# It's a silly story or rumor, but it creeps you out anyway **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354 "2007-08-29T13:05:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/1 "2007-08-29T13:05:29Z")
I was just reading a [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7950310&postcount=12) in an old thread that kind of struck a chord with me: [QUOTE=ZipperJJ] I also liked to read about the whole “Paul is dead” thing and find the clues. But finding the clues and the whole idea of the thing REALLY creeped me out. Kept on reading about it anyway. So pretty much anything cited in the “Paul is dead canon” scared me. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=jayjay] I thought I was the only one who got that eerie feeling when reading about “Paul is dead”! It’s weird…I didn’t really know about that rumor until the late 80s, either, so I KNEW he was alive, but the whole thing just puts me in a very strange mood. [/QUOTE] Me three. Reading about that whole silly concocted rumor/conspiracy theory started out funny, but then . . . not so funny. Creepy even. Somehow made weirder by the fact that of course it’s not true. There might be silly rumors you half believe (for me, ouija boards) or things you’d like to believe (NDEs?), but somehow the strangest of all might be ones you patently don’t believe. Anything like that for you? Where do you think this feeling comes from? ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/2 "2007-08-29T18:01:22Z")
Can’t think of any for myself, but as to your question of why? I think **Scylla** said it best: > [@Scylla](#): > > I always knew this was going to happen. I always knew that skepticism and science were mere psychological decorations and vanities. Deep in our alligator brains we all know that the world is just chock full of evil and monsters and sinister forces aligned against us, and it is only a matter of time until they show up. Evolution know this, too. It knows what to do when the silent terror comes at you from out of the dark. . ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/3 "2007-08-29T18:34:58Z")
The scary thing about the “Paul is dead” stuff for me was the supposed messages in the songs, which of course, then stood out everytime I listened to them. Though I knew they weren’t REALLY there, the idea that people were joking about a friend’s death creeped me out big time. Also, backward messages- especially the ones that didn’t seem to be deliberately placed & was saying demonic anti-Christian things. It’s amazing what you’ll hear in a darkened auditorium after an authority figure tells you to listen close & this is what you’ll hear. Oh yeah, and EVPs. Btw, the Scylla quote above is worthy of Lovecraft! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/4 "2007-08-29T18:51:12Z")
There was a story I heard when I was a teen about someone eating a sammich from some place. A fish filet from McD’s, or was it a chicken sammich? Doesn’t matter. Anyway, the story went that the sammich had a tumor in it and the girl got cancer from it. The story horrified me. My rational mind told me it was wrong. The meat is chopped up so fine that nothing like that could come through. Etc. The thing is, it wasn’t getting cancer that frightened me but the thought of actually eating a tumor. For years I was off whatever sandwich it was and the mere thought made me ill. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/5 "2007-08-29T19:09:50Z")
A lot of the snopes stories, that I know are false, still give me the heebie jeebies. The white slavery story, the story of the couple that goes on vacation and comes back to their dead baby because the babysitter got into a car accident, and the Mexican pet are examples. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/6 "2007-08-29T20:18:00Z")
Oh lord – the seed-pod breast thing. I clicked on it by accident, and I knew right away it was faked… but \ I can no longer even _look_ at those dried seed pod things. I have to avert my gaze when I walk down the dried flower aisle at Michaels. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/7 "2007-08-29T20:37:05Z")
The spider eggs hatching out of the woman’s cheek. And, I know it’s just a movie, but I freak myself out and cannot bring myself to say “Candyman” five times into a mirror. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/8 "2007-08-29T22:15:16Z")
I always thought the ‘Paul Is Dead’ bits were kinda funny. Any conspiracy that was supposedly based on John Lennon hiding anything that coherent in his music struck me as improbable, considering how difficult it was to make him talk sense under normal circumstances. 😛 Or sing anything the same way twice. The one that really creeps me out is neither a rumor nor necessarily very silly. It’s those shortwave radio stations that broadcast nothing but groups of numbers, from various places, at set times of the day. It’s pretty certain that they belong to a variety of intelligence agencies, and pretty obvious that it’s a numerical code, probably from a one-time pad, but there’s no way for me to _know_, you know? It’s just information, floating around out there, and I have _no idea_ what the context is or what it says. When I first read about them in William Poundstone’s “Big Secrets” book, I was so creeped out that I had to read that section with all the lights on, and my back solidly against a wall. Brr. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/9 "2007-08-30T02:20:46Z")
The “Paul is Dead” stuff scares me. But you already knew that 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/10 "2007-08-30T02:42:34Z")
The whole [Publius Enigma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Enigma) just really freaks and creeps me out for some reason. It still does. In fact, anything that deals with weird coded messages or puzzles like that provokes a strong fear reaction in me for some reason - like that whole thing where people have put those anonymous coded messages in that college paper for years, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/11 "2007-08-30T02:53:36Z")
