From Askmen.com: Urban legends are often confused with conspiracies and superstitions. A conspiracy is an understanding or agreement to perform a misleading, often illegal or deceitful act involving one or numerous people. A superstition is an irrational belief that an object, action or circumstance plays an illogical role on another matter. These definitions are very broad and loose, but they cover the spectrum of all the kooky things that fascinate different people.
A third category of pure peculiarity comes in the shape, form and fashion of urban legends. An urban legend is something that suddenly appears in pop culture and proliferates rapidly through various mediums. It may contain some truth, but it's often based on falsehoods. As well, there is usually some element of horror, pain, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty latched onto a given urban legend. Moreover, it should captivate the audience and pull them to the edge of their seat. Finally, it need not be false (although many often are), but rather a combination of a poor understanding of something with a sensational story built around it.
Ranking urban legends is far from a science. That said, here are 10 urban legends that capture the imagination (and make us wonder...).
Number 10
The Hotel Toothbrush
This urban legend is a classic, albeit sick one. A family travels to a foreign country (usually Jamaica or France) and notices that their hotel room has been broken into and some materials have been stolen. Suspiciously, a few items remain accounted for: their toothbrushes and their camera (although one would ask why tourists would leave their camera in the hotel). Upon their return back home, they develop the pictures only to discover that the presumed robbers inserted the toothbrushes up their butts and took pictures of the episode. There is no place like home...Number 9
Satanic Messages In Songs
If it wasn't Judas Priest getting sued, it was Elvis being demonized. If it wasn't messages that could only be deciphered when an LP was played backwards, then it was more overt messages, like those supposedly in Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution" or the acronym to "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Whatever it is, songwriters are artists. And some of these artists are not the most clear thinking bunch of lads. Have each and every one of these artists purposely tried to have subliminal messages in their songs? Maybe . But let's look at it from another perspective: some of the greatest minds in English Literature were born out of the Romantic era. John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and company were all on opium and severely out of their minds. Fast forward a couple of hundred years -- one man's poetry is another man's satanic messages, I guess.Number 8
Initiation By Headlights
There have been numerous reports that some troublemakers like to get rowdy while driving at night. The story goes that these wild ones drive around and pull up at red lights, with their headlights off. When someone flashes them to signal that their lights are off, the Good Samaritan gets sprayed with gunfire.Number 7
Scuba Diver In Tree
One of the more popular urban legends out there is that of the scuba diver who is caught in a tree after a forest fire. Yep, you read right. This gem starts off with firefighters walking around an area that was ravaged by a forest fire. As they gaze around, they see that some scuba gear is lying around; not exactly what you would expect from fire-ravaged land. As they look up, they see the burned and decomposed body of a man in scuba gear. They wonder how his body could have ended up on the tree.
Their conclusion? A plane passed over a lake or river, scooped up some water (and the scuba diver), and then dropped the contents onto the forest fire. Fact of the matter is that no plane or helicopter made for this purpose has the capacity to pick up a body and suck him through the suction vent.
Number 6
Couple's Sex TV
A very popular urban legend deals with the couple that decides to return to their honeymoon destination for their anniversary. As the couple starts to unwind, they decide to watch an adult movie to spice up the evening. As the two begin to get closer and the movie rolls, they are shocked to see themselves caught on tape. While this actually took place and is in fact taking place somewhere as you read this, the explosive proliferation of this urban legend stems from our primal sexual desires, our appetite for risk and our infatuation with voyeurism.
Number 5
P&G As Satanists
Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble is a consumer goods powerhouse that has built a global empire thanks to Crest, Ivory, Tide, as well as many other products found in your home. But with success comes scrutiny and with scrutiny comes criticism. While the behemoth is far from 99% pure, some people claim that the firm's founders, managers and elite circle are Satanists. This stems from many things, one being its original logo.Number 4
Computer Viruses
Computer viruses are nasty. Some are downright annoying while others are destructive and costly. And with this threat come practical jokes. For every real virus that hits the computing world, there are a dozen phony ones that are merely pranks. The examples are too numerous to name, but a recent e-mail took the cake. The e-mail stated that the sender had unassumingly affected the recipient's C: drive. In order to correct it, an easy-to-follow procedure was provided as a fix. The problem was that this "fix" actually removed critical components of the hard drive, rendering the computer virtually useless.
Number 3
Nostradamus
Today, Nostradamus is more than a person. He is a phenomenon that creeps back into mainstream culture whenever something tragic suddenly strikes, threatens us and shakes the foundation that our world rests upon. Most recently, after the attacks of September 11th, an abundance of e-mail began to circulate that Nostradamus had warned about the impending doom centuries ago. Turns out that his reference to New York was any city below the Canadian and American border, and every other detail was off as well.Number 2
Stranded School Bus
This legend states that a bus full of school children became stranded on a desolate train track. A train emerged out of nowhere and instantly killed every child on the bus. The legend says that if you park your car on the train track, the souls of the children will push your car off the track. Moreover, even if you leave the car in neutral, the children will still push you across. What makes this spooky is that if you sprinkle baby powder or chalk on the bumper, you will discover small handprints after you have been pushed to safety. Thanks, but I'll take my bike...Number 1
Kidney To Go?
This one gets more press than all of the other urban legends combined. No one wishes to refute that the practice may have taken place illegally somewhere and that there is a burgeoning organ trade going on in some parts of the world. But the notion of the well-to-do businessman getting drugged by a provocative woman, only to have his kidneys removed is untrue. How so? A federal agency has set up a toll-free number for such victims and to this day, it has yet to receive one call (my question: where do you even find the number?).
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