To not point out story is an urban legend?

[StingLikeA]

I was in a group earlier of parents of DC's friends at a party. We were chatting away and one of them told an urban legend story (stealing a penguin from the zoo if that's relevant). I just went 'oh really ha ha' and moved the subject on as it felt really awkward.

Would you have politely pointed out that the story was a crock of shit to avoid them repeating it again? AIBU to have ignored it and presumably let them keep on telling it?

Has anyone else been told one of these face to face?

I just let them be on with it. Seems like it would behumiliating them to point it out

They were telling it as if they did it? Oooh that's cringey! I might have said something like 'oh wow that story is famous, I've read it all over the internet' or 'why is it always poor penguins getting stolen' if I wanted to make a point that I'd spotted their BS, but if not I would just make a mental note that this was a bullshitter and to take other things they say with a pinch of salt

I think it was a friend or their sister or something? So not them directly (I guess it never is!). I did really cringe for them which is why I'm wondering if I should have saved them from repeating it to someone else!

I would let it go. Who really cares?

It is a story but you seem overinvested in it why?

This did actually happen . Amazon zoo ( forget the exact name) on the Isle of Wight. It was very well publicised at the time:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4547722.stm

One of the characteristics of the urban legend is that it always happens to the friend of a friend, aka FOAF: "The Choking Doberman" by Jan Harold Brunvand. It's a really good read.

I once debunked an urban legend for a friend who spoke to me about the rumour mill at the school where they taught, circulating the story that Mickey Mouse-stamped LSD tabs were being sold at the school gates. I didn't tell them in the spirit of "you credulous numpty".

The baby penguin was never returned and almost certainly died 😥

I am 60 now but when I was at school the big urban legend was the couple at the cinema eating KFC in the dark and the young women saying 'This chicken tastes weird'
When the lights went up and she checked the box. It was a rat.

Why? What possible benefit would that have on your life?

Why on earth do you care? Urban legends are jsut part of an oral tradition
Normal people don't belive them but just appreciate rhe story. As they say it's the way that you tell them

I wouldn’t say anything, unless you know them very well indeed. Even though people repeating urban legends with apparently no capacity for critical thinking drives me insane.

I remember that one! Did you have the spider one too, where the woman was bitten on the arm by a spider on holiday, and a lump appeared later, and hundreds of baby spiders ran out?

I find urban legends fascinating, particularly pre internet. DP and I grew up about 200 miles apart but both heard the same urban legends. It’s a real example of the passing on of stories!

Most people do it because they are good stories and know and expect other people to know they aren't real

It's fun to call out bullshitters?

I love urban legends. I have had people tell
me about them and I nod and smile along. Apprently two people I know, know the person who went to a&e cause the couldn’t get their contact lenses out! And two people completely unrelated where at the Scottish wedding where the men in kilts left skid marks on the brides dress

Urban legends are those things that can or not can be true. The fun is in sharing them and making people go "ooooh".
Let her get on with it. Unless you are a penguin, you have nothing to worry about 😉

I'm sure I read about the penguin being stolen on a MN thread many years ago.

Most urban legends probably don't make that much difference whether or not they're actually true. How many tour guides at attractions across the world tell hundreds of eager tourists every day tall stories about the place - presented as fact - that almost certainly never happened?!

Ha ha I remember that one too! As teens my friends and I were convinced it was true 🙈

I repeated an urban legend at work that I genuinely thought was true. I’d been on a first aid course and the guy told us about a colleague who had been volunteering at a rugby match and a player dislocated his hip. The first aider popped it back in and accidentally trapped the guy’s testicle in the hip joint. I was so sure in my retelling of this story that I was pretty embarrassed to be told it was an urban legend. But I was still grateful to be told so I could stop repeating it like an idiot 🙈

Urban legend = The Mandela effect.

I wouldn't say anything. People make themselves look silly all the time.

I love a good urban legend, although they have somewhat lost their charm since the Internet. I did actually worry that chewing gum stayed in your stomach for 7 years if you swallowed it. And the one about Marilyn Manson having ribs removed was a playground favourite.

Every thread on here about terrible baby names always has a poster claiming they know a friend of a friends, sister who has a baby named L-a.

We got told the one about the dog protecting the baby from the snake (or wolf I think depending on which version it is) in primary school and I don't know if they missed off the bit about it being an urban legend or I didn't realise but that story genuinely upset me for about a week, I thought it was true!

I have a whole book full of Urban Legends now but I still hate that one.

How could you tell them they are telling untrue tales without 1) being boring / sanctimonious 2) making them hate you forever?

I think the answer is you can't. And this is such a problem for our age.

I feel there needs to be a stronger disincentive for spreading things that aren't true so people take more ownership of what they are saying. Like a Credibility Rating - so you could report someone for presenting someting as true when it wasn't and their rating would suffer as a result.

Ooh wasn’t there one about a snake that laid up next to its owner to check it could eat it? Think I believed that one as a teen too 🤦🏽‍♀️