep reading for more strange and fascinating facts about outer space:

   • The word “galaxy” comes from the Greek word for “milky,” says Krance. So, the Milky Way Galaxy actually means “galaxy way galaxy!”
   • Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, left his space boots up there. Oops.
   • The brighter the star, the shorter its lifespan.
   • The universe's average color is called "Cosmic Latte." Astronomers discovered that the light emanating from galaxies averaged into a beigey-white color.
   • Mars isn't round. It's shaped more like a rugby ball.
   • There's a 300-year-old hurricane on Jupiter that's still going strong.
   • Earth rotates 1.5 milliseconds slower each day.
   • You can yo-yo in outer space.
   • You could reach Pluto in just four hours if you could travel at the speed of light.
   • Gravity pulls up, down, and sideways at the center of the Earth.
   • If you're twelve years old on Earth, you'd be about six years old on Mars.
   • Six million pounds (2.7 million kg) of space dust collects on Earth every year.
   • The sun is 93 million miles away from us.
   • Comets smell like rotten eggs, urine, burning matches, and almonds.
   • Venus is the only planet to spin clockwise.
   • Earth traveled more than 5000 miles (8047 km) in the last five minutes.
   • Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down. 600 million years ago, a day lasted only 21 hours!
   • Astronauts grow up to 3 inches (76 mm) taller in outer space.

Section 3 of 6:

Weird Facts about Animals

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1. 
   The oldest koi fish lived to be 226 years old. The animal kingdom is overflowing with amazing facts about lions, tigers, bears, sharks, ladybugs, gorillas, porcupines, and every other type of creature that walks, swims, or flies on the planet. Keep reading for more animal trivia:

   • The land animal with the highest jump is the cougar, notes Krance.
   • Some fish can walk on land.
   • A beefalo is part cow, part bison.
   • Some fish eggs hatch in their dad's mouth.
   • Alligator babies bark when they're ready to hatch out of their eggs.
   • Porcupines can float.
   • Cats communicate by using "cat words."
   • A shrimp's heart is located in its head.
   • Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions.
   • Gorillas burp when they're happy.
   • The world's fastest falcon can go faster than a speeding race car.
   • A coyote can hear a mouse moving beneath a foot of snow.
   • A grizzly bear can run as fast as a horse.
   • Some parrots dance when they hear music.
   • It would take a snail about 220 hours to crawl one mile.
   • Some hummingbird species weigh less than a penny.
   • Speaking of hummingbirds, they're the only birds that can fly backwards.
   • Mountain lions can whistle.
   • There are more plastic flamingos in the United States than there are real ones.
   • A camel doesn't sweat until its body temperature gets to 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celcius).
   • Male seahorses give birth.
   • The largest bald eagle nests weigh up to 4000 pounds (1814 kg).
   • A sailfish can leap through the air at roughly 68 miles (109 km) an hour, which is about the speed a car drives on the highway.
   • Many birds' feathers weigh more than their bones do.
   • Some monkeys in Thailand teach their babies to floss their teeth.
   • Giant anteaters can eat more than 30,000 insects in a single day.
   • Alligators can live up to about eighty years.
   • Pet hamsters can run up to eight miles (13 km) a night on their wheel.
   • Harmless, microscopic shrimp could be living in your drinking water.
   • Some wild turkeys can run as fast as 25 miles (40 km) an hour.
   • A shark can grow and lose up to 30,000 teeth in its lifetime.
   • The world's smallest monkey is roughly as tall as a toothbrush. Aww!
   • A flea can jump 100 times its body length—which would be like a person jumping to the top of a 34-story building. Whoa!
   • A chicken once lived for eighteen months without a head.
   • Most experts believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Some even believe dinosaurs had feathers.
   • Orcas wear other animals as hats.
   • A salmon's sense of smell is thousands of times better than a dog's.
   • Owls can't move their eyeballs.
   • The world's lightest mammal is the bumblebee bat. It weighs roughly as much as two M&Ms.
   • South African giant bullfrogs have been known to attack lions.
   • The skin of a golden poison dart frog has enough toxins to kill up to a hundred people.
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Section 4 of 6:

