Come on admit it, that UL got you

[Loach]

There was a recent thread (maybe in the Pit) about people sending "helpfull" emails around the office that were no more than urban legends. Lots of replies about sending co-workers to Snopes and being resented for it. I remember being the resident spoil-sport when I worked in an office setting. I could spot a UL a mile away. Then I remember one that got me hook,line and sinker. After active duty when I joined the National Guard I heard this was going around. It was always presented as an absolute fact. It didn't occur to me that I never talked to anyone who saw it for themselves. It was on the SDMB that I found out its UL status.
The question is: have you ever fallen for an urban legend? Come on admit it I won't tell any one. If I could admit it so can you. Confession is good for the soul.

[Francesca]

As a teenager, I totally believed the Kentucky Fried Chicken cyst" UL. I genuinely didn't know of the existance of ULs at the time, and passed it on to many people. I have since learned the error of my ways.

[Cervaise]

When I was in high school, I was responsible for redistributing a staggering array of ridiculous bullshit, partly because I believed it but more because it was an effective way of getting attention. "Didja know FDR knew Pearl Harbor was coming but he let it happen on purpose? Norilly!"

My current swing back to the other extreme, stamping out bullshit wherever I come across it, is something like atonement.

[danceswithcats]

Reading the thread title, I'm thinking about someone who was caught selling electrical products which weren't listed by the Underwriters Laboratory.

[Revtim]

I heard Kentucky Fried rat, and believed it.

[Colophon]

I believed and passed on the thing about glass being a liquid...

[Antigen]

The HIV-infected needles didn't really fool us.... we just didn't go out dancing in clubs for a while...

Ok, we were scared half to death. I mean, it was on the news!

Until the station came back a couple of weeks later with a story about how it was an urban legend and even they'd fallen for it.

[iampunha]

Originally Posted by Colophon

I believed and passed on the thing about glass being a liquid...

Cecil believed it too...

[TellMeI'mNotCrazy]

The one I fell for was the Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan in the elevator story. But the more I thought about it, the more suspicious I got - how would that not have made the news?

That's how I found Snopes.

[SolGrundy]

I was visiting a friend in D.C. and his stepfather warned us not to flash our headlights if we saw anyone driving with their headlights off; it was part of a gang initiation, and they'd track us down and shoot us. I don't think I passed it on, though.

I did believe (and passed on, even ) the bit on the snopes site debunking the rumor that Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to remove the word "fried."

[flight]

Wow, I guess I passed that one on as well. That is a very interesting one as it is a rumor hiding a runor hiding the truth. You think you are enlightening people from their false beliefs when in fact you are just giving them another. Of course, this may be forgiven as the company itself started the rumor with their official statements.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Originally Posted by SolGrundy

I did believe (and passed on, even ) the bit on the snopes site debunking the rumor that Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to remove the word "fried."

I believed that Mister Ed was a zebra for a while.

[dwc1970]

A few years ago there was a hoax going around, warning people not to turn their headlights off and back on to remind people who don't have their headlights on to turn them on. According to the hoax, this was an initiation rite being performed by gangs, whose members would drive around with their lights off. Anyone who turned their lights off and on would get shot at. I avoided performing my civic duty to remind others to turn on their headlights for several months before I found out that this was only a damn hoax.

I also fell for the myth about only being able to balance an egg on end on the day of the spring or autumnal equinox. I even got a picture of it, which was even run in the local newspaper's "photo of the day" since my cat jumped into the scene right as the picture was taken. Our own Bad Astronomer (a.k.a. Phil Plait) has debunked this one on his web site.

[Maus Magill]

I believed my mother's friend had run into Paul Newman at the ice cream shop. I shoulda known better, since the same friend had run into Lionel Richie and his doberman pinsher in an elevator.

[Bad News Baboon]

The way it was presented to me, I totally fell for the "Kentucky fried chicken uses scientifically created chicken blobs (for lack of a better word)" UL.

I mean, I wouldn't put it past them!
I think it's rather telling how many ULs are belived about them...

[Mama Tiger]

Aaaaand synchronicity rears its ugly head.

I'm sitting here reading about ULs (and I admit it, I fell for the Kentucky Fried rat, except in my version it was a mouse, when I was younger) and what do I get in my email? An urban legend about the evil man attacking women in strange and unexpected locations. Sheesh. This one someone had gone to the trouble of adding local locality names to to make it sound real. But don't people ever wonder when about "it happened to the sister-in-law of the cousin of a friend of a friend" that maybe they should be just a wee bit suspicious?

[TwoTrouts]

I fell for the "High Beam Headlights / Gang Initiation" UL, as well. Imagine my fear when, driving in LA, I flashed my lights at an an approaching car that had their brights on and watched with terror in my rear view mirror as the car made a quick U-Turn and began accelerating after me! It turns out that the driver had simply missed his turn and hung a quick right into the next street we passed!

As a kid, I firmly believed the rumour that Bubblicious Bubble Gum was made with spiders' eggs!

