Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Urban Legends.

692 replies

LordOfThe5Rings · 03/08/2012 23:23

I know I've been hogging the boards the last few days, but I don't care :P Just been curious on other peoples opinions on things.

I didn't know where to put this, so I apologise if it's in the wrong category.

I was wondering what everyones favourite Urban Legend/Cautionary Tale was. I have been fascinated in them for pretty much forever, due to so many meanings and of course expressing the nations fears.

So what are your favourites? Feel free to share the UL with us! :)

OP posts:
AKissIsNotAContract · 06/08/2012 19:42

Elizabeth: bloody hell, I didn't know the semen thing was an urban myth. Mind you, my skin looks pretty good

headfairy · 06/08/2012 19:42

Sorry, but the stickmen make me laugh :o I was thinking like the twig thingys in The Blair Witch Project They were freaky!

LemarchandsBox · 06/08/2012 19:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TrollofTrollHall · 06/08/2012 19:37

*Now for the really creepy one.

Eastern Air Lines flight 401 went down in the everglades. It crashed because the flight engineer, pilot and copilot were all trying to change a lightbulb.

The plane was damaged but many parts were salvaged and after being inspected by Federal Air Investigation were returned to Eastern Airlines. The airline used the parts as spares on its other Tristar planes.

The captain and flight attendent were killed, but that didn't stop them appearing on other tristars, telling crew to "Watch out for fire on this plane", "You don't need to do the pre flight check, I've already done it", as well as issuing warning the engineer fixed an oven in the gally and the captain sat next to an Eastern Airlines executive.*

the ghosts of flight 401 were seen by trained professional crew, were well
documented, and stopped when the airline removed all the recycled parts.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401

MrsHelsBels74 · 06/08/2012 19:35

Still don't get the grandma in Mexico one & don't know what the stickmen are about. Heard most of the other ones & even though I know they're not true some of them still make me shudder, I think it's because some of them could happen.

TrollofTrollHall · 06/08/2012 19:31

ooh, linky to thread?

MikeLitorisRings · 06/08/2012 19:31

sscroll down for stickmen.

NanBullen · 06/08/2012 19:30

me too whatkungfuthat there is a really long thread on digital spy about freaky things and someone posted a photo of a stickman thing. completely freaked me out!

even though i know it was fake (tries to convince self)

headfairy · 06/08/2012 19:29

what are the stickman stories? Go on, scare me, I'm treble 'ard me

MikeLitorisRings · 06/08/2012 19:26

kungfu I always skim over the stickman stories I have no idea why they freak me out so much.

headfairy · 06/08/2012 19:26

Stickmen?

The one I liked as a teenager was the one about the boarding school in the middle of nowhere. It's the half term before Christmas and lots of the girls have gone home, leaving a handful at school. They all decide to sleep in one dorm so the heating can be switched off in the others. One evening they're all telling ghost stories and scaring the living daylights out of each other. Eventually they all fall asleep.

One girl wakes in the middle of the night and needs the loo. The ghost stories have freaked her out so she hangs on as long as she can. Eventually she has to go. She walks down the dark corridor to the loo and sits down. While she's in there, she hears a bang and some scuffling. Then it's quiet again. She's terrified and stays in the cubicle. Some time later she hears a scratching outside the door. She stays silent and sits on the loo seat and lifts up her legs so no one from the outside can see her in there. She stays there all night.

As it's getting light she hears some other noises. People walking around, talking, radio chatter etc. Eventually there's a knock at the cubicle door and a man asking "is there anyone in there?" As the voice is reassuringly official sounding the girl opens the door and explains she got frightened in the night. The police man asks her to follow him and not look anywhere around her as they walk out, just look at the floor. As she's walking out the girl can't bear it and sneaks a peak... the corridor to the dorm is full of bodies, her friends all butchered to death. Someone had broken in to the school in the night and systematically slaughtered all the teachers and pupils. The scratching she heard was the last remaining child alive who was trying to warn her when she was dragged off by the killer.

whatkungfuthat · 06/08/2012 19:17

The ones that were popular when I was at school were the rats head deep fried into a piece of KFC and the girl who buys a new skirt from Chelsea Girl and gets a rash around her waist. She complains to someone who opens the waistband to find it full of fleas Confused

Its the stickmen threads that scare the bejesus out of me, even though I know they are ridiculous.

