Fun Fact

Fun Fact

By Arik Devens and Allen PikeComedySociety & CultureTechnology
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Fun Fact episodes

  • Ready for a New Banana

    Ô Canada is bananas, scientific progress used to be bananas, and the farming of bananas is itself bananas.

    • O Canada in English and French
    • Banana fungus arrives in Colombia
      • Yes, We Have No Bananas
      • McCormicks Marshmallow Bananas
      • Patrick Collison on EconTalk, on the pace of science
      • The accidental creation of YInMn Blue
      • The One True Lens, the F1.8 normal prime
        • 58 min
      • Everyone Was William

        Historical figures make up names, Italians get assigned names, large social groups forget one another’s names, and the children are coming.

        • The Top 10: People with invented middle initials
          • Benoit B. Mandelbrot
          • Why Do We Call Galileo Galilei by His First Name?
          • Occupational surnames
          • Fun Fact’s Guest host poll
          • Dunbar’s Number
            • The Monkeysphere
            • The Ice T on SVU Bot
            • Monopoly Socialism is bad and should feel bad
            • Allen’s daughter’s mind being blown by My Little Pony
              • 59 min
            • Lil Nas 10

              Allen warns of impending doom, Arik spreads socialist propaganda, and we ride ‘til we can’t no more.

              • The Year 2038 Problem
                • The NULL vanity plate
                • The Landlord’s Game
                  • Economist Henry George
                  • Monopoly is Theft
                  • 1906 Monopoly Rules
                  • Power Grid on BoardGameGeek
                  • How TikTok Made “Old Town Road” Become Both A Meme And A Banger
                  • @emojimashupbot
                  • Cochin’s italic ampersand
                  • @Aleen’s version of Little Red Corvette
                    • 50 min
                  • Hit Me with Your Pet Shark

                    Arik redefines the alphabet, Allen redefines fire, and we both ruin popular music.

                    • The Ampersand
                      • History of the Ampersand
                      • The Phlogiston theory of combustion
                      • What is a mondegreen?
                        • Wikipedia’s mondegreens
                        • Mairzy Doats
                        • Is This the Dirtiest Song of the Sixties?
                        • Prisencolinensinainciusol
                        • The Trouble with Jimmies
                        • Seattle: by the ocean?
                        • Ucluelet
                          • 54 min
                        • Probably A Scheme

                          Arik celebrates a fictional rep, Allen reps an architectural ploy, and we follow a dead metaphor around the world.

                          • Jakob Maria Mierscheid
                            • @jakobmierscheid
                            • 432 Park Avenue
                              • 432’s land assembly method
                              • The closing of the loophole
                              • “Greek to me”
                                • @limi’s challenge on Twitter
                                • Dead metaphor
                                  • 52 min
                                • The Marshmallow Blob Market

                                  Allen reviews the monarchy, we gain fluency in Pittsburghese, and Arik discovers TikTok.

                                  • Western Pennsylvania English
                                    • Monophthongization
                                    • Diphthong
                                    • Yinz Wanna Learn Pittsburghese on YouTube
                                    • ATP: A Rotation You Can’t Complete
                                      • Big wheel
                                      • Wheel (computing)
                                      • The Word Detective - Big Wheel
                                      • Why does “big cheese” mean someone important?
                                      • Are You a “Big Wheel” or a “Fifth Wheel”?
                                      • Sonoma Democrat, Volume XV, Number 16, 27 January 1872
                                      • The Big Wheel (film)
                                      • Where did the “wheel” group get its name?
                                      • Wheeler dealer
                                      • Ding Dong
                                        • Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats
                                        • One of many WikiHow meme compliations from TikTok
                                          • 1 hr
                                        • Broken and Evil

                                          A world tour of facts – from Virginia to the Bay Area, from Shakespearean England to Soap Followup City.

                                          • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
                                          • You
                                            • Thou
                                            • T-V Distinction
                                            • Grammatical Person
                                            • The Fastly Network Map
                                              • The Dulles Technology Corridor
                                              • The Veritasium video on making your hand not wettable
                                              • Some images from rejected emoji proposals
                                                • Lauren Florko’s proposal for a climate change emoji
                                                  • Rejected emoji contest

                                                  We want nominates for the best rejected emoji that the Emoji Consortium has deemed unfit for our keyboards.

                                                  Send your pitch, drawing, illustration, or MS Paint sketch to @funfactfm on Twitter or email us, [email protected].

                                                  54 min
                                                • Two Dumpster Fires

                                                  Water is wet, Teslas are trouble, and we delve into the wild world of rejected emoji.

                                                  • Wikipedia: Wetting
                                                  • Surfactance, one of the two mechanisms that makes soap work. (Spoiler: it turns out there is a second, which we’ll cover next episode.)
                                                  • Quora: Is water wet?
                                                  • The Slime 40051 Digital Tire Inflator (12-V)
                                                  • The Emoji Consortium Proposal Status list
                                                  • Australian Aboriginal Flag
                                                  • Fitzpatrick Scale
                                                    • Rejected emoji contest

                                                    We would love to see you or your friends attempt to represent any of the emoji that the Emoji Consortium deems unrepresentable!

                                                    If you want to see an emoji added for a critical human concept such as TICKLE, CLIMATE CHANGE, ALLERGY, OBJECT RELATED, WHAT EVEN IS THIS EMOJI, PROBABLY FACE, DUMPSTER FIRE, SAVING MONEY, DANGEROUS SUN, or HANGRY, then make your case! We’ll take the best submission and attempt to get that emoji reconsidered – likely learning some further fun facts along the way.

                                                    Send your drawing, illustration, or MS Paint sketch to @funfactfm on Twitter or email us, [email protected].

                                                    59 min
                                                  • 40 Cans of Fake Pea Mayo

                                                    Arik blows up Allen’s calendar, Allen blows up the Impossible Burger, and science goes too far.

                                                    • Cortex 85: Grey’s Non-Linear Life
                                                    • The surprisingly complex tale of the work week and weekend
                                                    • Bloomberg’s How Just Mayo Sold Silicon Valley
                                                    • The scourge of highly dangerous Dihydrogen Monoxide – it could attack at any time
                                                    • Impossible Foods’ pitch on how GMO soy is more sustainable
                                                    • Sidetone in telephony
                                                      • 1 hr
                                                    • Unexpected Royalty Corner

                                                      Arik pitches an emperor, Allen pitches a Twitter feature, and we get some inside info on anvil-launching.

                                                      • The tweet to nowhere: private replies on Twitter
                                                        • Shadow banning
                                                        • Norton the 1st, Emperor of United States, Protector of Mexico
                                                          • The 1820 Settlers
                                                          • Vancouver housing sales tumble to 33-year low
                                                            • Metro Vancouver real estate prices are 65% overvalued: Economist
                                                            • Mortimer, troll of Vancouver Real Estate
                                                            • The Haskell Free Library and Opera House
                                                            • Goodbye, e-Golf
                                                              • VW I.D. Crozz
                                                              • The Honda E
                                                              • See the Victoria Day Anvil Salute on Monday, May 20
                                                                • 1 hr

                                                              About Fun Fact

                                                              From the publisher's feed

                                                              Once a month, Arik Devens and Allen Pike take turns sharing fun facts. Practical, historical, technical, and trivial facts all deserve their fair shake.