Urban Legends.

[LordOfThe5Rings]

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! :)

[LordOfThe5Rings]

I sooo hope that is true, Scorpion.

[TrollofTrollHall]

Crying Boy Picture.

You're going to have to google it yourself because I don't want it on my laptop screen in case it's true... (would probably do a link if it wasn't Irrational o'clock)

[ScorpionQueen]

My cousin has a photo of a family party with a crying boy standing to the side, watching. It's on my Facebook but I can't post it without outing myself- spookiest thing I ever saw. Apparently it is the ghost of a boy who died in a car crash a few years previously and he was drawn by the music and laughter, as he was so lonely.

[angryfurball]

I love these!

[sashh]

Scorpion - I heard that one too and would really like it to be true.

One that is on snopes, well a version of one.

A group of people are training to be Christian minsters. They have a final exam. Wehn they reach the door to sit the exam there is a note saying the exam has been moved to the other side of the campus, they will have to hurry to get there.

Half way between the rooms the students come accross someone who has fallen of their bike and is bleeding. The person asks for help and the students ignore him(sometimes it is a her).

When they reach the exam hall they recieve a fail mark for not stopping to help.

Not as creepy as the sleeping bag photos.

A friend of my cousin was travelling from London to Leeds. She was really tired so aske the person opposite to nudge her when they reached Leeds.

She woke up in Edinburgh with a post it note on her forehead that said "Don't trust strangers".

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.

[OhNoMyFoot]

Thank god I'm reading these in the morning

[stookiesackhouse]

Oo that dead hitchhiker one just gave me a big shiver!

[serotoninbutterfly]

So glad I am reading these in the morning with a toddler to distract me! Brilliant. I actually had not heard most of these except the snake one!

[ToujoursPur]

Surely the whole point about the overnight trains and sleeping gas one is that they pump sleeping gas in so "staying awake" isn't actually going to help you

[ObviouslyItsTheOlympics]

What about my friend who went on holiday to a very exotic yet nondescript country. When he came back he had a big itchy sore on his leg that kept getting bigger, shinier and more itchy. He eventually scratched it so hard that it burst and hundreds of tiny spiders came cascading out of it :o

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Obviously, that takes me right back! Was a perennial favourite at my school.

Someone really needs to explain the 'three grannies in an RV in Mexico' one to me. Plleeeeeeeeeease!

[Rachog]

I believed the snake one as true when I heard it first time.. gullible!

I don't get the granny one either, where did the body go?

[Gabeesh]

Then of course there's the surprise party and the dog food...

[OlympicTeaDrinker]

But if they're not true then where do they appear from

obviously I know that over time there have been different variations of them but do they not all originally start from some soft of truth?

[LordOfThe5Rings]

There is that possibility, Olympic - at least with some of them.

I think some are exaggerated truths that they use to frighten people off doing certain things.

[JambalayaCodfishPie]

Shouldn't have read these - they play on my mind for aaaaaaaages.

Please come back and explain the granny one!

[sashh]

I'm I the only one that got the granny one?

Someone nicked granny's body, it it disapeared in a puff of smaoke, or she isn't really dead and let herself out.

A dead body should stay where you leave it.

[stookiesackhouse]

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.

[JambalayaCodfishPie]

I think people thought it was meant to be scary!

[juneybean]

That version sounds more like the Little Miss Sunshine movie

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Ah, thanks stookie, that makes sense!

[LemonBreeland]

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.

[MikeLitorisRings]

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.

[BertieBotts]

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

[probably just weird]

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

[worldgonecrazy]

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.