Do you believe in urban legends that exist?

Question

I realized this have been asked before. What's your favorite one you heard of. I remember that was also a movie not too long ago.

Answer 1

An urban legend is a tale told in many times and places with variations. The first I recall hearing and perhaps still my favorite is "The Vanishing Hitchhiker". A man picks up a girl standing beside the road and offers to take her home. She rides silently behind him. When he reaches the address she gave him, she has disappeared. He may go to the house and learn that a girl was killed in a car wreck exactly ten years ago where he picked her up. My Japanese lover says there are variations of this tale in Japan. Earlier ones have men on horseback or in wagons. My Chinese lover says in medieval China, a man met a girl who walked behind him and disappeared. Her father said she was slain by robbers about where the man met her. My Japanese gal likes the "Nude Surprise" urban legends.

Answer 2

I believe that at one time there was a kernel of truth to some of the old urban legend stories. Whether they were taken from old newspaper articles or seen on TV, it's pretty easy to believe that at least some legends may have happened, which is what gives the urban legend it's staying power within our society. A good one is the legend about the little old lady that decides to dry her dog out in a microwave. When microwaves first made their appearance on the home scene not many people were that familiar with the technology and were making stupid mistakes like microwaving metal, etc, I wonder if there isn't a real story floating out in newspaper history somewhere that lends creedence to the urban legend about the little old lady and her dog/cat.

Answer 3

They are Urban legends so who knows if they really exist??? I did hear one about a woman who drowned in her car and if a car passes the bridge that her car fell off of it will stall and that fog seeps out from under the bridge. Many people have reported seeing this and some have even reported a shadowy woman figure walking towards them. Then all of the sudden the car starts everything disappears and you can pass. Is it true??? I don't know. The Loche Ness Monster is kind of cool.

Answer 4

Seems like many answerers don't know the difference between myth and legend....a legend CAN in fact be based on truth..
So, a myth can become a legend, and a legend could be based on a myth, but not necessarily.

Answer 5

Urban legends are - by definition - non-existent.
"an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true - called also urban myth"
But my favorite is probably the old "giant alligators in the sewer systems (often in New York City) which got there when kids flushed their baby pet alligators down the toilet."

Answer 6

The one that scares me the most is the girl who finds out there is an escaped convict (as always) and is home alone. She locks all the doors and closes the windows. She is scared to go to bed, but her dog is under her bed and when she got scared she would put her hand down for her dog to lick. When she wakes up there is a police man in her room. He tells her not to looks in the bathroom. She does anyways and finds her dog dead in the shower and it says 'humans can lick too' in blood. Or bloody mary. Or anything that has to do with mirrors.

Answer 7

I remember when KFC first came to England there was a story going round that a rat fell into the batter and got fried and sold as a piece of chicken. Having tasted KFC I'm sometimes inclined to think there may be something in it.

Answer 8

I don't believe in Urban Legends...
but I'll admit
you won't catch me saying Bloody Mary repetitiously in a dark room in front of a mirrow. :-)

Answer 9

Some of them... Bigfoot, Yetis... Extra Terrestrials! It's too big of a universe to have just one planet with life! And too many spottings of large hairy apelike creatures roaming aroung for it not to be true... probably a new species of Gorilla!

Answer 10

the one that scares me the most is the one where that lady comes home to find her dog choking on something, and then finds out it is a hand. then the police look in her shower and there is a guy in there with his hand bit off. even though it's stupid, i still sometimes peek in my shower to make sure there isn't a guy with a bloody stump in there.