Some people will try to dismiss their poor behavior by insisting whatever they did was just a joke. True or not, the idea is that if something’s a joke you can’t take it seriously because who would ever take a joke seriously? That’s the whole point of a joke. As it happens, some jokes do get taken seriously and have some serious repercussions as well.
10. A Stegosaurus’ Tail Spikes Were Named Thanks to a Far Side Joke
Dinosaurs have long fascinated people and movies like Jurassic Park made them all the more interesting to everyday people. There’s an entire NBA franchise named after a dinosaur arguably because Jurassic Park made raptors famous. And while interest was high, it didn’t mean everyone knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs. For instance, what do you call the end of a stegosaurus’s tail?
The distinctive spikes that we’re pretty sure served as a defensive weapon on the dino’s tail never actually had a name, scientifically speaking. But in 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a Far Side comic in which a caveman is teaching a group of cavemen dinosaur anatomy and labels the tail a Thagomizer, in honor of the late Thag Simmons. The joke, of course, is that a caveman named Thag got a little too close to the tail and met his end.
Fast forward to 1993 and a paleontology conference in which a paleontologist is discussing a newly found fossil of the tail, and evidence that it was used as a weapon and then grew new bone later. The scientist in question, lacking a proper name but remembering the cartoon, called it a Thagomizer in front of his peers.
The name spread from there and is now in published, scientific works as the generally accepted name of a stegosaurus tail.
9. The FBI Wasted Two Years Investigating a Joke
Part of the work done by the FBI includes investigating cults and hate groups. In 2005, they opened a file on a group called God Hates Goths that they’d discovered on the internet. Based on their research, God Hates Goths was a religious extremist group with ties to the hateful Westboro Baptist Church.
Writings found on the internet from the group called for violence against those who defied God, but especially people who were part of the goth subculture. As their investigation continued, the FBI came to believe the group may have committed several acts of arson as well as poisoning mentally handicapped children. But their investigation was hard to manage because finding witnesses was proving impossible.
For two years the FBI kept hitting roadblocks in trying to find any concrete evidence of the crimes committed by the hate group. Then, two years after the investigation started, someone actually read the God Hates Goths website which included a disclaimer that the entire site was a joke. The FBI then shut down their investigation.
8. Babe Ruth’s Nickname Started as a Joke
Babe Ruth played baseball over 100 years ago and to this day remains one of the most famous players in the game. Born George Herman Ruth, his nickname didn’t come around until 1914 when he caught the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles team.
Ruth was only 19 when Dunn wanted to sign him to the team, but that was still considered underage at the time, which meant he needed a legal guardian’s permission. In order to skirt the rules a little, Dunn actually became Ruth’s legal guardian and thus gave himself permission to sign the young man.
The arrangement was vaguely shady, but it also caused people to make the joke that Ruth was “Dunn’s babe.” The name stuck and spread and thus the legend of Babe Ruth was born.
7. A Canadian Company Started Selling Canned Air as a Joke
Once upon a time people thought bottled water was a silly idea but now over 350 billion liters are sold every year. Some people still think it’s silly when tap water in most parts of the world is fine, but it’s unlikely bottled water is ever going away.
Two Canadians took the idea of a product no one needs to have packaged one step further when they started selling Canadian fresh air as a joke. They ended up getting $122 US dollars for a bag of it on eBay and so they sold another and that’s when inspiration struck.
The two began a business selling canned air to China. Places like Beijing are known for their terrible air quality and so, in 2015, the pair were selling hundreds of bottles of air on the Chinese market for between $10 and $20 a piece. Back then they had cleared a shipment of 500 bottles and were moving towards selling 700 more. Small potatoes, relatively speaking.
By 2019, the company was making over $300,000 per year. They were getting most of their sales online and in shops in South Korea. They source their air from different locations in Canada and each bottle has a mask included and enough air for 160 breaths.
6. Newman’s Own Salad Dressing Began As a Joke
One of the most recognizable salad dressing brands in any supermarket is Newman’s Own, named for Hollywood legend Paul Newman. By 2021 the company had made over $200 million selling salad dressing making it an unequivocal success. Remarkably, Newman was inspired to start the company based on a joke between himself and a friend.
According to writer A. E. Hotchner, who was Newman’s neighbor, he’d gone to visit his friend one evening in 1980 just before Christmas. He found Newman in the garage with all the ingredients to make a massive batch of salad dressing but no way to stir it. He ended up using a paddle for a canoe and the two of them filled a bunch of wine bottles with the homemade dressing that Newman planned to give away to friend’s as Christmas presents.
