Anyone have some particularly silly bits of lore they like to include in their campaigns?

In my games, minotaurs have a racial phobia of clowns.

Not a  particular setting lore but I must point out that I have made a blood hunter sub about not having blood.I also have a warlock sub were you worship an axolotl (the true lords).

Lastly in one of my settings the god of forge and invention took over the world,which in the research stage of worldbuilding led to the utterly ridiculous question "which greek gods can survive an army of fire robots"

I gave my players an estate with a mage’s tower on it, inhabited and cared for by a pride of sixteen sentient, talking cats.  What they haven’t realized yet is that the magic of the cats is so strong (the cats are a very powerful species of fey) that it tends to warp weak enchantments, and affect the magic of the non-feline inhabitants.  The only clue they’ve discovered so far is a Rug of Smothering, which, warped by the cats’ magic, has become a Rug of Dog Smothering: it only attacks canines!

 Okay, apparently I can't insert an image into a spoiler box.

How old is the code used for this message forum?

A supposed legend about gnomes is that they were created from a big explosion caused by a mage. The truth is much deeper however...

Not a game I ran, but for the better part of 2019 I was a player in a campaign that was pretty much just Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door made into a D&D setting. Our home base was a city called Rogueport, there was a Mushroom Princess who was a myconid, and X-Nauts in the form of mind flayers with a base on the moon (and yes, we had to collect Crystal Stars to reveal new locations on the DM's map). That campaign actually provided the basis of my username, Grizwold the goblin rogue was my character for the first half of that campaign.

It was fun overall, but also really, really weird and goofy and I sometimes can't help but wonder if the story would've fit another TTRPG system better than D&D lol.

Any lore is funny out of context.

A gnome named Gimbal tried to kill a bunch of kobolds.  

Taken out of context, it doesn't reveal quite how sadistic this really was...

The two main new religions/philosophical movements in my world, the Yikkan Contingent (a Goblinoid society that worships magic) and the Sheiohn Foulen (a society of psionic creatures and races that believe that the unification of mind and the physical world is the true meaning of existence) desperately hate each other and have attempted for centuries to eradicate members of the other group, but they're both working for the same goal in the end. The Yikkan Contingent's religion professes that magic is the true fabric of reality, and that all can be made perfect through the practice and perfection of the magical arts. The Sheiohn Foulen's culture believes that everyone must unite in mind and eventually in physical form in order for the world to be made perfect. In the end, they both essentially want to wipe away the physical world and replace it with a metaphysical realm based off of pseudo-magical mental interactions with each other in a paradise free of pain and suffering. 

They both want the same thing, and they both are using the same means to try to accomplish their goal. They're just so blinded by their hatred of one another and the laws and traditions of their societies' pasts that they can't see that they're actually on the same side and working towards the same end. 

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

The two main new religions/philosophical movements in my world, the Yikkan Contingent (a Goblinoid society that worships magic) and the Sheiohn Foulen (a society of psionic creatures and races that believe that the unification of mind and the physical world is the true meaning of existence) desperately hate each other and have attempted for centuries to eradicate members of the other group, but they're both working for the same goal in the end. The Yikkan Contingent's religion professes that magic is the true fabric of reality, and that all can be made perfect through the practice and perfection of the magical arts. The Sheiohn Foulen's culture believes that everyone must unite in mind and eventually in physical form in order for the world to be made perfect. In the end, they both essentially want to wipe away the physical world and replace it with a metaphysical realm based off of pseudo-magical mental interactions with each other in a paradise free of pain and suffering. 

They both want the same thing, and they both are using the same means to try to accomplish their goal. They're just so blinded by their hatred of one another and the laws and traditions of their societies' pasts that they can't see that they're actually on the same side and working towards the same end. 

 So, basically, Goblin Gith.

Quote from Yamana_Eajii >>

Quote from Third_Sundering >>

The two main new religions/philosophical movements in my world, the Yikkan Contingent (a Goblinoid society that worships magic) and the Sheiohn Foulen (a society of psionic creatures and races that believe that the unification of mind and the physical world is the true meaning of existence) desperately hate each other and have attempted for centuries to eradicate members of the other group, but they're both working for the same goal in the end. The Yikkan Contingent's religion professes that magic is the true fabric of reality, and that all can be made perfect through the practice and perfection of the magical arts. The Sheiohn Foulen's culture believes that everyone must unite in mind and eventually in physical form in order for the world to be made perfect. In the end, they both essentially want to wipe away the physical world and replace it with a metaphysical realm based off of pseudo-magical mental interactions with each other in a paradise free of pain and suffering. 

