Comical Facts No 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: It collided several times with the wharf when docking

Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) was famous for several inventions, the most successful of which was the Bessemer process used in manufacturing steel. After suffering from a violent attack of seasickness on a sea voyage in 1868. he set about designing a stabiliser for sea going vessels to stop the roll and pitch of same in unsettled waters.

He worked on this between 1869 and 1875. When completed, and although never fully tested before taking to the oceans, the stabiliser appeared to be very successful indeed in its purpose.

Unfortunately, however, little attention was paid to the difference this made to the ship's steering. As a result, when the ship tried to berth in Calais on its maiden voyage, it crashed, not once, but several times into the wharf, demolishing it quite thoroughly, and more than unsettling the stomachs of the alarmed passengers on board.

Answer: A jellyfish attack

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was an English author, journalist and reviewer. His best known work, from which a fine television series was adapted, was "Brideshead Revisited", published in 1945. It details the life of a young man who, from his days at Oxford, is welcomed into the beautiful mansion of an aristocratic English family, his love affairs, his time as a soldier during the First World War, and his life afterwards. It's not a happy book by any means, although there are snatches of humour to be found within it. The book concludes with his visit back to that family home many years later and the desolation and loss that has become its lot, which echoes his own desolation and loss in life.

Evelyn Waugh, considered one of the finest modern writers England has produced, was a troubled soul himself. He suffered from periodic bouts of mental ill health, abused drugs and alcohol, and had a prickly, rather offensive personality which saw him managing to insult and antagonise just about everyone he met. Yet he was a deeply spiritual man - in between bouts of disbelief - and incredibly kind to the people he chose to like. His works, most of which always seem to express a longing for a past that was long before his time, are brilliant, evocative, amusing and deeply spiritual. Yet, at the same time, they can also be cruel and bitter, and as stinging at that jellyfish attack he experienced on his suicide attempt in 1925.

Answer: The hide of the cow that produced the cowpox

Edward Jenner took the pus from the cowpox blisters on the hands of the milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes, and injected the eight year old James Phipps with it. He followed this up several days later by injecting the boy many times with pus from smallpox sores. These three people have all been recorded in medical history in the halls of fame of medical history. Hardly anyone remembered to thank the cow that gave the milkmaid the cowpox in the first place.

Her name, comically so, was Blossom, and Blossom's hide, in all its glory, now adorns the walls of this medical centre in London.

It must be a very mooooving sight.

Answer: Coconut shells

The Chinese were apparently the first people to invent toilet paper. As this is the country in which paper itself was invented, this is not surprising. The first toilet paper was said to have been invented for the Chinese emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming dynasty, in 1391. Each sheet was two feet wide and three feet long.

In the olden days in England, old or worn out sheep's wool was used, in Europe it was straw or grass for the commoners, corn cobs were used in some parts of the USA, and the highly uncomfortable coconut shells used in Hawaii. Sailors did it a lot tougher, particularly those from Spain and Portugal, as they used the fraying ends of anchor cables. British Lords apparently used pages from old books. What a terrible waste for waste! Royalty in France were far more elegant than this.

They used lace. Ancient Romans had the best idea of all. They used salt water sponges attached to the end of sticks.

Answer: His voice as Mr Potato Head in the movie "Toy Story"

Don Rickles was born in New York in 1926. On his return home following the World War II with an honourable discharge from the U.S. Navy, he studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. From there, he branched out into small television roles and then into stand-up comedy, where he became known as the insult comedian.

His routine consisted of insulting members of the audience. Not to everyone's taste, as his humour has a rather bitter flavour, but fortunately, it appealed to big time star Frank Sinatra who happened to be a member of the audience one day.

As detailed in the New York Times on August 25, 1996, when Rickles spotted him, he said, "Make yourself at home, Frank. Hit somebody." Risky, but it worked. Sinatra cracked up laughing, and, from that time, used his influence to further the insult comedian's career. Rickles appeared in various TV series, movies and specials from that time, while still maintaining his career as a stand up comic.

