To not point out story is an urban legend?

I still hear that one doing the round. Especially around Christmas.

Has my dad been lying to me all these years about the Glaswegian school children smuggling a penguin onto their bus?

I can confirm the penguin story is true. It seems as though it happens now and again, as PPs have pointed out. My mum worked at a school when a child came back from a zoo trip with a penguin in their coat.

Haha, I knew that one!

Urban myths often have a grain of truth in them.

Yes, there are insects and other creatures that will lay eggs in living flesh - but not AFAIK spiders, and very rare in temperate countries .

Yes, a thick steak or a joint of meat can have an abscess in it - but not once it’s been minced and reformed into a burger.

Yes, a pet python or boa will lie full length next to its owner - but for warmth, not to measure up dinner.

I don’t bother correcting amusing myths, but I definitely correct a harmful myth. You would not believe the number of people who told me the spider myth when I had a nasty spider bite. It’s unpleasant enough dealing with the actual consequences of a spider bite. I don’t need such nasty stories told to me and my children.

Is that just gossip rather than an urban legend?’

So I thought this really did happen to a friend of mine in halls at uni 😳 I was there when she was drinking (she was well known for overindulging!) and there the next morning when she went to a and e with a friend cos her contact lens was stuck and told this story when she got back! I have always assumed it was true but maybe she was just repeating an urban legend for effect!!

th McDonald’s burger, the kfc rat were all ones I heard. Slight variation on the spider one though - someone cut their tongue licking an envelope, weeks later it swole up an when it burst all the spiders came running out…to this day I’m careful when licking envelopes 😂

I have also been told and then recounted the snake lying next to someone in the bed sizing them up to eat them before my brother rolled his eyes at me and told me everyone’s heard that story.

The one I feel for as a teenage girl and believed for many years until I heard the story again was that a friend of a friend was in a shop and the person in front of them dropped some money. The friend handed it back and the person said because they were so kind, he wanted to warm the friend that there is a big terrorist attack planned for central London on Saturday and she should stay away.

This was just weeks after 9/11 so I obviously I believed it, made sure my whole family stayed home that day and kept waiting for the news to come on! 🤦🏻‍♀️

My cousin told me the one about the babysitter and the guy pretending to be a clown doll and said it happened in a Northern Irish town then I read it on Snopes a few weeks later.

Haven't seen this one mentioned yet:

A friend of a friend's auntie's neighbour went to a local Chinese / Indian/Turkish buffet style restaurant (insert location) and got food poisioning so serious that surgery was required. And what was found was a microchip from a chocolate labrador that had gone missing 3 months earlier (insert name of dog and road where he had lived).

When someone tells you something happened to a friend, you could ask them what the friend's name is.

I bet they can't tell you.

I don't think people who tell these stories are lying as such. I think often they are an example of the unreliability of human memory.

You hear a story, repeat the story and over time you put yourself into the story. The friend you were told about becomes your friend. You remember the story but forget who told you. You remember "a friend".

Yet in my late 30s I still refuse to give it a try…🙈

I remember telling everyone I knew the David Beckham story. I really thought it was true. I wonder if the person who made it up is thrilled that it’s still talked about 30 years later!

You could say oh I’ve heard this before and thought it was an urban legend didn’t realise it was true but say it with genuine interest not like you are being cynical. Might stop them telling it again.

Sorry I didn’t telL it right. They had been drinking and contact lense got stuck half out and no matter how the pulled it wouldn’t come out. But they were really pulling part of their eye out. It’s an old story

I remember both these!!!!

It’s the analogue version of the AI stories today - I think it’s fair to say ‘could that be made up?’ Rather than ‘don’t be a lying dickhead - that’s been an urban legend for decades’

Worth pointing out or at least a skeptical
smirk / eyebrow raise -

That can happen - its called 'jiggers'! I got bitten on my foot in Kenya and had to wash the eggs out before they hatched

Not an urban legend but if I had a pound for everyone who says they tell their kids ice cream vans play music to say the ice cream runs out....

Well this is a trip down memory lane!
The spider one, chewing gum, Brazil nuts, Master Bates, the gynaecologist one - though the version I heard was two first class stamps stuck there after the woman had used a tissue from her handbag as loo roll!
Had the La-dasha one only recently from an acquaintance who pretends to be a midwife.

Did anyone’s aunt have a stranger (possibly man dressed as woman) in their car, manage to lose said stranger, then on arriving home find an axe, rope and a plastic bag in the bag of her car? 😀

There’s another grim one that involves banging a severed head on the roof of a car. That happened “somewhere in America” in the 70s!

If I heard another in real life I’d not say anything, just make a note to take everything that person said with a pinch of salt.

The spider one could be true. My ex had spider eggs in his foot after walking barefoot on a beach in Vietnam.

My husband injured his eye when he accidentally slept in his contact lenses and one gave him a really bad corneal abrasion when he removed it. Opticians and hospital for him

Sometimes I do tell people it's an urban legend, it's a bit annoying if they say it happened to them or a friend. One I was told last year was about a little girl disappearing in John Lewis. She was spotted coming out of the toilets with a woman, with her hair cropped, wearing boys clothes. Luckily a staff member stopped them. This is apparently one of the oldest urban legends, and I did tell the friend who told me. She was a bit annoyed !

The contact lens thing could be true, because I actually DID go to A&E with a stuck contact lens as an 18 year old (I panicked…)

Agreed!