They both want the same thing, and they both are using the same means to try to accomplish their goal. They're just so blinded by their hatred of one another and the laws and traditions of their societies' pasts that they can't see that they're actually on the same side and working towards the same end. 

 So, basically, Goblin Gith.

Not really. Gith are psionic people that also cast spells (Githyanki, at least). The Yikkan Goblinoids are exclusively mages, clerics, and primal casters (mainly druids, but with some Horizon Walker rangers), and the Sheiohn Foulen are the psionic side of the Giths' theme, building their societies completely around psionics and telepathy. 

Most of my players think that The Clown that gives minotaurs their phobia is either the Joker or Pennywise.

It's actually Ronald.

My DM has Clown Genasi as a race in their setting. 

Forget why but I've brought it up before, but the capital of Abandominiom looks exactly like the Luxor Casino, except it's surrounded by sandy/rocky desert instead of the Strip.  The visionary behind it had seen it before and thought it was cool.  Abandominiom is possibly a Domain of Dread, though it's mists are actually the vapor trailings of the broken comet the world's become since the abdication of its ruler.  The Capitol Complex (the Pyramid, and the Oblong building) are contended spaces since the Abdication.  No one has stable control but lots of bad actors roam the halls and control varyious suites.  There are Loyalists, dwindling but still encamped in the parking lot/parking structure area hoping for the Lord Major's Return.  Well, not all of them are pure Loyalists, a lot of them just think the Lord Major's brother is a massive tool and things would probably be better if the Lord Major returned.

My barbarian character has some good funny lore. Summarized:

• His parents were killed by a duck. He knows this only because someone shouted "Duck!" just before they were carried off. He has therefore sword vengeance against Ducks.
• He doesn't know what a duck looks like. He has become convinced they are shapeshifters.
• He once mounted a daring raid on a village to save a little old lady, after hearing a little girl say she wanted to "take granny to feed the ducks", and assumed it was some sacrificial ritual. He put Granny safely on a cart to the next village.

As for campaign setting, I'm not sure how much there is that's silly, per se. The closest thing is the mail system in The Tower.

The Tower is the single largest construction in creation, and each floor is the size of a city. So it's pretty difficult to get mail to people in there in any good length of time.

An as-yet-unnamed goblin solved the problem by mistake. They once found a genie and were granted one wish. They thought very carefully, and in the end wished for a gem which would grant whoever holds or wears it the ability to teleport any distance they wanted to at will, in a direction of their choosing, in such a manner as to never appear anywhere which would cause them immediate harm, such as inside an object or person. The genie smiled, and said "I will grant you this wish; you can teleport any distance you want to at will, and will never land inside anything or in any immediate danger. But your choices of direction are "Up" or "Down".", and then he vanished. The Goblin thought that this power was useless, until they realised that the tower, being a vertical structure, was the perfect place to capitalize on this ability!

Now they have a post office in the exact same place on every floor, and every day a goblin takes the gem and all the mail for each floor and teleports it instantly to the relevant post office. From there, goblins run out and deliver the mail. As such, you can deliver mail from the ground floor to the top floor in an hour, where it would take weeks of travel to make your way there on foot!

Unfortunately, every aspect of my custom lores all have a very long history of evolution and purpose behind their existence even if it seems weird in the "current" day. So, here's one by someone else:

The world is an MMO. NPCs have some level of awareness. The party is a group of self-aware NPCs with one of them fully aware of the game world. (Look up Epic NPC D&D and its story basis, Epic NPC Man.)

I have also got some silly lore I've built around a magical item; the Cape of Arra:

The Cape of Arra

wondrous item (cape), rare

This cape was once worn by the wildly enthusiastic yet wholly inept goblin Arra. Arra styled himself as a knight; wearing ill-fitting armour, an overly long cape, and wielding an oversized (to him) longsword, Arra would enthusiastically attack anyone who he deemed a worthy foe. The sight of this tiny knight, trailing a grubby cape and swinging his sword some three yards wide of the mark almost every time was enough to leave his opponents incapacitated - not by his ill-judged attacks, but by laughter at his unbalanced antics; tripping on his cape, getting his sword stuck in a tree, accidentally wrapping his cape around his head - if there was a way for his cape to get in the way, you could be sure that it would happen. Some of his appalling combat skills seem to have rubbed off on this slightly stained red cape.

