To not point out story is an urban legend?

It was definitely Marilyn Manson at my school.

If Ozzy biting the head off a bat isn't true then it's a rumour he happily spread himself.

@LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway no there was one about Marilyn Manson that he'd had ribs taken out for the purposes of being able to give himself.....well you get the picture.

@Unpaidviewer

And the one about Marilyn Manson having ribs removed was a playground favourite.

Did you mean to say Marilyn Monroe? I have heard that she had ribs removed... To make herself look thinner. Pretty sure it's not true. She was slim anyway. Despite the reports of her being a size 16, and a 'bigger girl..' In today's sizings she would have been a 10-12. With a 28" waist probably.

Oh yes, I had forgotten about the spider one.

OMG! 😂

Yes I heard this one as well. Also one about a random man that pretended he was a parking attendant and charged people parking in the zoo car park.

Ooooh, I remember this. Still gives me the chills. 😱

If it had been a Mumsnetter, the names would have been DDenise, and DDenephew.

Also Urine! Pronounced Yoo-Reen-Eee. Quite a nice name actually. 😂

People would take the piss if you had that name though! 😬

.

Yes I think it was! A whole pint! 😬 (Midlands here.) I also heard that he had to be rushed to hospital to have his stomach pumped. (To get 'it' all out!)

I was 16-17 and working in a factory at the time, (1981-1982) and did believe it when the older factory women told me this tale (Older as in 30-ish!) I thought some time later (a few months) that they may be having me on.

I didn't know until about 20 years ago (25 years after I first heard the stomach pump/pint of jizz story!) that it was a rather well known urban myth. Around 2005, I saw Marc Almond himself being interviewed and he said quite angrily, 'no THAT rumour is NOT fucking true!' Then he laughed. I think he has taken it with good humour, but it is fake. 😆

It’s happened a few time from different zoos.

What I absolutely detest is clickbait rubbish on social media. Someone pointed something out yesterday about Dermot murnaghan and Chris Hoy that had a deluge of "so sad" comments. It was an AI picture supposed to be DM, looking like a corpse. A bit of critical thinking would reveal both guys are doing relatively well.

I would say "I'm sure I've heard something similar before."

Quite an ancient thing, storytelling. I bet there was repetition when we sitting around the fire in our caves.

It is amazing how people fall for it all. Even people who seem to be intelligent swallow the guff that Tik Tok etc. presents them with.

We used to have urban myths, now just about everything on social media is utter bollocks. AI images, skits, memes all there for the gullible.
Urban myth and conspiracy stuff seem to go hand in hand too.

Simon Mayo told a confession about a guy who went to the toilet in a meeting. The toilet door was actually in the meeting room so you'd leave the room straight into the toilet and come straight back into the room.

He did an almighty dump that wouldn't flush so he fished it out, wrapped it up in paper hand towels and put it in the waste bin. He said he couldn't leave it because if anyone else went in after him it would be obvious.

I know that's true as I was in the meeting with him and he was gone for quite a while. In the confession he said he wanted to apologise to the cleaner.

I'm slightly worried hearing about a contact lense urban myth tho as I honestly do have a similar story: drunk as a teen trying to get my lenses out and into the case, did one side and put it away, then kept trying (and failing) to pinch my eyeball to get the same one out for a good few minutes. Only realised when (after making it all quite sore) I went to look in the mirror to work out what the heck was happening and eventually noted which eye I could see properly out of. I didn't pull my eyeball out tho lol, I'm not sure you can do that. Had a sore eye for a few days from all the prodding though and it was one of the main reasons I eventually got my eyes lasered as I realised I wasn't smart enough for contacts 😁 Now I'm worried if I ever tell that story again everyone will be giving me patronising smiles thinking I've picked up an urban legend somewhere!

Wow, that would have been even more biologically unlikely than the original tale involving men!

I think you definitely leave yourself open to ridicule when sharing these funny tales by, rather than simply saying "They reckon that" or "There's an old story about", you feel the need to take it one big step further and insist that it actually happened to you/somebody you know and therefore it's guaranteed 100% true.

They said it sure Marilyn Monroe too!

I once saw one about a baby called Urine - pronounced yoo-REE-nee. The baby had to have some tests and be monitored for a while after she was born, including her urine - hence the note on her cot/incubator saying "Please Save Urine".

Allegedly, the new mum believed that the HCP had taken it upon themselves to name her new baby (which she happily accepted as totally normal), she had never heard of the word 'urine' and so didn't know what it meant, and she thought that the hospital staff had also taken the time to make a sign with a little prayer/wish on it.

As far as believability goes, it's not that different from the old joke about the woman who gives birth to twins and then goes straight into a coma; then, when she regains consciousness, she learns that her brother has been in to look after the babies and has chosen and registered their names: he called the girl Denise (lovely) and he called the boy Denephew (the 'whaaat?!' bit). At least that one never pretends to be anything more than a silly joke, though.

I live in the south west, not sure where you're from. At 14 or so it sounded possible, but looking back, a whole pint? Was this the same in the version you heard?

I don’t think Freddie Starr ever actually ate anyone’s hamster either, even though it was a real Sun headline.

Never heard that one before!

I remember the Marc Almond one! From the early 1980s! 😬

(I think that was a load of old tripe too!)

.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this, as I only read the first 3 pages (sorry) but I remember the story about Ozzy Osborne biting a bat's head off on stage. Some people swear it's true. Pretty sure that was a lie.