An urban legend for an English paper?
Question by Rotah: An urban legend for an English paper?
I have a paper due in a week about an urban legend. It doesnt have to be completely from our immagination. (We dont have to make up our own, we can but i decided i would get a base.) So does anyone know any interesting urban legends i can do my paper over?
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3 Responses to An urban legend for an English paper?
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There are a lot of good urban legends you could use. “The Hook” of course is a classic. Then there are a few of my favorites, “The Satin Evening Gown”, “The High Beams”, “The Bed By The Window”, and “The Bride” Pertaining more to a specific place, there’s The Bunnyman Bridge, Beast of Bray Road, The Demon Cat of DC, Black Shuck and many, many more. The Tale of Sweeney Todd is even thought to have begun with an urban legend.
Shayne
October 13, 2013 at 9:42 pm
Check out http://www.snopes.com. It’s a site that lists urban legends and talks about whether or not they are true.
LH
October 13, 2013 at 10:08 pm
Oh wow…. This is one of my favorite subjects. The best are those which people pass around and believe them. In fact, some claim they have proof that it happened (it happened to my mom’s friend, my best friend was the nurse at the hospital or my favorite:…. I saw it on the internet, so it must be true…. right)
You see, some people have to believe it. If it is so ridiculous that nobody believes it, it is no good as an urban legend. I am going to hit you with a few. You might know some of them. You might even be surprised that that it is a myth.
That Jamie Lee Curtis is a hermaphrodite:
This has been passed around as fact even at some medical schools. There are some that even claim that someone close to them was either the obstetrician or the maternity nurse at the hospital she was born. However, there is not one shred of evidence that this is true. I think even Jamie Lee Curtis has been trying to disabuse people of this for years. Still, it is one of those urban legends that has hung on.
That Mikey (the kid they used to advertise Life cereal in the 1970s) killed himself by drinking soda and Pop Rocks, and for this reason, pop rocks was taken off the market.
The actor who played Mikey is still alive and all grown up. Even if you ate a whole bunch of pop rocks washed down by a whole bunch of soda, the only thing you might get would be some gas. Still, the legend caused Pop rocks such negative publicity that it affected sales enough for it to be discontinued.
Rumors about Halloween; razor blades in apples, candy bars etc….
Never happened. There is not one documented case of this. However, candy, medication and other items have been tampered with at the store, and even sometimes at the distribution facility or the factory.
Very few people would contaminate something in their own home that could easily be traced back to them.
That Mc.Donalds made their burgers out of kangaroo meat.
Kangaroos are not farm raised, hard to catch, and the meat is probably really tough. The cost of catching kangaroos and turning them into meat would make the cost of kangaroo meat higher, pound for pound, than beef. Mc. D’s also has existing relationships with distributors of beef that can get it for Mc. D’s very cheaply. Mc. Donalds has always made their burgers out of beef, because it is the most cost effective. And if they were using anything other than legitimate meat, the FDA would have found out about it before you would have!
KFC “grows” meat in a lab, so they can’t call it chicken. Some even say that they breed chickens without heads and feet.
This one is so ridiculous it makes me laugh. KFC is not in the business of raising chickens any more than Mc.. Donalds is in the business of raising cows. Fast food establishments get their meat (and other food items) from distributors. They do not own cattle farms, chicken farms, potato farms for their fries, tomato farms for their ketchup etc….
That being said, labs are exploring how to fabricate protein (meat). However, they are a long way off, and no fast food restaurant would try to sneak it into your food without your knowledge.
Even so, the meat industry (raising, slaughter) is pretty distasteful regardless of where the actual meat is going.
And my favorite: the gerbil stuffing rumor:
Legend has it that people have shoved gerbils up their a ss. In some stories, they pull out their claws and get them high on crack. In other stories, the gerbil has gotten lodged there and required medical attention. In other stories, the gerbil has managed to claw or eat his way out. Sometimes it involves a celebrity (most commonly Richard Gere or Jerry Pennacoli (a Philadelphia newscaster who subsequently lost his job over the scandal). A lot of people will claim that they knew the attending physician/nurse at the hospital.
Never happened. Richard Gere, Jerry Pannacoli or anyone else has ever shoved a gerbil up their a ss. People have been brought into the hospital because of other (non living) items lodged there, but there is not one report of anyone actually putting a gerbil or any other animal up there.
And of course all the Obama legends:
Obama is a Muslim, Obama was not born in the US, Obama is in cahoots with the Taliban etc (of course republicans love to exploit these)
This has been fun! Urban legends are one of my favorite subjects.
Here is a website which has pretty much every urban legend explained and debunked. It will keep you amused for hours!
snopes.com
Good luck on your paper
Rob
October 13, 2013 at 10:09 pm