Thanks to the nonsense being spouted by politicians recently, fact-checkers have had their work cut out for them.
However, there are lots of facts that appear ridiculous on the face of it, but are actually genuine. Reddit user HumanAstronomer5269 decided to delve into these curious tidbits of information by putting the following question to the hive mind of r/AskReddit:
‘What’s a fact that sounds fake, but is actually true?’
Here are the top replies that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief…
1.
‘There would be a lot more ancient Egyptian mummies around if the Victorians didn’t turn most of them into paint or eat them.’
-Faust_8
2.
‘Pokemon has made more money than Harry Potter, Marvel, the Beatles, and Taylor swift combined. Pokemon is the highest grossing IP of all time and it isn’t even remotely close. Pokemon is many $10B’s ahead of second place.’
-Capable_Wait09
3.
‘The chainsaw was originally invented to deliver babies.’
-Greplington
4.
‘Egyptian civilisation is so old that Ancient Egypt itself had Egyptology. They had no more clue about the origins of the Sphinx than we do today.’
-Jolly-Minimum-6641
5.
‘The U.S. Appalachian Mountains and the Scottish Highlands are the same mountain range, torn asunder by plate tectonics. The ancient mountains are older than sharks, themselves older than the Rings of Saturn, and knew a world before trees.’
-The_Mr_Wilson
6.
‘Up until a few months ago, John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, had a living grandson. John Tyler was born in 1790 and took office in 1841 when he assumed the presidency upon William Henry Harrison’s death; he had 8 children with his first wife and 7 with his second, the youngest being born in 1860 when he was 70, making him the US president who fathered the most children.
His son Lyon had a child when he was 75 years old, in 1928; Tyler’s grandson Harrison Ruffin Tyler, was living in Virginia until his passing on May 25th, 2025. The difference from John Tyler’s birth to Harrison Tyler’s death was a span of 235 years.’
-A911owner
7.
‘There are two comic strips called Dennis the Menace – one from the UK, one from the US. They have nothing to do with each other and were developed entirely separately from each other – but they both premiered on the same day (March 12 1951).’
-Sable_Tip
8.
‘John Fogerty was sued by his former record label for sounding too much like John Fogerty.’
-oofaloo
9.
‘President Jimmy Carter was once attacked by a rabbit in a lake.’
-lkjandersen
