You know how there are some facts that just seem too bizarre, impossible or just kinda dumb to be true?

On Sunday, [Eric Michael Garcia] tweeted the following, asking for facts of that very nature:

What is a fact that sounds like a shitpost but is 100 percent real?

— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) March 21, 2022

Some of the replies to Garcia's tweet are apocryphal, and some may be wishful thinking — but many of them are both true and amazingly absurd. Here are some of the best true (or true-ish) ones from the thread.

Pineapple facts:

Your mouth hurts after eating a lot of pineapple because there is an enzyme in pineapple that is a meat tenderizer. Eventually, pineapple starts eating YOU!

— Mara “Get Rid of the Nazis” Wilson (@MaraWilson) March 21, 2022

Upsetting information about ancient Egypt:

Ground up remains of mummified Egyptian people were also a popular pseudoscientific "cure-all" for everything (especially bruises).
The best part is that this practice is all based off a MISTRANSLATION of the arabic term "mūmiyā" which actually means bitumen (asphalt) pic.twitter.com/6B55E3i3us

— Ada McVean 🌻🌻 (@AdaMcVean) March 21, 2022

We could have lived among the hippos:

Hippos were almost released in Louisiana as a way to control invasive plants and as a food source for people pic.twitter.com/Zk1raKrjLH

— Sarah J (@Trisarahjtops) March 21, 2022

Incredible:

So basically a dead band was reanimated to wander around the country playing the music of The Zombies.

— PCR RitesGood (@pcrritesgood) March 21, 2022

Seems like there should be more gold:

All the gold ever mined in the history of the world would together fit in 2 Olympic-size swimming pools.

— Tᴏɴᴇᴘᴀɪɴᴛᴇʀ 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑎 𝑈𝑘𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖! (@tonepainter) March 21, 2022

The real number of Olympic pools that could contain gold is actually probably closer to 3.5, per Nevada Mining Resources, though an answer on Quora that cites information from the World Gold Council puts it closer to 4. Either way, it still seems like there should be more gold.

What a way to go down in history:

We only know this actor's name because he flubbed his line so hilariously that his gaffe immortalized him pic.twitter.com/JtY0TDbWJb

— Eminemrakul, The 8 Miles Torn (@MidniteMadwoman) March 21, 2022

Casually turning off Niagara Falls:

niagara is downstream of several hydro dams in canada and the flow rate to the falls is set by international treaty. They also turn it down in the off-season and at night

— your himbo boyfriend (@swolecialism) March 21, 2022

This is true-ish: it's not a matter of flipping a switch, though, and the amount of control we have over the falls isn't total. Here's a piece from Slate on how engineers "turned off" the falls in 1969.

They need to swap names:

Gary Numan is 13 days older than Gary Oldman.

— S 😷💉💉💉 (@vidiot_) March 21, 2022

Numan was born on March 8, 1958; Oldman was born on March 21, 1958.

Jack Black's mom is more iconic than Jack Black:

This one https://t.co/pKGQtdDXHQ

— SirFox (@DemonBob_Badman) March 21, 2022

Just some weird facts to keep handy:

Related: for the last several years of her life, her rent was paid for by the founder of Little Caesar's.

— S. T. Ismail (@STIsmail) March 21, 2022

"Shrek 2" was released in May 2004, and Parks died in October 2005 — and it's also true that Mike Ilitch both founded Little Caesars and paid Rosa Parks's rent.

Does that mean they're, uh, even?

John Wilkes Booth's brother saved Abraham Lincoln's son from being run over by a train.

— Vidor (@Vidor1) March 21, 2022

It's true.

Ahead of their time:

Noam Chomsky invented the word "counter-intuitive."

— Nahcirn (@Nahcirn) March 21, 2022

King shit:

FDR served hot dogs to the King of England, who LOVED them, which then set off whole frenzy of hot dog diplomacy (American embassies serving hot dogs to various world leaders, etc), which continues to this day.

— Doug Mack (@douglasmack) March 21, 2022

And the New York Times's headline about it was "KING TRIES HOT DOG AND ASKS FOR MORE."

Unnerving:

Rap group The Coup was set to release its fourth album, Party Music, in September 2001 - the cover of which depicted them blowing up the World Trade Center. The album was delayed to November 2001 and contained different cover art.

— spooky mental haunted house (but funny) (@jesseltaylor) March 22, 2022

And true.

Wholesome:

When André the Giant was a teenager, Samuel Beckett used to drive him to school. (This is both true and probably the most important thing I know)

— Gregory Levey (@gregorylevey) March 21, 2022

André the Giant was indeed among several local children Beckett drove to school.

If only:

The first fax sent was in 1843,
The last living Samurai died in 1877.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

This means that there was a period where a Samurai could have sent a fax to President Abraham Lincoln.

— Lukas Ostgaard (@GentlmanViking) March 21, 2022

The death date of the "last living Samurai" is in question — 1877 was certainly when Saigo Takamori died — but this hypothetical situation is nonetheless true.

But is there a place named The Batman?

There is an area in Australia called Batman, and for a while the MP representing it in the Senate was the opposition spokesperson for Justice. In other words, the Member for Batman was the Shadow Minister for Justice pic.twitter.com/KrfOBBhi8C

— (1) Sana (@bigshika) March 22, 2022