It's True! (Part 12)
- Jun 28
- 5 min read
We're going to do a special edition of Trivia True Facts taken from various sources including but not limited to The Book of Useless Information, That's a Fact, Jack, True Facts that Sound Like Bulls#*t, Incredible Pointless Trivia and Wait, Really?! 1001 Bizarre Facts That Sound Completely Made Up.
We're going to call this one, "You thought your Uncle Arnold Was Weird, eh? Wait Until you read these facts about famous people who were profoundly and magnificently unhinged."
Some of these are fun facts, some are bizarre traits, some are just amazing things to think about - without further ado:
Charles Darwin ate every animal he encountered during his research. This included armadillos, puma, Rhea monkeys, and owls, to name a few. He kept detailed flavor notes on each species he sampled and wrote about them with eloquent flair as if he were a restaurant critic.
Wolfgang Mozart wrote his cousin hundreds of elaborate letters that contained mainly extended jokes about flatulence and bodily functions. He took great joy in his "toilet humor" and was basically a 12-year-old in an expensive wig.
Winston Churchill enjoyed his baths so much that he routinely conducted official business with generals, ministers, staff and secretaries from the tub. He considered this arrangement to be perfectly normal behavior.
Frank Sinatra was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniels, a roll of dimes, a cigarette lighter and a pack of Camel cigarettes. This was his precise documented instructions to be performed upon his death.
Elvis Presley was actually a natural blonde who dyed his hair jet black throughout his career. He also dyed his light eyebrows and eyelashes to match. He felt dark hair gave him a more dramatic, cinematic look and emulated actors like Tony Curtis and Marlon Brando.
Nikola Tesla was obsessed with the number THREE. He would walk around buildings three times before entering, only staying in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three and would always perform tasks in sets of three. The number three governed every aspect of his daily life.
Andy Warhol filled 610 cardboard boxes with randomly collected objects and then sealed them permanently. They contained newspaper clippings, uneaten food, fan mail, miscellaneous trinkets, etc., and called them time capsules. They have never been reopened and were catalogued and sit in the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, PA.
Bill Murray was arrested on his 20th birthday at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, trying to smuggle 10 pounds of marijuana in his carry-on luggage. He was traveling back to school to continue a pre-med program but decided to quit the program after his arrest.
Charles VI of France believed he was made of glass and would shatter if touched. He forgot his own name, refused to bathe and threatened anyone who approached him.
Kim Yong-il of North Korea has made some pretty outrageous claims over the years about himself including that he invented the hamburger, and that he is the best golfer in the history of the world having made eleven holes in one during a single game. He also claims that he never defecates, that he was born having "supernatural birth" under a double rainbow, that no one in North Korea has any disabilities. Furthermore, he claims that North Korea has both the cure for cancer and COVID-19 and that in 2012, a real-life unicorn lair was found in a cave in North Korea.
King Christian VII of Denmark took the throne at 16 years old and spent much of his day busy with his "special personal alone time" to the point where he couldn't perform his royal duties. He also was famous for slapping people mid-conversation, leapfrogging over visiting dignitaries and stabbing random people walking by with spiked clubs.
Elon Musk rounds out our list of famous people with unusual habits and quirks. Here's just a quick rundown of things we know about Elon:
He's obsessed with the letter "X" - SpaceX, Social Media platform X, trying to rename PayPal to X while CEO and his son's name, (X Æ A-Xii).
Diet Coke addition -Elon openly admission that he has an unhealthy habit of drinking Diet Coke.
He cheats at video games - he originally claimed to be among the top player of several video games including Diablo 4 and Path of Exile but later admitted to cheating.
He often brings a samurai sword to Telsa and SpaceX meetings as a prop to emphasis key points or add drama to presentations.
He's known to sleep on the floor under his desk at Telsa to be constantly visible to his team and show his hands-on leadership style.
His controversial public comments - he called a diver "pedo guy" after a cave rescue offer, making false COVID-19 claims and a suggestion that Telsa could be taken private at a high price.
He engages in public challenges to fights with other high-profile figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Johnny Depp and even Vladimir Putin but when pressed for a date/time, the offer becomes elusive.
His use of burner accounts and aliases. Sometimes he pretends to be his child and often uses an alias of Adrian Dittman for online interactions.
His personality unpredictability - former employees and colleagues have reported that Elon can shift from excited to angry quickly and sometimes repeats stories and jokes during the same conversation.
Sperm Donation - He has donated his sperm to Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, reportedly to encourage "smart people to have kids".
Turning Products into Weird Stunts - His tunneling company, The Boring Company, offered a $500 flame thrower called "Not a flamethrower" in an early merchandise campaign. He also introduced a fragrance called "Burnt Hair".
Movie and Television Cameos - Elon loves to make cameo appearances in movies and TV shows as himself including:
Movies
Thank You for Smoking (2005) — Valet (uncredited cameo)
Iron Man 2 (2010) — Himself; brief scene with Tony Stark at the Monaco Grand Prix
Machete Kills (2013) — Himself; cameo involving a SpaceX rocket gag
Transcendence (2014) — Appears as himself at an AI conference
Why Him? (2016) — Himself; quick party cameo
Men in Black: International (2019) — Uncredited cameo on a surveillance screen
Television Cameos These include sitcoms, animation, and live‑action appearances.
The Simpsons (2015) — Himself, episode “The Musk Who Fell to Earth”
The Big Bang Theory (2015) — Himself, episode “The Platonic Permutation”
South Park (2016) — Himself in three episodes: “Members Only,” “Not Funny,” “The End of Serialization as We Know It”
Mars (2016–2018) — Appears as himself in six episodes of the NatGeo docudrama series
Young Sheldon (2017) — Cameo as himself in “A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac”
Rick and Morty (2019) — Voices Elon Tusk, an alternate‑universe version of himself, in “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty”
Saturday Night Live (2021) — Hosted the episode “Elon Musk / Miley Cyrus”, appearing as himself and in multiple sketches.
The next time you see Uncle Arnold, cut him some slack. He may be the next inventor, ruler or actor and you'll be happy you were nice to him back then.
Pretty weird people!!
Not all notoriety is good. Someone that doesn't defacate, bathing in front of colleagues, staying in rooms only divisible by 3. And all the Elon Musk idiosyncrasies. The creative thinkers of an era are sometimes just creative. Good facts all around but scary to think about!