URBAN LEGENDS

1. URBAN LEGENDS • 1. Strong, basic story-appeal • 2. Usually passed on by word of mouth (friend of a friend) • 3. Foundation in actual belief • 3. May offer a moral lesson or message

2. Are these stories true or false?

3. Mr. Rogers was a Navy SEAL.

4. Bloody Mary - according to this myth if you turn out the lights, look into a mirror, and say Bloody Mary three times (in some versions the number of times differs) then you will summon the spirit of Mary Worth, a woman who was supposedly executed for being a witch.

5. Coke dissolves a human tooth if left in the glass overnight

6. Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen

7. Alligators live in the sewers of New York

8. Vanishing hitchhiker - the story tells of a motorist who picks up a female hitchhiker on a lonely stretch of road. He then drives her home only to find that she has disappeared from his backseat. After knocking on her door he is told the girl died in a car accident years ago in the very same spot that he picked her up.

9. Kidney thieves - a traveling business man being bought drinks by a stranger only to wake up in a tub covered in ice with a phone next to him telling him to call 911. Covered in blood he later learns that his kidney has been removed by criminals who intend to sell it on the black market.

10. Killer in the backseat - a woman who is driving down a dark road at night only to have a strange car pull up behind her and start flashing its lights. As she takes off on her exit and approaches her home the stranger continues to follow her. She pulls up in her driveway ready to make a mad dash to her front door only to hear the stranger behind her get out of his car and yell to her to lock her door and call 911. Only after the police arrive does she learn that the stranger was actually trying to protect her. In her backseat was a man holding a butcher knife ready to stab her to death. The stranger had noticed his shadowy form and started flashing his lights to get her attention after which the figure slouched back down in the seat.

11. Jedi religion - if enough people fill out “Jedi” as their religion on their census forms the government will have to make it an official religion.

12. Daddy Long Legs - the daddy long legs spider is the most poisonous in the world but cannot kill humans because its fangs are too small.

13. The Clown Statue - the story of a girl babysitting for a family when she calls the parents to ask if she can cover up a disturbing clown statue in the corner of the living room. The dad tells her very seriously to grab the kids, go next door, and call 911 without any further explanation. Once she is next door and the police are on their way she calls the father back who then explains that they don’t have a clown statue. Furthermore, the kids had been complaining about a clown watching them in their sleep but the parents had written it off as nightmares. In most versions of the story the clown turns out to be a midget who had been living in their house for some time undetected. When the babysitter came over he didn’t have time to escape so he just froze in the corner.