He also recorded two records of his routines and published two books. Yet what impresses his grand-children the most? His voice role in the three "Toy Story" children's movies centred around the lives of the toys owned by the boy Andy, and in which Don Rickles played the voice of Mr Potato Head.

Answer: A dead person's hand

A goitre is a large swelling on the throat's thyroid gland when that gland begins to malfunction. Most goitres are cause by iodine deficiencies, but can also be the result of autoimmune problems and other illnesses. If left untreated they can swell to a huge size, causing great distress for those who have this condition. Depending on its cause, the treatment for this condition will vary, even requiring surgical intervention at times if all else fails. So the old cure went in Louisville, Kentucky, rubbing the hand of a dead person's hand three times over the goitre would be sure to do the trick.

As the deceased body began to decay, so the belief went, the goitre would gradually fade away too.

Answer: An elephant

Perhaps they held up its back legs and pushed its tusks along the ground. Other old laws still on the books include one in Georgia that states a giraffe may not be tethered to a lamp post. In Scotland, one is not allowed to be in charge of a cow whilst intoxicated. Alaskan law, most peculiarly, states that it is illegal to look at a moose from an airplane.

In North Dakota it is still considered legal to shoot an Indian who is riding a horse, but only on the condition that you are in a covered wagon while doing so.

The reason why so many of these comical laws from another time remain on the books is simply because of the time it takes to remove them by legislators. In American author John Green's book "Dragon Killas" (2003) the law regarding elephants in cotton fields and various other outdated laws and their origins are discussed. That particular law came about as a result of a publicity stunt by the great American showman P.T. Barnum, when he was trying to draw attention to his newly opened museum in New York.

He had an elephant ploughing a field on his property every time a trainload of passengers went by on the nearby railway. The stunt drew thousands of people from all over the continent and even Europe - and from there to visit Barnum's museum in New York, where the gullible believed they would be treated to even more astonishing live sights. The law was enacted as a result.

Answer: The wine cellars

On the advice of the British Prime Minister at the time, David Lloyd George, King George V was talked into locking up his wine cellars until the war was over in order to set a good example to the working class public, who were considered to be overly fond of the demon drink.

The war was thought to only last a little while longer, and the king went along with this idea, making a great public display of locking up his cellars and announcing they would remain that way until all hostilities had ceased. Unfortunately for the thirsty monarch, the war went on for two more long years, and he couldn't back down on his much publicised display and promise.

The working class public, in the meantime, didn't give a hoot about their monarch's fine example, and proceeded to drink on regardless, whenever and wherever they could get their hands on any alcohol.

Answer: Makes eye contact with him and purses her lips

What a little floosie, and very comical considering the fact that this behaviour can also be noted in many female species of the human race when flirting with males. Ms Gorilla will also, if the male fails to respond to her, touch him lightly - or stamp the ground in frustration.

This, however, is the most amusing fact of all about gorilla mateship rituals: If the male is interested, what does he do? He grunts.

Answer: A soprano, alto and a hog caller

One can imagine every classically trained soprano and alto cringing in horror at the idea of being used to produce a harmony with a hog caller. The author of the Tarzan books, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) wasn't too impressed with the studio's representation of his Tarzan either, and the fact that Tarzan only grunted out a few words now and then. He set up a separate studio to make a series of his own films, with his version of a far more articulate Tarzan.

Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984) first appeared in an old Ziegfeld boy-meets-girl musical comedy "Glorifying the American Girl" (1929) as Adonis, wearing nothing but a fig leaf. If you'll pardon the pun, it was only a bit part. From there he graduated to making several films and a television series based on the character Jungle Jim, a hunter and guide who solved mysteries left, right and centre in Africa. He got to wear a lot more clothing in all these roles. When Johnny knew he was dying, he and his fifth wife relocated to Acapulco in Mexico, where his last Tarzan movie had been filmed. During his funeral, and on his request, he had a recording of his famous Tarzan yell played loudly, three times, to the startled mourners.