Tell Me Something I Don't Know

[AnaKhouri]

If you accidentally spill Dayquil into the burner on your stove, tell yourself you'll clean it up later, forget to do that, then turn on the burner, it kind of smells like you're making candy.

[Jester]

Here's something y'all probably didn't know: at one time, in the late 1800s, Key West was the richest city per capita in the USA. Between the cigar factories, the shrimpers, the spongers, and the wreckers, and because it was a port city with access to both the US mainland and the Caribbean, this place was THE place.

[wolfie]

The scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where the crew is talking to a woman about Alameda was unscripted - the off-screen types had to chase her down to get a release in order to use the footage in the movie.

This movie was originally released during the Cold War, and Soviet censors went over movies from the West with a fine-tooth comb. One line that had people rolling in the aisles (and may have cost a censor his job for leaving it in) was "The bureaucratic mentality is the one constant of the universe". Another line that got left in (and definitely DIDN'T cost a censor his job) was "You are entering a primitive and paranoid society" when the crew arrived in the 20th century U.S.

Washington DC used to be considered a hardship posting for foreign diplomats, because the city was built in a malarial swamp.

[darkroxas45]

Austin Powers once French kissed a horse (sorry if i got that wrong I haven't seen that movie in forever ) if it helps my case Mike Myers' friends thought his dad was weird

[dalesys]

Homonyms that are antonyms:

Raised - Razed

[sms001]

Austin Powers once French kissed a horse

Well, I've had a horse's tongue in my mouth, but not vice versa. (Yes, there was a lot of spitting and cursing involved. )

[Kit-Ginevra]

Words that have meanings that are complete opposites:

Cleave,Resigned

[Kittish]

The tarantula hawk is apparently reckoned to have the second most painful sting of any insect.

Thankfully, they also seem to not be very aggressive, unlike some of the bees around here.

[darkroxas45]

Well, I've had a horse's tongue in my mouth, but not vice versa. (Yes, there was a lot of spitting and cursing involved. )

I've had a cow's in mine, only it was boiled for 3 hours and tasty with mashed potatoes

[KhirasHY]

The "sucking" noise that Anthony Hopkins used in The Silence of the Lambs was completely ad-libbed; the director liked it, so they kept it in the final cut.

Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully."

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language - 823 words without a period

[Jester]

Homonyms that are antonyms:

Raised - Razed

Or the same word that is an antonym to itself! This is one of my favorites:

Resigned. As in to re sign a contract, extending one's employment. Pronounced with the s sound.
Resigned. As in to walk away from a position, terminating one's employment. Pronounced with the z sound.

[fireheart]

Austin Powers once French kissed a horse (sorry if i got that wrong I haven't seen that movie in forever ) if it helps my case Mike Myers' friends thought his dad was weird

He open-mouth kissed a horse.

If you watch the DVD they actually did several takes of that scene, each one with a different line from Mike. The lines were things like "he once had a bath with Basil" "kangaroos make me horny" "I can make my nipples wink" "From time to time my nipples will lactate".

[Jay 2K Winger]

Or the same word that is an antonym to itself! This is one of my favorites:

Resigned. As in to re sign a contract, extending one's employment. Pronounced with the s sound.
Resigned. As in to walk away from a position, terminating one's employment. Pronounced with the z sound.

This very thing has led to so many arguments on one of the wrestling forums I frequent. It's gotten so we now spell "extending employment" as "re-signed" to avoid confusion.

[KhirasHY]

The full list of injuries that would have been caused if the movie Home Alone had happened in real life:

1) Laceration to the forehead (shot from BB Gun)
2) Skull fracture leading to possible blindness or vision impairment, or death (Iron dropped on to face, assuming drop distance of 15 feet and an iron weight of 4 pounds)
3) Critical third degree burns, likely resulting in infection and contracture, limiting flexibility and movement in hand. Possibly will result in amputation of the hand (grabbing heated doorknob - if it glows red, it is approx. 751º Fahrenheit, nearly enough to cause his hand to burst into flames outright)
4) Necrosis of the skull (exposure to lit blowtorch on top of head for approx. 7 seconds) - bone tissue on the skull would likely be so damaged and rotted that it would require a transplant.
5) Multiple lacerations to feet, unlikely for any to be severe (walking barefoot on Christmas decorations)
6) Multiple fractures of facial bones, likely loss of teeth, probable unconsciousness. Possibility of death due to cranial injury (swinging paint cans to face, assuming paint cans are full and weighing approx. 10 pounds, with a 10 foot long rope, equaling a 2 kilo-newton hit to the face)
7) Concussion and possible head contusion (shovel to head/face)
8) Possibility of broken leg/hip/ribs (slipped down stairs due to ice)
9) Puncture wound of foot, possibility of tetanus (stepping on nail with bare foot)
10) Possible, though unlikely chance of heart attack (Tarantula placed on face resulting in severe panic attack)
11) Broken ribs, possible misc. other broken bones including spinal injury (fall from 2nd story when suspension line is cut)

[KhirasHY]

Comedian history!

The "Dirty Old Man" George Carlin himself was once a major character on a children's TV show, as Mister Conductor.

Lewis Black was a playwright before becoming a comedian.

Ellen Degeneres was a door-to-door vacuum saleswoman before her career took off.

Jim Carrey was working as a Janitor, starting at 15 years old to support his family, before becoming nationally recognized on In Living Color.

Jon Stewart was a puppeteer, who put on shows for disabled children on most work days. Rumor has it that any puppet shown on the Daily Show is controlled by Stewart.

Zach Galifianakis used to be a bus boy in strip clubs, and had to clean up after men who...er...yeah. As a result, he despises strip clubs to this day.

Long before comedy and The Price is Right, Drew Carey worked as a waiter in Denny's. As a result, he reportedly never leaves anything under a $100 tip.

Kevin Hart was once a shoe salesman; by comparison, his Laugh At My Pain tour made over $15 million.

Gabriel Iglesias was a cell phone salesman at Wal-Mart before attending an open mic night, and being asked back.

Jerry Seinfeld had one of the toughest gigs: selling light bulbs to people...over the phone.

Whoopi Goldberg's former job was working as a make-up applicator in a mortuary, preparing corpses for funerals.

Bobcat Goldthwait was once approached by a woman in an airport, who told him "I don't want to insult you, but you look a lot like Bobcat Goldthwait." He's admitted that he was caught off guard so badly that he was unable to think of a response for several hours to that one.

Sam Kinison used to be an Evangelical preacher before losing his faith and turning to comedy, one of the reasons he was always so brutal towards religion.

Louis C.K. was originally born in Mexico, living there until he was 7. Spanish was his first language, and he still has Mexican citizenship.

Doug Benson was once a backup dancer in "Captain EO", Michael Jackson's Disneyland movie adventure.