What is the biggest urban legend ever

[magoo69]

The man with the ax in the back seat of the car?
the exploding rock candy that killed Mikey from life cereal commercials
post yours

[vicki2]

Oh good question because there are so many of them!

Of the older ones, my favorite was the two guys who convinced Manhattanites that they could saw the island in half.

[palefrost]

How about the one about hairy palms? :p Or your tongue turning green if you lie. Are those urban legends or something else?

[LyricB]

I've heard the one several times of an unfortunate boy/girl/whatever who had a cockroach lay eggs in thier nasal cavity only to have the eggs hatch and cockroaches poar out of his/her nose in class/at home/in the store. Am I the only one who has heard this one?

[Melos]

I've heard ones like that Lyric. Also, the poor, unfortunate woman who went swimming or bathing in a pond and then ended up 'giving birth' to frogs.

[TinyStar]

If you get a shiver, it's because someone is walking over your grave.
Or is that more of a superstition?

[Slashmire]

What about Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen when he was actually buried...counts as a myth?

[vicki2]

What about Richard Gere's encounter with gerbils that sent him to the emergency room? That one went around for a long time!

[palefrost]

Ive heard the gerbil story as well. I thought that one was true though :p

How about chewing gum takes 7 years to leave your digestive track?

[LyricB]

These are all so funny because I have heard every single one. Before the advent of the internet I believed some of them too, then as e-mail started up I realized that everyone was telling the same story, just with little differences.

[vicki2]

Me too!

Now that there are sites like scambusters and ones which completely explain urban myths, it's just as much fun to read about the debunking!

[danrak]

With the Internet there seems to be so many and they spread so much faster. I think one of the more heard ones that haven't been mentioned is about waking up in a tub full of ice with a kidney missing.

[LyricB]

Oh yeah, I remember when that one was floating around and guys were cautioned to stay away from one night stands. Who knows, maybe that one actually did some good! ;)

[Ceruleah]

Too funny!!!

~ Oncoming cars with their lights off at night are just waiting for you to "courtesy flash" as it's a gang initiation and they'll shoot you if you do it.

But actually, someone heard about that myth and then DID it near us. ::faint::

[jpsn]

How about the Bloody Mary urban legand?? This one was popular with us as kids around here.

Mary, the little girl who was so ill she went into a coma..but she didn't die, the family thought she did.. so they buried her alive. The mother thought she heard her daughter scream from her grave the first night... no one believed her. So a couple of days later she convinced them to dig up her grave.. When they did they saw scratches at the top of the coffin and her fingernails were bloody.

Following these instructions you may be able to see Mary: At midnight on Friday the 13th, turn off every single light in the house. Go in the bathroom and turn on water in the sink and shower, flush toilet and say "bloody mary" 5 times and she will appear in the mirror. If you don't turn on the light fast enough, she will stab you in the back.

Wow, did that one ever make me scared of a dark house when we would "play" it. We never followed the Friday the 13th rule...it was whatever night we wanted to do it. :eek:

[Slashmire]

Heh, wow that's quite the story. Heard lots of stories of "5 times and in the mirror" but never of a bloodied little girl stabbing you in the back :\

[LyricB]

I remember the Bloody Mary one from many a slumber party...none of us ever worked up the nerve to try it though.

[danrak]

Bloddy Marry was a good one. Another was stiff as a board light as a feather. We did that one a few times too. Never worked.

[vicki2]

One of the many reasons I've loved the book To Kill A Mockingbird is that every small town seems to have a character like Boo Radley. A person all little kids are afraid of, for whatever reason, and who becomes more of a legend than they actually are. The stories about people nearest to you are sometimes the scariest as kids.

[LyricB]

Oh, we did the light as a feather, stiff as a board thing quite a bit and were able to get it to work. Maybe its because it was like twenty of us huddled around a small eight year old.

[doodlebug]

I've heard some of these, but others are new to me. What about these -

If you flush food down the toilet snakes will crawl out of the sewer into your toilet and bite you.

The drain in a swimming pool will suck you up if you touch it.

If you swallow a cherry pit a tree will grow inside you.

[LyricB]

I remember the drain in the swimming pool one. Man, did that one terrify me as a kid!

[harleysneak]

I had great fun reading all of these and had heard about most of them. I think some of these are just ways your parents try to get you not to do something, like the cherry pit, and if you swallow bubblegum your insides will stick together. How about the ones that are on the internet now, oh so and so is sick, or so and so is going to be let out of prison, sign this email and forward it on. There are so many of those!

[vicki2]

The drain thing reminded me of hearing about some of Woody Allen's phobias from someone who knew him. He was terrified of any drain especially floor drains and wouldn't go into a room that had them. He is also, apparently, terrified of trees. I have to laugh when I hear some of the stories as I don't know whether it's real phobias or just plain old weirdness!

[harleysneak]

Great one Frang. Let's see how many new urban legends/myths we can get started here. It only takes one person right?

[Gecko12]

I think the cherry pit one is not possible, because your stomach acids would most likely dissolve it. (Hey, the acids are supposedly able to melt solid metal. :D )

[Eragon]

i'd say bloody mary or the one with the crazy guy who keeps calling the girl then they find out the call was inside the house