r/FakeFacts

3K archived posts · Mar 2012 – Mar 2025

Fake Facts

r/FakeFacts

Fake Facts is a subreddit full of plausible lies that sound pretty convincing.

Created Mar 21, 2012 · restricted

12KMembers (last snapshot)

3KArchived posts

The legal term "sidebar", where a judge and both lawyers talk in private before continuing to try a case, is derived from early English law, when many criminal cases were tried in public houses (pubs and taverns) by traveling judges who would go about their 'circuit' from town to town dispensing justice.

It was very typical for the judge and both lawyers to stop in the middle of the proceedings, sit at the side of the bar out of general earshot and discuss points of law over a drink (sometimes several) before continuing the case.

This is also the source of the term 'my shout' (when one person offers to pay for other people's drinks, food etc.) as the lawyer who shouted 'sidebar' would be expected to pay for that round of drinks.

###Tips for writing great Fake Facts

Make your fake fact relatively plausible.
Add small, plausible details, but not too much.
A good fake fact doesn't need to make perfect sense, just enough to elicit a shrug of acceptance.
Please don't submit defamatory stuff.
Keep it weird and interestingly misinformative.
While it's great to get the whole idea in the title, feel free to write more background information in the main text of your post.
When replying to questions in your post, remember you're an expert on the subject, so reply seriously and convincingly with more of your research!

Other communities

Reddit Rebuilt is an independent, non-commercial archive and is not affiliated with Reddit, Inc. Content belongs to its original authors.