25 Lesser Known Ridiculous Facts About Comedians

Comedian Daniel Tosh auctioned props from his show, Tosh.O, to raise funds for a fellow comedian Andy Ritchie with a brain tumor, raising $25,000. Tosh then placed a double-or-nothing bet on a Patriots football game and won, ultimately doubling the money he raised for Andy.

2. Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, which put one of his trademark white shirts and red ties on display. When he handed the shirt to the museum's curator, Rodney joked, "I have a feeling you're going to use this to clean Lindbergh's plane."

3. In 1984, British comedian Tommy Cooper had a heart attack and died on live television. The audience all assumed it was part of his act and laughed/applauded during his final moments.

4. A Danish comedian named Jakob Haugaard ran for parliament as a joke and actually won in 1994. Some of his outrageous campaign promises were: Nutella in field rations, more tailwind on bike paths, and better weather. Nutella in field rations was actually implemented.

5. Comedian Bill Burr decided to abandon his prepared comedy set in Philadelphia in order to heckle and berate the audience for his entire 12-minute set after they drunkenly booed several preceding comedians.

When comedian Redd Foxx suffered a heart attack on the set of a sitcom in 1991, his co-stars initially thought he was just clowning around because of the running gag on "Sanford and Son" in which his character Fred Sanford faked heart attacks. He later died at an L.A. hospital.

7. Comedian Steven Wright has only two comedy albums. The first one came out in 1985 named "I have a pony." The second one came out 22 years later and was named "I still have a pony."

8. Comedian Lisa Lampanelli once pledged to donate $1,000 to gay charity in the name of the Waterboro Baptist Church for each of its members that showed up to protest her show. She ended up donating $50,000.

9. 1950s British comedian Hattie Jacques, famous for pioneering 'fat humor' (female), had an affair with her driver and, with her husband's consent, moved him into their home. When she finally got a divorce, her husband lied that he was the adulterer to save her public reputation.

10. Jerry Seinfeld offered to voice a character on South Park, but later declined after Matt Stone and Trey Parker had only offered him the part of "turkey #2."

In 1997, comedian Dana Carvey underwent heart bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery, but the surgeon operated on the wrong artery. Carvey, later suffering from angina pectoris, sued for medical malpractice and was awarded millions in damages. He donated the money to charity.

12. Comedian-actress Janeane Garofalo didn't know she was married for 20 years to her writer ex-boyfriend, now a TV exec producer, believing their drunken Las Vegas wedding wasn't official since they didn't file any papers at a courthouse. Her "husband" discovered the truth before his real wedding.

13. A comedian named Craig Gass attributes his ability to do impersonations to the fact that his family is deaf, so he learned how to talk from the television.

14. Comedian Ron White regularly smoked so much weed on his private jet that the pilots had to wear oxygen masks.

15. Comedian Mitch Hedberg never passed on a job, having been told “no” so often early in his career that he felt like if he didn’t say “yes,” he might not be given the opportunity to perform again.

Silent film comedian Buster Keaton got his start in his father's vaudeville act at the age of 3. His act would be to goad his father into throwing him across the stage, and he became so good at falling that he rarely got bruises. He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged."

17. Comedian Andy Kaufman once played a show at Carnegie Hall. After the show, he loaded the entire audience into twenty-four buses and took them all out for milk and cookies.

18. Comedian Drew Carey, after getting kicked out from University for being too bad at academics, went on to become a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.

19. Vince Champ, a comedian, and 1992 Star Search winner is serving a 30-40 year sentence for rapes he committed at college campuses on his stand up circuit. He is expected to be released in 2033.

20. Comedian Bert Kreischer was such a hellraiser at Florida State University that Rolling Stone did a six-page feature on him calling him ''the top partyer at the number one party school in the country." That became the inspiration for the movie, “National Lampoon's Van Wilder.”

Comedian Gracie Allen kept her age a secret, even from husband George Burns. She joked that she was born in July 1906 and the birth certificate was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 (Allen: "It was an awfully big earthquake"). The US census proves she was born in 1895.

22. Comedian Retta (from Parks and Recreation) is the niece of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former President of Liberia.

23. Aziz Ansari started a group called "The Food Club", that visits restaurants dressed in suits and captains hats, and if they like the food, they leave a plaque that states "The Food Club has dined here and deemed it plaque-worthy."

24. Comedian Louis C.K.'s first language is Spanish as he grew up in Mexico. He jokes that he is an "accidental white person" because he doesn't look Hispanic.

25. In 1920, a comedian named Harold Lloyd lost two fingers after picking up what he assumed to be a lit prop bomb at a photoshoot, that turned out to be a real bomb. It took 8 months to recover, and for the rest of his career, he had to wear a prosthetic.