Sh*t for Brains: Trivia You Can't Unknow - Softcover

Harebrained Inc, Harebrained Inc

 
9780593538296: Sh*t for Brains: Trivia You Can't Unknow
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593538293 ISBN 13: 9780593538296
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

A compendium of truly outrageous, surprising, and (sometimes) gross facts.

Did you know that Big Bird was originally supposed to fly on the doomed Challenger Space Shuttle? Or that smelling your own farts was considered a cure for the bubonic plague? Now those are things you can’t unlearn.
 
Born out of love for trivia and hatred for boring, bland facts, Sh*t for Brains is the ultimate wild ride of truth—from hilarious pop culture factoids to little-known insights from history, this twisted trivia book will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even cringe.
 
A great gift for tweens, teens, and your bar trivia pals, Sh*t for Brains is not-so-average trivia for not-so-average people.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Harebrained Inc. is the author duo of Anthony Hall (company founder), Amanda Barber, and illustrator Jesse Sanz. Founded in 2008, the company offers anything and everything awesome, with merch ranging from novelty items to their popular tabletop game Shit for Brains.
 

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

Bad
Company

Mouthing Off

During World War I, the United States Radium Corporation employed women to paint glow-in-the-dark dials with radioactive paint, instructing them to shape the brushes with their lips and fingers. Once women's jaws started to erode from radiation poisoning, the company covered it up by alleging that the workers were afflicted with syphilis.

Cock Rock

After record label DGC wanted to censor the nude baby on the cover of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, the band suggested covering the offending image with a sticker that said, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."

Underwater on Their Cable Bills

In the wake of 2008's Hurricane Ike, Comcast continued to bill South Texas residents for "unreturned equipment," despite that very equipment being destroyed by the hurricane.

Swindler's List

Author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel lost millions from both his personal fortune and his foundation to late Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Not Down to Clown

After getting orders from their parent company, Disney, Hollywood Records didn't just stop production on Insane Clown Posse's 1997 breakthrough horrorcore album The Great Milenko, but actually recalled the 100,000 copies that had already shipped, claiming that the material didn't "fit the Disney image." This for sure had nothing at all to do with the Southern Baptist Convention's call for a boycott of all things Disney after the parks started hosting "Gay Days."

Saucy Link

In 2015, Heinz unknowingly allowed a QR code on their ketchup bottles to direct to an expired URL, which by then was home to a porn site.

From One Loser to Another

After a trader known as the London Whale lost JPMorgan Chase 6 billion dollars in a 2012 trading scandal, CEO Jamie Dimon received a pep talk phone call from NFL star Tom Brady. I'm sure the pep talk helped when Dimon found out that his annual bonus was cut in half to a measly $10.5 million.

We Depreciate Your Business

In case you ever think that you're bad with money, just remember that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005, only to sell it six years later for $35 million.

Jingles All the Way

In 2009, the ABC network cut over two minutes from A Charlie Brown Christmas, a beloved TV special that warns against the commercialization of the holiday, in order to give more airtime to commercials.

Yacht Rocked

During the 1983 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Rupert Murdoch's boat rammed into a boat sponsored by rival media mogul Ted Turner only ten kilometers from the finish line, sinking it, so that he was unable to complete the race. Turner followed up by challenging Murdoch to a fistfight.

Kiddie Cocktail

Applebee's has gotten in trouble a few times for serving underage patrons, like the time they served a Long Island iced tea to a five-year-old New Yorker, a margarita to a California toddler, and a spiked apple juice to a Detroit fifteen-month-old.

4 Out of 5 Racists Recommend

In 1985, Colgate acquired a company that offered a toothpaste called Darkie to many Asian countries. If the name wasn't suspect enough, Darkie's logo was an Al Jolson-esque performer in blackface. It took executives until 1989 to change the name of the product to Darlie and update the packaging, although the Chinese name of the brand still translates to "black person toothpaste."