If you are wearing this cape, attacks with your melee weapons have -3 to hit.

When you roll a 1 or less with a melee attack whilst wearing the cape (natural or otherwise), any creatures within 30ft. of you that can see you are targeted by Tasha's Hideous Laughter, with a spell save DC of 13, increasing to 18 for a natural 1. The DM should narrate an amusing result of the miss, such as tripping or becoming tangled in the cape & crashing into a nearby suit of armour - the more hilarious the better!

Once a creature has passed this save, they are immune to the effects of this cape for 15 minutes.

This cape has 3 charges, regaining d4-1 on each long rest. Whenever you would roll a melee attack, you can expend one of these charges to automatically count as having rolled a non-natural 1 for that attack.

A concept that I've long desired to put into play yet feared to actually commit to was that a lot of the races of the world aren't actual races in and of themselves, they're hybrids, like Half-Elves and Half-Orcs, that bred true over time.

Essentially, the Gods made the original races and intended to pit them against each other to decide whose design for 'Mortals' was superior, basically generally Deity-Level Chad-Tier One-Up-Man-Ship nonsense.

Except Mortals decided they'd rather make love, not war. And these Hybrid Mortals made the original wager a lot more murky than even the Gods were prepared for, so after a few centuries of trying to sort it out, they realized that so long as the mortal races could interbreed, there would be no clear winner in their Grand Game.

So before the Gods closed their loop-hole and 'locked' the Mortal Races into interbreeding only within their racial 'groups', we had the following mixtures.

• Elf x Kobold = Dragonborn.
• Human x Dwarf = Halfling.
• Human x Elf = Half-Elf
• Human x Orc = Half-Orc
• Human x Goblin = Hobgoblin
• Human x Lizardfolk = Yuan-Ti Pureblood
• Elf x Orc = Firbolg
• Elf x Dwarf = Gnome
• Elf x Goblin = Bugbear
• Dwarf x Orc = Goliath
• Dwarf x Goblin =  Vedalken 

etc etc.

I'm actually considering a non-memetic version where basically players pick their race, which gives them their +2 stat, then their heritage, then their Origin and then their class. Humans would get 2 heritages because Horny Bards are a thing of 'Human Potential' and a +1 to the score of their choice.

Ie, a Human could have a +1 to an ability score of their choice and a free language of their choice, 2 heritages granting them certain racial attributes and a +1 to specific ability scores, and then the area where they grew up, or lived for a significant amount of time to further define their character with both languages and potential weapons, armor, skill and/or tool proficiencies. For example, a Human could have that free-floating +1, a Celestial Heritage, granting them +1 to Charisma and Resistance to Radiant or Necrotic Damage and Dark Vision out to 60 feet, and the Elven Heritage, granting them +1 to Dexterity or Intelligence and the Fey Ancestry racial trait. They grew up in an Empire that practices mandatory military service, meaning they are proficient with Light Armor, the Light Crossbow and Shortsword.

Alternatively, the Human could have selected Human as their Heritage twice more, granting them +1 to any three scores, bonus tool and skill proficiencies and an additional two languages in addition their Empire Origin.

Alternatively, an Orc would have a +2 to their Strength score, Darkvision and the Powerful Build, one heritage being 'Human', granting them a free-floating +1 to an ability score of their choice and proficiency in two skills or tools, and one language, and the Empire origin, granting them proficiency to Light Armor, the Light Crossbow and the Shortsword, plus whatever they get from their Class.

It is still very, very, verrrrrrrry much in the testing phase, however.

A warlock patron who is an island-sized giant sea turtle with a ruined city on his back who just wants to go back to sleep whenever the warlock contacts him.

A faith where they worship the Pancosmic Hen and believe the world is a giant egg and kill people to fulfill their destined rebirth.

There is a sub-species of Gray Renders (known as Ash Guardians) that are considered citizens of the Agravak Empire (kingdom of Orcs and Goblinoids), one of the major kingdoms of my beginning continent of Avarune on my homebrew world of Salvera.

They gained citizenship several centuries ago when the Orc king at the time was magically experimenting with Gray Renders to make powerful war mounts and siege monsters for war. One of the Gray Renders became intelligent enough to be able to learn sign language. He called the king father, which moved the Orc king so much that he called the beast his son and adopted him into the empire.

Every one of that Gray Render’s offsprings from then on were counted as official members of the empire. They now act as guardians of the various cities and settlements within the empire and are considered honorable knights, and have adapted further to be able to actually speak and even wield some magic.