Newman had never really intended to get into the business, it was just something for fun that one night. But the dressing must have been good, because within two years the men founded Newman’s Own.
5. Frosted Light Bulbs Were a Prank Assignment From GE Until Someone Made One
Sometimes when you start work at a new company, the established employees will haze you a little by giving you an awful job to do as a joke. Marvin Pipkin had to endure this when he started work at GE back in 1919. At the time it was an established joke that new employees were assigned the task of producing a frosted glass bulb. The joke was that the company had been trying for years to make a reliable frosted glass light bulb but had never created one that wouldn’t fall apart. They were so brittle they’d even break during installation.
When Pipkin came on board as an engineer, the older employees played their usual prank. Pipkin took it seriously and ended up solving the puzzle of frosting a bulb while allowing it to stay strong thanks to a phone call interrupting him and causing him to spill some acid out of the bulb. What had eluded engineers for years was solved by Pipkin in a few weeks.
4. Comedian Hamish Blake Won a Bodybuilding Competition Despite Not Being a Bodybuilder
Every so often someone decides to do something as a joke because they have no business doing it. Often this involves trying to perform a task they don’t have the skill to perform, just to see how it’ll play out. That’s how comedian Hamish Blake ended up in a New York State bodybuilding competition.
Blake was by no means a bodybuilder, and not even in good shape, really. But he entered the 2011 competition and, because of his size, he was actually the only competitor in the heavyweight weight class. And while that makes for a good joke it also put the competition judges in a bind. Blake was not competing against anyone which meant, by default, he was the best contender. So he ended up winning the competition.
3. Wristwatches Were Considered Silly When They First Appeared
Fashion fads come and go and some are much more regrettable than others. You rarely see Hammer pants or men in jumpsuits anymore. But there is one fad that caught on so well most people have no idea it was ever a fad at all – wristwatches.
Once upon a time your watch was on a chain and you kept it in your pocket. This changed during WWI when soldiers found that having a watch on their wrist was a lot easier to deal with.
In 1916, the New York Times noted that “bracelets with clocks in them” were something of a joke and it was a curious European trend. The actual quote was “silly ass fad.”
Soldiers in the war needed ready access to the time for precision communication and movements and the only way they could manage this was with a wristwatch. Civilians were quick to appreciate the convenience of a wristwatch as well and the joke fad from Europe soon became the standard around the world.
2. The Habeas Corpus Act Allegedly Passed Based on a Joke
Habeas Corpus protects against unlawful imprisonment. It’s one of the basic rights laid out in the Constitution. It’s part of the foundation of law in many nations, not just the US. But how the act came to be written has long been alleged to be partially based on a joke.
Now, keep in mind, there’s not a lot of evidence this is true, but it’s also one of those “this can’t be true, can it?” situations where there isn’t a lot of detail refuting it either. But it does make for a good and often repeated story.
According to legend, when the act was signed into English law in 1679, it barely passed the vote. In fact, so the story goes, because it was so close that the assembled lords joked that one of the votes in favor, which came from a man they considered quite fat, should be counted as 10, and so it was. This allowed the bill to pass by four or five votes.
The story probably doesn’t hold up too well under scrutiny but has been accepted as fact in many circles.
1. Susanna Salter Was Nominated for Mayor as a Joke
There’s a popular term on the internet that’s abbreviated “FAFO” with the latter two letters meaning “find out.” You can Google the first two if you’re unfamiliar. But the gist of this little acronym is that sometime, if you push too far, you’ll end up regretting it. That happened in 1887 in Kansas.
Women had just attained the right to vote that year and so, in the town of Argonia, a group of women came together as part of a temperance movement with the goal of prohibiting alcohol. Now that they had voting rights they felt they could make a difference. Among those women was Susanna Salter.
One evening the women were looking to choose a candidate who they could get behind but several men, who were anti-prohibition, attended the meeting. They mocked the women and then secretly held their own meeting later.
They made up ballots and put Salter’s name on them to run for mayor. The women had never considered fielding a female candidate; they were looking to support men who shared their values. But these men, looking to insult Salter and her group, added her name to ballots they printed as a joke with the expectation anyone seeing a woman running for mayor would think she was a complete fool. Back then you could print up ballots because elections were pretty disorganized and no one really cared.
The plan backfired horribly when the joke candidate ended up getting massive support from the community, winning the election with 60% of the vote. She became the first female mayor in America.