History Main / LittleKnownFacts

** The Fact Sphere in exists solely to spit these out, including such gems as:

"[[MetaphoricallyTrue Humans can survive underwater,]] [[CaptainObvious but not for very long]]."
** He does get some facts right, though. For example, his "fact" regarding the melting point of tungsten ''is'' accurate to within a dozen degrees or so.
** Then there are "facts" made up solely to insult the other personality spheres ("The Adventure Sphere is a blowhard and a coward") and even Chell herself ("[[YouAreFat You could stand to lose a few pounds]]", "This is a bad plan; you will fail"), and other "facts" that are merely [[SmallNameBigEgo self-praise]] ("The Fact Sphere is a good person, whose insights are relevant") or nonsense ("Error, error, error, fact not found").

** There's also Deuce Loosely, a one-off character who annoys Sifl And Olly with little known facts about [[PandaingToTheAudience pandas]] ("Like the shark, the panda has millions of teeth which it uses like a hacksaw to cut through bone, candy, and fences. The Chinese believe that if you find a discarded panda tooth, you have the power to summon Franchise/{{Godzilla}}.")

'''Mum:''' Dear, if you don't know the answer, just tell him!

* Literature/TheRemarkableMillardFillmore claims that Fillmore saved Andrew Jackson from assassination, wrestled with the emperor of Japan, and invented the T-shirt. If you check Amazon you'll see it has a three-star rating, due to complaints that it is "deceptively advertised" as an accurate biography. The cover illustration of Millard Fillmore riding a unicorn is apparently not enough of a clue.

* Calvin's dad was notorious for these in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''.

* [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Greg]] from ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' has a habit of reciting these and adding, [[CatchPhrase "That's a rock fact!"]] (holding up his painted pet rock). He appears to distinguish "rock facts" from actual facts, sometimes.

** Then there are "facts" made up solely to insult the other personality spheres ("The Adventure Sphere is a blowhard and a coward") and even Chell herself ("[[YouAreFat You could stand to lose a few pounds]]", "This is a bad plan, you will fail"), and other "facts" that are merely [[SmallNameBigEgo self-praise]] ("The Fact Sphere is a good person, whose insights are relevant") or nonsense ("Error, error, error, fact not found").

* Chemistry-themed puzzle game ''Sokobond'' gives you a small fact whenever you complete a level, usually pertaining to the molecule you've created. They're generally accurate... until you reach the bonus levels, which includes such gems as:

"Pants were invented by sailors of the sixteenth century to avoid Poseidon's wrath. It was believed that the sight of naked sailors angered the sea god."\\

For the record, snow comes from ''up'', not down. That's why you never trust a quack like Lucy Van Pelt.

* During the final round of ''Series/TalkinBoutYourGeneration'', the host [[Creator/ShaunMicallef Shaun]] prepares some "interesting" "facts" to share with the teams, claiming to source all of his information from [[CriticalResearchFailure Wikipedia]].

* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' and ''Series/TheColbertReport'' have used these on Website/{{Twitter}} to make fun of dubious statements by political figures. After Senator Jon Kyl said his claim that abortions constitutes well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does was "[[MemeticMutation not intended to be a factual statement]]," Creator/StephenColbert created the hashtag #notintendedtobeafactualstatement for this trope. After UsefulNotes/SarahPalin got Paul Revere's story [[CriticalResearchFailure wrong]], ''The Daily Show'' created the hashtag #accordingtopalin for intentionally erroneous historical facts. After Herman Cain said "I don’t have facts to back this up, [[InsaneTrollLogic but I happen to believe]] that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration." ''The Daily Show'' created the hashtag #idonthavefactstobackthisup for this trope.

* The characters told each other these in ''Film/GregorysGirl'', and Andy uses it to pick up girls.
-->'''Andy:''' Twenty thousand tons of cornflakes pass under this bridge every day. It's a well known fact.

* In ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', according to the [[TheGhost unseen Big Al]], dogs can't look up. Obviously you don't believe this because it seems absurd for dogs to have never evolved that capability and Big Al is a fan of [[TheStoner copious amounts of marijuana]] yet it's near impossible to form a sensible argument against. The joke actually came from DVDCommentary for ''Series/{{Spaced}}''. Nick Frost genuinely did believe that dogs can't look up.

* [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] has an entire page of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions common misconceptions]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' with its ''Useless Facts'' segment.

"Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest, did so accidentally while chasing a bird."\\

[[quoteright:320:[[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/useless_fact_9.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:[[RunningGag "And now, another...useless fact!"]]]]

* [[https://youtu.be/_P5mNoSaV3E Teddy Roosevelt: You So Crazy]] was an animated {{mockumentary}} made by Creator/AlexHirsch for the "24-Hour Toons" project. The short claims that Theodore Roosevelt had twenty-six split personalities (several of which served on Roosevelt's cabinet), that he attempted to wage war on the sky, and that he was ultimately overthrown and eaten by William Howard Taft, "the fattest man in America".

* [[http://parallel-universe-facts.tumblr.com Parallel Universe Facts]] is an aversion, but looks as if it is played straight from our perspective.