[MidnightRadio]

I believed the one about Jamie Lee Curtis being born a hermaphrodite (although, I guess technically we don't know that it's not true). I also believed that there were people hiding under cars in parking lots who cut the owners' achilles tendons when they came back to their cars. In my defense, though, I'm pretty sure the latter was reported as fact by the local news media. Wouldn't be the first time they've done that, either, I'd bet.

[BrotherCadfael]

I fell for the "Guy in disco faints because sausage/salami/cucumber stuffed in pants cut off circulation".

I thought I had heard my sister, who worked on a rescue squad, claim to have responded to this call. Later on, I found that I had misunderstood, she said that it happened "to a friend of a friend".

[Eleusis]

I believed that Rod Stewart collapsed at a concert and had a quart of semen pumped from his stomach.

But hey, that was like 25 years ago.

[MaxTheVool]

I very much want to believe the classic 2 dollar bill at taco bell story (Snopes calls it "undetermined").

I also was very convinced the first time I heard the one about the groom who put photos of the bride and best man in envelopes under every seat at the wedding, then walked out in the middle of the ceremony...

[Finagle]

I guess I feel for the one where the guy puts the JATO booster on his car and ends up plastered on an Arizona cliff wall. But how could you not believe that one? It's something that's just so crazy that you know someone is going to do it.

[Sylkyn]

I fell hook, line and sinker for the "syringe/needle found in the McDonald's playball area". I remember reading that and thinking, Well...hope the kids enjoyed it, because that'll never happen again. Several of us at work had received the email from I-forget-who now, and we were just aghast! NONE of our kids were getting back in that ball area! How terrifying.

I think I discovered Snopes the same week (unrelatedly) and realized the whole phenomenon of UL scare tactics. Hey...that one worked for me! I don't think I've been taken in again since then, at least not without a whole lotta skepticism and a quick trip to Snopes first.

Oh, but I do remember our whole building (back in 1993) receiving faxes about the "headlights and gang initiation" UL. We all went into a low-grade panic about that. The internet was "new" to us, and we peons didn't have access to it anyway. All we could do was....well, not flash our headlights.

[Zyada]

More recently, I believed, as did a lot of other people, that a German couple didn't know they had to have sex to conceive.

[VenusProbe]

Originally Posted by Finagle

I guess I feel for the one where the guy puts the JATO booster on his car and ends up plastered on an Arizona cliff wall. But how could you not believe that one? It's something that's just so crazy that you know someone is going to do it.

I fell for that one too, then I found out how the rumor got started.

[Sublight]

I was incredibly gullible in my youth: UFO's, ghosts, and just about every UL imaginable. Then, for some reason, it all changed when I was about 14. My first step toward the good side of the force was, appropriately enough, Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. I then read his other books, and eventually ran across Hal Morgan's Rumor!, which introduced me to the world of Urban Folklore and shattered some long-held beliefs I'd had. In college I found UseNet and a.f.u (back when snopes was just one of the regular posters). Since then, I've been a regular reader of snopes and SDMB, and always check out any weird stories I come across before passing them on.

That said, I still fell for snope's fake story about KFC dropping 'Kentucky' from their name because the state starting demanding money for use of the name.

[clayton_e]

I fell for the cold war pen story for one day until someone corrected me with the link. I've heard it several times since then but I just can't bring myself to say "um, you're wrong, look it up."

[Vaioman]

Originally Posted by Bad News Baboon

The way it was presented to me, I totally fell for the "Kentucky fried chicken uses scientifically created chicken blobs (for lack of a better word)" UL.

I thought KFC did really use GMO chicken? Whatever it is, it's gooood

[Guinastasia]

When I was a freshman in high school, the bit about gang members hiding under parked cars to slash the back of your heels and then cut off your fingers was going around. And my best friend even had a FOAF story about it happening to someone!

I also believed the one about the woman suing after eating contraceptive jelly on toast and then suing because she got pregnant.

[DesertDog]

Originally Posted by Tapioca Dextrin

I believed that Mister Ed was a zebra for a while.

Well, I didn't fall for that one. Striped or not, a zebra's head just doesn't look like horse's, and that's just about all you saw of Mr. Ed. However, the Titanic/Poseidon Adventure linkage I fell for hook, line, and (heh) sinker. In fact, that was what introduced me to the IMDb. It wasn't until I found I couldn't get from either the D.W. Griffith or the Donald Crisp entry back to the 1911 Poseidon Adventure page that I began to get suspicious. (I'd use the embarrased smiley here, but I think it looks more like it's yawning)

DD

[TellMeI'mNotCrazy]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

Well, I didn't fall for that one. Striped or not, a zebra's head just doesn't look like horse's, and that's just about all you saw of Mr. Ed. However, the Titanic/Poseidon Adventure linkage I fell for hook, line, and (heh) sinker. In fact, that was what introduced me to the IMDb. It wasn't until I found I couldn't get from either the D.W. Griffith or the Donald Crisp entry back to the 1911 Poseidon Adventure page that I began to get suspicious. (I'd use the embarrased smiley here, but I think it looks more like it's yawning)

DD

It bears pointing out that the above is listed under their lost legends, which would explain its "True" status; just to avoid confusion