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?

Someone told that story yesterday in our book group. I've seen it before somewhere and I think it's a plot from a book. It came about when I told the true story of the time I took my 8 month old kitten to school in an Adidas bag and she got out in class. I was 12.

Another source here:
Zoo fears worst for missing penguin | UK news | The Guardian

It was a film in the 80's- When a stranger calls.

He would call and say "have you checked the children"
and the calls were coming from inside the house.

I think there was a re-make more recently

Yes, my BIL told me the penguin one, said it had happened on his school trip and the kid had it inside his coat. This was back in the 90s so it’s clearly been doing the rounds for a while!

I remember the chicken burger abscess one from school, and one of my teachers claimed to have taught a Crystal Shanda Lear - which I later found out was the actual name of the Lear jet founder’s daughter! But doubt she went to school in Catford…

The one I hear most is ‘a couple had a meal for x Chinese/Indian restaurant, bit into a spring roll/naan bread, felt something hard, it was a cats/dogs microchip’.

I miss being told these
Since the advent of the smartphone taking shite for shites sake has taken a downturn and I miss it so much.

Maybe its an Irish thing, but a good story is in the telling and noone really cares if its true or not.

This and being able to debate what year x happened or if y really lived in America.
Then out comes the smartphone and all banter is over.

Its a real loss.

Hamster up Richard Gere's bum: from my teen years.

I remember the one from the early 80's about Marc Almond of Soft Cell. Years later a colleague from a different part of the country mentioned it. Funny how urban legends spread far and wide.

I love a good Urban Legend! I don't see any single reason to call someone out when they're telling it though... It's just a mean-spirited thing to do.

A bit of a disgusting one.
I think it was early to mid nineties me and dh went out for a meal with another couple.

The bloke told a story of the first time he met his previous girlfriends parents. He went to the toilet and did a massive poo. It wouldn't flush. After several attempts of trying to get rid of it, scooped it up with toilet paper and lobbed it out of the bathroom window, only for it to land on the converastory roof where everyone was sitting.

The number of people this unfortunate episode has happened to is unreal.
I even heard someone recounting how it happened to them on the radio when a dj wanted to hear people's embarrassing stories.

When my eldest came home from primary school telling me all about a tree climbing octopus that the teacher had told them about, I admit to having a word with the teacher to say it was an urban legend. Poor chap hadn't long qualified so was rather enthusiastic with things he thought a class of 5yr olds would like to know!

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.

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

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

.

Never heard that one before!

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

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 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.

They said it sure Marilyn Monroe too!

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.