Weird Facts about Geography

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1. 
   In Japan, you can buy watermelons shaped like pyramids. The world is wide and vast, and there's so much to know about it! Keep reading for fun facts about the world's continents, oceans, landmarks, cultures, and more:

   • Russia is just two miles (3.2 km) from Alaska.
   • Finland is the happiest country on Earth, according to the World Happiness Report.
   • On sunny days, the Eiffel Tower leans toward the shade.
   • A woman once hand-delivered a pizza from London, England, to Melbourne, Australia—a journey of roughly 10,350 miles (16,657 km).
   • There are more people living in China today than there were on all of Earth 150 years ago.
   • The Bahamas once had an underwater post office.
   • The tip of the minute hand on London's Big Ben clock travels roughly 118 miles (190 km) in a year.
   • There are more television sets in the United States than there are people in the United Kingdom.
   • In Wales in the United Kingdom, you can compete in an underwater mountain bike race.
   • Red rain has fallen in parts of Asia and Europe. (No, it's not blood! "Blood rain" happens when airborne dust or runoff from iron-rich or red soil makes the rain appear red.)
   • A 95-mile-long underground river runs below Mexico.
   • There's a waterfall in Hawaii that sometimes flows up instead of down.
   • The leaning tower of Pisa began tilting before the building was even finished.
   • 4000-year-old noodles were discovered in ancient ruins in China. Talk about leftovers.
   • Speaking of which, a 4000-year-old piece of cake was found in a tomb in Egypt. (You can't take it with you.)
   • Australia is wider than the moon.
   • The Spanish national anthem has no words.
   • We've only explored about 0.001 percent of the seafloor. We know more about outer space than we do the ocean!
   • There are more people living in New York City than there are in 39 of the 50 states.

Section 5 of 6:

Weird Facts about Pop Culture

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1. 
   Nintendo (1889) is older than Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897). Whaaaaat? Crazy, right? Keep reading for trivia related to movies, music, video games, and more.

   • The Stuart Little movie was co-written by M. Night Shyamalan. Talk about range!
   • In Pokémon, Ash's starter Pokémon was initially supposed to be Squirtle, says Pokémon and anime expert ThePokéRaf.
   • Mary Shelley was a teenager when she wrote Frankenstein.
   • All the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20.
   • Harry Styles has four nipples.
   • The largest bowling alley in the world is in Japan. It has 116 lanes.
   • The Pope cannot be an organ donor.
   • The Caesar salad recently had its 100th birthday. It was invented in 1924 by an Italian chef in Tijuana, Mexico.
   • The "Baby Shark Dance" is one of the most-viewed YouTube videos with over 14.66 billion views.
   • Julia Roberts is Emma Roberts' aunt.
   • Sheffield FC is the oldest soccer club recognized by FIFA.
   • Louboutin's famous red shoe soles were inspired by Andy Warhol.
   • "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles has a frequency only dogs can hear at the end of the song.
   • KFC is a traditional Christmas dinner in Japan.
   • Charles Darwin is believed to have invented the office chair.
   • Beyoncé has the most Grammys of any artist. She's been nominated for 99 awards and won 35.
   • The iCarly high school set is the same set used for Saved by the Bell and That's So Raven.
   • Marcel Proust's A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (or In Search of Lost Time) is the longest book in the world, with an estimated 9,609,000 characters.
   • Japan has more than 200 flavors of Kit-Kats, including banana, Oreo, wasabi, baked potato, and more.
   • The Night's Watch cloaks in Game of Thrones were made out of Ikea rugs.
   • The highest-grossing romantic comedy is My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
   • Julia Child was an intelligence officer with the OSS during World War II.
   • Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic.
   • Barry Manilow wrote the State Farm jingle ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there").
   • The longest-running animated TV show in the United States is The Simpsons.
   • Pocahontas was the first Disney princess with a tattoo.
   • Walt Disney's favorite princess was Cinderella.
   • Walt Disney currently holds the most Academy Awards. He won 26 Oscars and was nominated 59 times.
   • The actors who voiced Mickey and Minnie Mouse got married in real life.
   • The Chupa Chups logo was designed by Salvador Dalí.
   • M&Ms are named after the two businessmen who created them: Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie.
   • Star Trek made it on the air thanks to Lucille Ball. After the show's first pilot failed, she helped to finance a new one.
   • Dolly Parton was an uncredited executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As an homage to Parton, Buffy shares her birthday: January 19th.
   • Joseph Williams, the lead singer of Toto—of "Africa" fame—is famous composer John Williams' son.
   • Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, died peacefully in a hospital in 2015 while watching the movies with hospital staff.
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Section 6 of 6:

