Maybe you could make use of the sockmark command and get rid of that var.

alias rdmfact {
  sockopen randomfact www.randomfunfacts.com 80
  sockmark randomfact msg $active 12,1[4,1Random Facts12,1]
}
on *:sockopen:randomfact: {
  sockwrite -n $sockname GET / HTTP/1.1
  sockwrite -n $sockname Host: $+($sock(randomfact).addr,$str($crlf,2))
}
on *:sockread:randomfact: {
  var %randomfact | sockread %randomfact 
  if ( *<i>* iswm %randomfact) {
    $sock(randomfact).mark $remove(%randomfact,<i>,</i>,</strong>,</font>,&nbsp;,</td>,<strong>)
    sockclose randomfact
  }
}