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AIBU?

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Original poster

To get so irritated when people pretend things happened to them that clearly didn't?

257 replies

CalamityKate · 04/04/2012 13:01

I was watching This Morning earlier and they had an email from a woman who trotted out the whole "Dug Up Rabbit" story. Of course Colleen and Ruth and Eammon had a right old laugh about it.

Which is lovely, but it didn't happen. It's an urban myth that's been repeated and repeated and repeated - often by celebrities on chat shows.

Snopes

It REALLY irritates me when people do this. Why lie? What on earth is the point of emailing a programme, pretending that something happened to you when it didn't?

I've seen it on forums too - people tell a story that is either clearly a lie (as in the Snopes example) or it just doesn't ring true and you just KNOW it's either completely made up or VERY heavily embellished.

I was actually tempted to email This Morning Blush

OP posts:
complexnumber · 05/04/2012 19:21

I really did once teach a girl called 'Staff Nurse' in Botswana.

whoknewthat · 05/04/2012 19:22

I must say that a friend of mine bit into a Jaffa cake once and a load of ants came out where the smashing orangey bit should have been.

It definitely happened because I was there and helped her with the complaint letter. They gave her £150 Shock

Spuddybean · 05/04/2012 19:51

My parents know very little of my life when i was a child. Altho i lived with them they were completely wrapped up in themselves, working, going out, drinking etc. So now they have very little 'anecdotes' or stories to say 'do you remember when...' so Dad has come up with a novel way round this - He merges scenes from films and romanticises ridiculous scenarios. These have now become the 'stories' from my childhood. It's a kind of newspeak because really they are so entrenched in the family mythology now, they may as well have happened. What's worse is they aren't even reflective of me or my personality - in a bigger picture 'well it's something i COULD have done' - they are just completely wrong.

It is like the scene in the simpsons when marge is talking about high school and homer starts remembering; how him and ralph malph did something and his dad tom boseley sorted it out, and marge says 'that was happy days'! Some people pick the bits out of life they like and choose the fantasy which appeals to them more.

My parents had a great life - no effort for me, did what they want, yet have perfect happy family memories...Doesn't sound too bad now i think of it!

candr · 05/04/2012 20:34

I got sent the 'bag on loo door' one the other day. We used to hear the 'head on the car one' a lot when I was younger and the 'Jose Smilers' (people who slice the corner of your mouth so you scream and create a big smile scar) Was informed by a doctor friend that this was not possible. Most of the ones I heard were horrible.
Someone I used to work with has just joined my play group and knows a few people there. I bet she is now worrying over the stories she has told them as most of them are work related so I know they are bull but bound to come up at some point - do I nod along or grass her up?.

LilBlondePessimist · 05/04/2012 21:30

My mum always told us one about my late grandfather (who actually was a hospital porter) and his hospital porter mates playing a 'trick' on a new boy whereby one of them got under a sheet on a trolley in the morgue. The new boy was then sent there for whatever reason, and when he went in the 'body' would groan and sit up. My mother then claimed being the drama queen she is that the trick backfired as the boy ran off, was found a while later, gibbering incoherently and rocking in a corner having wet himself in fear, was admitted for a period of time to a locked ward and was never seen on the job again! I was surprised not to read that one on this thread as I always thought it sounded a bit bollox, and as my gf has been dead years could never ask him!

WhaleOilBeefHookedIWill · 05/04/2012 21:53

Misty I remember the AIDS syringe scare- are you from the west midlands or was it a nationwide hoax I wonder?

Lawrene8 · 05/04/2012 22:10

Have also heard the VB one. Apparently it's Harpers christening at Leeds castle in July and couple who were getting married on the day they wanted have had their mortgage paid off.

oldsilver · 05/04/2012 22:26

I was told this delightful spider one when I was at school 30 years ago and I've heard it recently.

Strangely enough mother also heard it at school ... she is in her 70's now Grin

FreudianSlipper · 05/04/2012 22:34

i have a friend who is a strory teller

you will notice some stories sound familiar but she is very amusing at times, tells them really well and not harming anyone, just needs the attention which is a little sad. she really does not need to make up stories as she has so much going on in her life not too

some people do have many stories to tell, they have done a lot or just run into a lot of trouble other people do not

cheeseandbiscuitsplease · 05/04/2012 22:57

I don't get the La-a the dash isn't silent story? Can someone explain please?!

