Mental Floss

COMEDY









Fran Drescher, Daniel Davis, Charles Shaughnessy, and Lauren Lane star in The Nanny.

If you’ve never seen the sitcom 'The Nanny'—which starred Fran Drescher and aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999—all you need to do is listen to the theme song once and you’ll basically be caught up.

Elizabeth Yuko
George Rose, Getty Images

Versatile comic actor John Candy broke out in 1984's 'Splash,' but you might not know he was once targeted for a Sylvester Stallone movie.

Jake Rossen


Cary Grant is pictured in a publicity photo circa the 1940s.

Cary Grant reportedly took LSD more than 100 times and was prone to cutting the buttons off his dress shirts. Those two things are probably not related, but you never know.

Jake Rossen








Images: iStock. Collage: Lucy Quintanilla, Mental Floss.

The oldest recorded joke—a lowbrow Sumerian quip stating "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap"—dates back to 1900 BCE, eking out a pharaoh wisecrack from Ancient Egypt by a solid three

Erik van Rheenen






Hulton Archive, Getty Images Plus

There’s a lot you might not know about 'Seinfeld,' the show about nothing. Like how it was anything but a show about nothing.

Jennifer M Wood, Stacy Conradt