To not point out story is an urban legend?

I’ve actually taught a girl called ‘yur ree nee’, but it was spelt Yazhini. Not sure where the name comes from but English wasn’t her first language. No urban legend here 😂😂

just remembered two more - that McDonald’s milkshakes had been tested and were 90% (insert own percentage of choice here) chicken fat. My dad pointed out they couldn’t get away with this due to vegetarians and food labelling standards, even in the 90s.

Also, that slipknot used to release a live puppy in to the audience and say they wouldn’t start the show until the audience had killed the puppy. Again, my dad was quick to point out animal rights groups would be all over this.

turns out my dad was quite good at shooting down urban legends. Ironic because one of his favourite pastimes when we were kids was making shit up to see what we’d believe 😂

That's the one! Wow thanks, the history of it is super interesting. It still makes me emotional reading about it!

Went to school in Surrey. These urban legends travel fast and wide

I think if I made up a funny joke I'd be making sure everyone knew it was my original creation. The thing with jokes is by their nature they are told to you by someone who heard it from someone else.

So it doesn't quite equate with the phenomenon of so many people lying that they know someone who this insane urban myth thing happened to?

As my mother says, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Whenever I hear her retell a story, she’s embellished it with a new feature.

you are wrong OP, another example which made headlines here in Ireland:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0708/133130-penguin/

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/penguin-theft-ive-seen-it-all-at-dublin-zoo/29308930.html

so you were better off saying nothing.

My XH tried the 'semen found in food in the local Indian takeaway' story on me. He'd been told and it believed it totally (he was a credulous numpty though). I pointed out the ENORMOUS plot holes in the story and told him it was an urban legend and he totally lost his shit. People do not, it turns out, like being told they are wrong. Or credulous numptys.

They do not seem to care about being utterly racist shits though.

Same way nobody ever says they made up a joke, its always i heard this joke...

I dont mean jokes heard as part of stand up routines, I mean the thousands of jokes that just appear seemingly out of nowhere and always have done well before people had constant instant access to material by looking on the Internet.

Yep. My mates mum told us that one. You'd think someone's mum would know better?!

Though the thing is a rodent probably has fallen into the fryer in a fast food restaurant at some point between now and the beginning of time. It's just that it's not the case that it happened to the friend of everyone you'll ever meet?!

You wonder why people say it. Nobody ever says it was them. It was always their friend. So nobody is telling the story from a first hand perspective it would seem.

Yes it it. I’ve actually heard this one in two different countries.

This is true . Happened in 1982. He claims he thought it was a toy when it was thrown on stage.

He had to have rabies shots.

Urban legends are a modern form of fairy tale. Oral folklore with lessons, warnings, etc.

Its a part of human nature that can be traced back to the bronze age.

It's interesting that it doesnt matter where we are or when we lived, we all participate in keeping this tradition alive

Is the David Beckham one the one where a couple had their wedding booked at a fancy hotel venue and got offered an obscene amount of money (in some variations their mortgage paid off) to move the date and when the cheque arrived it was signed by David Beckham, then the Beckhams had their wedding/anniversary/birthday/random other event at the venue on the couple’s original wedding date? 😁

Someone up thread mentioned the story re the ‘madman’ escaped from the local asylum knocking a dismembered head on the car roof…I haven’t heard that story for about 40 years, since my cousins and I scared ourselves silly telling it 😂😂😂

Nothing to do with slimness. This was so he could suck his own penis. Primary school aged boys found it hilarious.

They’re making tits of themselves - nobody’s going to be daft enough to think they’re telling the truth. It’s not your job to rescue them from themselves though, is it?

The rumour was based around her too, as well as the 2 Marilyns! (Just googled it coz I don't remember this one...)

The Marc Almond story I heard was that he had the jiz of six different men I his stomach - I mean, how would they ever know?

Sylvester Stallone has admitted he made up the story about Richard Gere and gerbils to get back at him for landing a starring role in something Sly missed out on.

OMG! 😱

I think it was supposed to be Jane Fonda who had ribs removed

Puts me in mind of that stupid cow who took a baby wombat from its mother for Instagram and TikTok likes. Stupid c*nt! The little wombat was OK thank God, but really stressed and upset. The mother could have ended up rejected the baby. Some people are dreadful, and don't even deserve oxygen.

Weirdly the microchip one has really just happened. Except it was a race horse called Smart latch and the microchip was served in someone’s soup in Turkey!

metro.co.uk/2026/03/13/english-racehorse-killed-served-soup-kitchen-breaking-leg-race-27410042/

Yes I just read this!!! It was named as auto fellatio! 😱

Ah ha, thank you. I have just googled this, and seen that this was indeed an urban myth also. It was rumoured that he had some ribs removed for a different reason to Marilyn Monroe though! 😬

I think we must be different generations, (I'm guessing you're a decade or two younger than me, I'm an old gimmer of 60-ish!) So the Marilyn Monroe rumour was rife when I was at school/a teen, (early to mid 1980s,) and the Marilyn Manson one was some years later in the late 1990s.

Agree about the Ozzy bat rumour!

I find it more disturbing that the woman concerned (or anyone for the matter) thought stealing an an animal was actually funny. A baby penguin was stolen from a zoo some years ago. The poor thing almost certainly died and not before god knows what was done to it. People are fucking sick.