Awesome Lists

Growing up, the tongue-twister that always got us was “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.” Erin McCarthy from Mental Floss explains the origins of this classic and seven other tricky sentences created by cunning linguists to trip up our tongues. We’re wondering how many takes it took for Erin to get through all of these.

If you can believe it, there was a brief moment when people thought spaghetti grew on trees. Erin from Mental Floss takes a look at this famous hoax along with a handful of others that were so well executed that the public was convinced of its truth. That lady who gave birth to bunnies, woah.

From the time Curb Your Enthusiasm gave a murder suspect an alibi to how Basil Fawlty was based on a real innkeeper, here are 16 facts about television shows that you probably didn’t know. Mental Floss shares a few interesting tidbits from The Curious Viewer, their new book packed with obscure TV trivia.

From fabled stashes of pirate’s booty to irreplaceable reels of film and works of art, there are some very special treasures waiting out there to be discovered. Join Mental Floss editor and host Erin McCarthy as she gets out her shovel and digs for some of the world’s most elusive artifacts.

Would firing a bullet inside of an airplane really cause explosive decompression? Could an airplane’s toilet suck your intestines out? Does autopilot fly a plane all by itself? Mental Floss host Justin Dodd takes a look at these and other myths and mistaken beliefs about flight.

From the vault that holds Coca-Cola’s secret recipe to the Brazilian island covered with venomous snakes, there are some places where humans just aren’t supposed to go. In this episode of Mental Floss‘ List Show, editor Erin McCarthy explores through some of these unusual places that you can never visit.

Mental Floss trivia maven John Green is here to regale us with 26 random tidbits about everyone’s favorite plastic building blocks. We’re betting that original UCS Millennium Falcon just lost a whole lot of its resale value.

Mental Floss‘ John Green expounds on some of the many strange and random bits of trivia about famous rock musicians. We’re wondering what ever happened to those stolen Green Day recordings, and in case you were wondering – here’s an excerpt from that Foo Fighters’ rider.

Subway’s footlongs were actually lessthanafootlongs, a man sued himself to get free money and a woman thought Frozen was based on her life. All that and more in Mental Floss List Show’s rundown of absurd and frivolous lawsuits.