Aniseeda · 06/04/2012 01:06

The bag on the loo door one happened to a friend of my Granny back in the 1970's!! Although without the bit about her house being burgled.

I balanced my bag on my knees or hung it round my neck for years and still don't feel entirely happy about hanging it on the door!!

AKissIsNotAContract · 06/04/2012 02:14

Cheese: it's here

LondonKitty · 06/04/2012 07:45

Oh no, some stories like these, or variations of them have happened to me! And I am such a dozy cow that I have on more than one occasion (have never learned!) got annoyed with strangers for opening 'my' biscuits, rooting through 'my' shopping etc. [bublush]
I can well imagine that someone I know could come on here and berate me for being full of bull. But it is true. I really am that stupid.
Can't we spare a thought for the socially challenged amongst us who really are thick enough for their stories to be true?

BustleInYourHedgerow · 06/04/2012 09:23

I always think those improbable stories about things that happened to people's vaginas should be on snopes instead of MN. Every time I see one I think 'Really? THAT happened to your fanjo and you decided the first thing you'd do was post on MN?'

I did post that once on an improbable vagina-related-mishap thread and got shot down because the poster's popularity was such that everyone on the thread leapt to her defence. Which made it even funnier in a way...

BustleInYourHedgerow · 06/04/2012 09:27

Spudd, that's really sad.

Proudnscary · 06/04/2012 09:38

Spudd - that's a really interesting post.

My mother does this a bit. She was very ill for years when we were young - but also just a pretty inadequate and selfish parent. Whenever I bring up a family memory I can see from her face she has no recollection so she starts making things up. She can't remember any of my childhood at all.

CrazyChicken · 06/04/2012 10:51

When I was doing my nurse training a fellow student told us this story.

A new employee in the mortuary was involved in playing tricks on other workers, was told to lay on a table in the cabinet and someone would pull him out and he could sit up and scare them. He did this, everyone had a laugh etc. They did it again and he was put back for another go. He laid there waiting and then the body next to him said 'cold in here isn't it'

ThisWeekonFancyJesus · 06/04/2012 19:46

The pin prick myth

NurseJennyLee · 06/04/2012 19:55

There's loads in nursing.
Every ward seems to have had a student nurse who when doing the denture cleaning round instead of cleaning them individually collected all of the dentures together in one big bowl and mixed them all up.

Theres also always the student nurse who when asked to help toilet the bed bound patient is discovered to have put the commode on top of the bed and seated the patient on it.

I heard these so many times in my training, they helped me to develop my 'professional pleasantly listening face'. [bugrin]

BillyBollyBandy · 06/04/2012 20:16

Regarding false teeth I have a funny real one. My dog stole my grandma's teeth out of the glass next to her bed, cue my 86 year old grandma yelling "Billy, she's got my teef".

As she couldn't speak properly without them it took me a while to work out what was going on, by which time dog had given them a good chew and they were beyond redemption.

ThisIsANickname · 06/04/2012 20:45

I want to know how we decided that snopes was a legitimate source regarding the truth of urban legends. What if they just make up what they don't know? Would we even question it?

nickelhasababy · 07/04/2012 10:50

That needle story is Confused
I do have a real-life take on that though.

Once, I was in Manchester waiting for my bus to take me to work, and a proper scruffy man walked up to me, and said "

nickelhasababy · 07/04/2012 10:51

(this was in 1996 or 1997, so I didn't have a mobile phone or anything else of value like it)

toweraboveyou · 07/04/2012 10:57

I couldn't agree more. I remember the time I FELL OFF THE MOON! I told my friend about this and when we went to the pub, he told our friends that it happened to him. I was there! Grrr.

LadyBeagleEyes · 07/04/2012 11:51

I'm glad I read this thread.
I believed so many these stories. The snake measuring someone up was told to me by my hairdresser not that long ago.
It happened to a friend of hers Hmm