Weird Random Facts

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1. 
   Some cars can run on used French fry oil. Some facts are just too weird to be categorized. Keep reading for more strange and random bits of trivia about baseballs, slinkies, France, Halloween, Google, and more:

   • Tomatoes aren’t native to Italy; instead, they were brought over from the Americas, explains Krance. So, only a few hundred years ago, spaghetti and tomato sauce didn’t exist in Italy!
   • The longest game of Monopoly played in a bathtub lasted ninety-nine hours.
   • Playing board games can reduce your risk of dementia.
   • The unicorn is Scotland's national animal.
   • A chef's hat has 100 pleats. It's allegedly supposed to represent the 100 different ways to cook an egg.
   • In 2015, there was a Tinder match in Antarctica, the most remote continent in the world.
   • Nutmeg is a hallucinogen.
   • If you Google the word "askew," the page will tilt, as if it's…well, askew.
   • People are more creative in the shower. The warm water gives us a dopamine boost, which makes us more creative.
   • Leftover pasta has health benefits that fresh pasta doesn't.
   • If you Google the word "anagram," Google will ask, "Did you mean nag a ram?" ("Nag a ram" is an anagram of the word "anagram"!)
   • Ancient Romans used to drop a piece of toast into their wine for good health. That's where the saying "Raise a toast" comes from!
   • The most overdue library book in history was 288 years late.
   • Chainsaws were originally invented to assist in childbirth. Yikes!
   • Wind turbines kill somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 birds every year in the United Kingdom.
   • Parents in the United States consistently rank as the unhappiest in the world.
   • Halloween has been celebrated for roughly 2000 years!
   • A guy once rode his bicycle down the Eiffel Tower's 1665 steps.
   • More than 60,000 people are flying over the United States right this second.
   • A baseball will go farther in hot weather than in cold weather.
   • An avalanche can travel 80 miles (129 km) an hour.
   • The world's first escalator was invented in 1895 as an amusement park ride at Coney Island.
   • The letter "E" is the most popular letter in the alphabet.
   • The least popular letter is "Z."
   • There are more than 1000 different types of bananas growing in the world.
   • Avocados are a fruit, not a vegetable.
   • People used to say "prunes" instead of "cheese" before getting their picture taken.
   • There's only one Shell garage that's actually shaped like a shell.
   • The blob of toothpaste on a toothbrush has a name: it's called a nurdle, and there was once a huge lawsuit over which toothpaste company had the right to use it in their advertising.
   • The fear of long words is known, ironically, as Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Can you say that five times fast?
   • The fear of closely packed holes is called Trypophobia.
   • Ketchup was once sold as medicine.
   • A slinky can stretch from a sixth-floor window to the ground.
   EXPERT TIP

   

   Alison Betts

   Trivia Expert and Jeopardy! Contestant

   Alison Betts is a trivia expert and Jeopardy! contestant based in Los Angeles, CA. As a lifelong fan of Jeopardy!, Alison was the first player in Season 40 to become a 5-game champion and secure a spot in the Tournament of Champions. She also appeared on two other game shows, Bullsh*t The Game Show in 2022 and 25 or Words or Less in 2019, on which she won $250,000 and $10,000 respectively. Alison has a degree in Film and Media Studies from Arizona State University and works as a writer and creative executive. She has written pilot scripts, consulted on numerous television series, and served as the head speechwriter and communications director for a U.S. Senate Campaign.

   

   Alison Betts
   Trivia Expert and Jeopardy! Contestant

   The people who are best at trivia are the people who think everything is worth knowing. There are no useless facts.

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