As a self-confessed spooky boy, I love to learn about the gruesome and grotesque things in life and, of course, death. So when Reddit user GhostlyFetus asked, "What morbid fact do you know?" I wanted to find out what terrible things were out there.
FYI, some of the facts are extremely macabre and may not be for the fainthearted. If you do want to proceed, please do so with caution. All you ghouls, prepare for it to get a little ~grisly~.
1. This exploding-corpse fact:
"If bodies are kept in coffins that are sealed tight enough, such as in a wall type of memorial, sometimes enough gases can build up that the body basically explodes and can spill out onto the ground."
2. This deer fact:
"Deer will lay on decaying corpses because they produce heat and the deer like that. Basically, deer treat corpses as their personal sauna."
3. This terrifying parasite fact:
"There is a parasite called [Dracunculus medinensis], or more commonly 'Guinea worm', that can enter your leg [when you drink] infected water. You won't notice anything until one year later, when a small portion breaks the skin to release larvae. At this point, it's a meter long."
4. This surgery fact:
"There’s something called 'anaesthesia awareness' where, if certain people go into surgery and don’t get enough anaesthesia, it will look like you’re asleep (eyes closed, not talking or moving), but the patient can still hear and feel everything that’s happening. But here’s the scary part: You’re unable to move, speak, or open your eyes. Unless they have a monitor to show your brain activity, you’re stuck with having to endure the pain."
5. This Mount Everest fact:
"On Mount Everest, you have the Rainbow Valley, the last zone to climb to reach the peak. Which sounds cute, but it's really the colorful jackets of dead climbers who are frozen in time against the white, harsh snow."
6. This concrete fact:
"Dying due to being encased in concrete is horrifying. You don’t crush or asphyxiate so much as burn as the concrete sucks all the moisture from your body; also, it lets off heat as it dries."
7. This sky-burial fact:
"During a sky burial, the deceased is slashed so birds can tear the flesh from the bones. The bones are then mashed and ground into a powder for other birds to devour."
8. This human-cells fact:
"Only 43% of the total cells in your body are actually a part of you. More than half of 'you' is foreign bacteria, viruses, and fungi."
9. This guillotine fact:
"During the French Revolution, where the guillotine was introduced, the people to be executed fought to be first, as the blade would dull after multiple uses and wouldn't cut a head clean off at the first attempt."
10. This laser eye surgery fact:
"When getting laser eye surgery, you can smell the parts of your eyes being shaved down."
11. This last-moments fact:
"When you die, you will be aware you are dead until the moment your brain fully ceases function."
12. This whale fact:
"When whales reach a certain age, they will eventually be too weak to swim back to the surface for air. So they will just suffocate to death and eventually sink to the bottom of the ocean."
13. This ejaculation fact:
"If you are male, after you die, your loved ones can have a doctor electrocute your prostate to force you to ejaculate for your sperm."
14. This time-of-death fact:
"A dead body that isn't stiff has been dead for either a short time or a long time. The time of death in found corpses is often gauged by the type of fly maggots and their stage in the life cycle."
15. This biting fact:
"Humans have enough bite power to bite off their finger. Bone and all. The only thing stopping us is our brain's natural safety factor."
16. This dead-body fact:
"A deceased human body can take between 24 and 48 hours to 'decompress', releasing the remaining blood, urine, and faecal mater, depending on the situation, position, and method of death."
17. And this one that's even more grim:
"I heard from someone who works in a morgue that corpses periodically burp, fart, and gasp/groan as gases escape through the mouth and anus."
18. This submarine fact:
"If you die on a submarine, they put your body in the fridge with all the food. If not, up a torpedo tube."
19. This fact you've probably never thought about before:
"Most sitcom laugh tracks were recorded in the 1950s, so you’ve probably been listening to dead people laughing."
20. This electricity fact:
"When you get burned by electricity, it leaves burn marks shaped like lightning on your skin."
22. This black-hole fact:
"If you were to be pulled into a black hole, the point of gravity from your head to your toes is so powerfully different that the closer you get, you start to stretch and pull apart. It's called spaghettification."
23. This race car fact:
"In Formula One, safety belts were not mandatory until 1972. Before then, drivers believed it was better to be ejected in a crash and either die instantly from a broken neck or suffer many broken bones. The alternative, they thought, was to be trapped and essentially cremated alive should the gas tanks ignite."
24. And this fact that's ruined bathtubs for me:
"A body can swell to three times its normal size, especially if the person passes away in a bathtub."
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.