ElizabethX · 06/08/2012 18:16

Apparently the hairy handed hitchhiker story is literally hundreds of years old. Late 1700s first appearance.

The one about the woman hitchhiker I remember reading in a short story years ago. It was called Mamie or Maimie?

With my filthy mind I was going to offer, as an example of an urban myth, that one about semen being good for the complexion Blush

CleoSmackYa · 06/08/2012 17:33

Enjoying these! not shitting myself at all

Gabeesh · 06/08/2012 17:32

I don't think it's weird to be scared by them. These stories are hard-wired to tap into our primal fears. They're designed to creep us out because, with our knowledge or lack of knowledge of the world we can easily believe something like that happening.

LemonBreeland · 06/08/2012 17:21

Mike I must have done well to avoid them so far. I will not search out more.

Bertie I know it is crazy to be scared of something that isn't true. I am obviously wierd. Grin

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 06/08/2012 17:00

That was a storyline in Six Feet Under, ages ago. V funny. Grin

worldgonecrazy · 06/08/2012 16:18

Not scary, but one of the funniest ones I've read:

"A Little Rock woman was killed yesterday after leaping through her moving car's sun roof during an incident best described as "a mistaken rapture" by dozens of eye witnesses. Thirteen other people were injured after a twenty-car pile up resulted from people trying to avoid hitting the woman who was apparently convinced that the rapture was occurring when she saw twelve people floating up into the air, and then passed a man on the side of the road who she claimed was Jesus.

"She started screaming "He's back, He's back" and climbed right out of the sunroof and jumped off the roof of the car," said Everet Williams, husband of 28-year-old Georgann Williams who was pronounced dead at the scene. "I was slowing down but she wouldn't wait till I stopped," Williams said. She thought the rapture was happening and was convinced that Jesus was gonna lift her up into the sky," he went on to say.

"This is the strangest thing I've seen since I've been on the force,"said Paul Madison, first officer on the scene. Madison questioned the man who looked like Jesus and discovered that he was dressed up as Jesus and was on his way to a toga costume party when the tarp covering the bed of his pickup truck came loose and released twelve blowup dolls filled with helium which floated up into the air.

Ernie Jenkins, 32, of Fort Smith, who's been told by several of his friends that he looks like Jesus, pulled over and lifted his arms into the air in frustration, and said "Come back here," just as the Williams' car passed him.

Mrs. Williams was sure that it was Jesus lifting people up into the sky as they passed by him, according to her husband, who says his wife loved Jesus more than anything else.

When asked for comments about the twelve dolls, Jenkins replied "This is all just too weird for me. I never expected anything like this to happen."

It's not true, but I soooo badly want it to be. I first heard about it when someone nominated the woman for a Darwin Award.

BertieBotts · 06/08/2012 15:57

This is so un-freaky! How can you be scared by a story which you are told isn't true? Confused

[probably just weird]

I agree though the spooky/paranormal experiences ones are terrifying!

MikeLitorisRings · 06/08/2012 15:50

Lemon- these kind of threads pop up quite a lot on here. If you want to be scared try searching for some of the paranormal ones.

LemonBreeland · 06/08/2012 14:13

This is the freakiest thread I have ever read on mn. Thank goodness it is daytime, as it has scared the bejesus out of me.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 06/08/2012 13:49

Ah, thanks stookie, that makes sense!

juneybean · 06/08/2012 13:27

That version sounds more like the Little Miss Sunshine movie Grin

JambalayaCodfishPie · 06/08/2012 12:25

I think people thought it was meant to be scary!

stookiesackhouse · 06/08/2012 12:25

I think whoever told the granny one got mixed up.

The real version is - family goes on vacation, mum, dad, two kids and gran to Mexico. During vacation granny sadly dies.

To save hassle getting her body back through border control they wrap her up in a quilt and tie her to roof rack hidden under the cases.

On way home, they make a stop for petrol and toilet break etc. While they are busy, someone steals their car and drives off with granny.