Dying for a Smoke

Marlboro Red cigarettes earned the nickname Cowboy Killers after five of the seven Marlboro Men died of smoking-related illnesses.

Challenge Accepted

Introduced in 1969, Nerf balls were marketed as "the first indoor ball" and had the extremely catchy and not at all buzzkilling slogan "You can't hurt babies or old people."

You've Come a Wrong Way, Baby

BMW was forced to recall their female-voiced navigation system in the '90s after a bunch of German men complained that they wouldn't take directions from a "woman."

Did Nazi That Coming

In 2016, Microsoft introduced an AI chatbot to Twitter with the hopes of helping it improve its language skill. After less than twenty-four hours in Twitter's toxic mire, the bot was tweeting things like "I fucking hate feminists" and "Hitler was right." Unsurprisingly, the project was promptly canceled.

Almost Lost the Pharma

Insufferable Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli started his first hedge fund in 2006 and after just a year lost a $2.3 million lawsuit to Lehman Brothers. They failed to collect before going bankrupt in 2008.

Father Sold Separately

Barbie needed a friend, so Mattel introduced Midge in 1963. She landed with a thud, and was soon pulled off the shelves. She appeared back on the scene in the 1980s, fully pregnant, as part of the Happy Family line. Poor Midge couldn't catch a break, as some retailers refused to carry her because she was packaged separately from the baby's father.

I Think We're Getting Zipped Off

In 2007, the leading zipper brand YKK was fined 150 million euros for running four zipper price-fixing cartels.

Fast Food, Slow People

Because Americans suck at math and think that a third is less than a quarter, A&W's Third Pounder was unable to compete with McDonald's Quarter Pounder and was dropped from the menu.

Blowing Smoke

Philip Morris published a report in 2001 saying that they saved the Czech government money because smokers often die before retiring. They then sued the Uruguayan government after it passed anti-smoking legislation, claiming that the restrictions would cause irreparable damage to the brand.

Blood Money

From the late 1970s to 1985, Bayer sold contaminated blood products to hospitals, causing twenty thousand people to contract HIV. After they found out, they pulled the products off the US and European shelves but continued to sell them in Asian and Latin American countries.

Reich Father, Reich Sons

Best known for their massive influence on American conservative politics, the Koch brothers inherited much of their initial wealth from their father, who helped establish oil refineries for the Nazis in the lead-up to World War II.

Cola Wars

In 1990, PepsiCo briefly had the sixth-largest navy in the world after trading their products with the USSR for vodka and a small fleet of warships.

Compact, Yet Womby

In 2001, Honda was about to release a car called the Fitta (its tagline was "Small on the outside, big on the inside"), when it realized that fitta was a vulgar Swedish term for vagina.

New and Unproved

Cigarette company Philip Morris discovered the fire-safe cigarettes they introduced in 2002 were actually much more likely to cause fires. They responded by firing the scientist who ran the risk analysis testing.

Bet Your Bottom Dollar

In 1974, the owner of FedEx gambled the company's last $5,000 on blackjack and managed to save the company from bankruptcy.

Flying Their Freak Flags

All of the American flags at Disney's Magic Kingdom are missing a stripe or star so that they don't have to be taken down at night or in bad weather.

Skrilla in Manila

In 1993, Pepsi ran a contest in the Philippines giving the lucky person who found the number 349 under their Pepsi cap one million pesos ($40,000). They accidentally printed 800,000 winning caps, which led to riots, firebombs, and at least five deaths.

Trumped-Up Kicks

Skechers Shape Ups shoes claimed that they would help people lose weight and tone their butt muscles without having to go to a gym. They even had a real live chiropractor endorse them! Unfortunately, after it was discovered that the chiropractor was married to a Skechers marketing executive, the shoe company had to pay a $40 million class...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593538293
ISBN 13 
9780593538296
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
224
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Verantwortliche Person
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