The short-wave radio station stuff is intensely creepy. It gives me chills to think about, for some reason. The other thing that gets me is the urban legend where the babysitter realizes that the scary calls are coming from _within the house_. :eek: AAH! No matter how many times I hear it debunked, it always scares the shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![I\_mOnlySleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/76d3ee/32.png) [@I\_mOnlySleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_mOnlySleeping)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/12 "2007-08-30T03:15:32Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] And, I know it’s just a movie, but I freak myself out and cannot bring myself to say “Candyman” five times into a mirror. :eek: [/QUOTE] For me it’s “Bloody Mary.” Logically I know it’s just an urban legend. But I cannot bring myself to say it into a mirror, and I will be in a state of low-grade terror if the power goes out when I’m in the bathroom. I have had this fear since I was a little girl and I first heard about it (mid-70s). ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/13 "2007-08-30T03:22:41Z")
The idea that people dress up as police officers so they can catch victims off guard and abduct or rape and murder them. I haven’t seen a lot of statistical evidence to back up the notion that this is actually a threat, but it’s certainly a rumor and has been portrayed enough times in movies and books to have a general idea of how it would go. Ever since I was aware of that rumor, even knowing it was silly, I have gotten the willies every time we get pulled over. Heck, we got pulled over by some cops once when I was living in Mexico. I was freaking out. I kept expecting them to make us get out of the car, line us up single file, and shoot us execution style. No particular reason, really. They were just evil people posing as cops.\* (I felt kind of silly when we got a ‘‘no seatbelt’’ citation.) \*No, I’m not particularly mistrustful of cops. Just evil people _pretending_ to be cops. Oh, and another: That ridiculous rumor that people hide under your cars with knives and slash your achilles heel when you’re least expecting it. That will never stop freaking me out. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/14 "2007-08-30T03:24:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by gigi > And, I know it’s just a movie, but I freak myself out and cannot bring myself to say “Candyman” five times into a mirror. > For me it’s “Bloody Mary.” Logically I know it’s just an urban legend. But I cannot bring myself to say it into a mirror, and I will be in a state of low-grade terror if the power goes out when I’m in the bathroom. I have had this fear since I was a little girl and I first heard about it (mid-70s). Thirded. Bathrooms in general scare me, but mirrors, especially in the dark, are a HUGE hell no. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/15 "2007-08-30T03:43:53Z")
[QUOTE=I’mOnlySleeping] For me it’s “Bloody Mary.” Logically I know it’s just an urban legend. But I cannot bring myself to say it into a mirror, and I will be in a state of low-grade terror if the power goes out when I’m in the bathroom. I have had this fear since I was a little girl and I first heard about it (mid-70s). [/QUOTE] Me too! Only I heard it in the mid-80’s. But I still don’t like to look in the mirror when I have to get up to go pee in the middle of the night. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/16 "2007-08-30T03:47:31Z")
[QUOTE=Jess] Oh lord – the seed-pod breast thing. I clicked on it by accident, and I knew right away it was faked… but \ I can no longer even _look_ at those dried seed pod things. I have to avert my gaze when I walk down the dried flower aisle at Michaels. [/QUOTE] ME TOO! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/17 "2007-08-30T04:16:45Z")
Bloody Mary creeps me out, too. I know it’s not true, I know that no one’s going to come out…but I’m not ever going to do it. Same goes for chanting Biggie Smalls. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/18 "2007-08-30T04:39:10Z")
Another vote for bloody mary. Can’t have the lights off at all in a bathroom with a mirror (outhouses are fine for example, because they don’t have mirrors). That episode of Supernatural gave me the heeby jeebies bad. Anything with Ouija boards. Logically I know it’s nothing, but my Mom refused one in the house when I was younger, and just too many stories when I was older that creeped the hell outta me. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/19 "2007-08-30T05:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=YumemiSama] The one that really creeps me out is neither a rumor nor necessarily very silly. It’s those shortwave radio stations that broadcast nothing but groups of numbers, from various places, at set times of the day. It’s pretty certain that they belong to a variety of intelligence agencies, and pretty obvious that it’s a numerical code, probably from a one-time pad, but there’s no way for me to _know_, you know? It’s just information, floating around out there, and I have _no idea_ what the context is or what it says. When I first read about them in William Poundstone’s “Big Secrets” book, I was so creeped out that I had to read that section with all the lights on, and my back solidly against a wall. Brr. [/QUOTE] So that’s what book is called! I read it in college and that particular chapter creeped me out too. Brrrrrr. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354/20 "2007-08-30T06:22:40Z")
All the “local” ghost stories (every community has them). Around here we have Dark Hollow and 9 mile bridge. In the town I learned to drive in there was Pink Bridge, Spook Hollow, and the Goat-man’s house. We all knew they were b.s., but we had tons of fun cruising around these places scaring the crap out of ourselves when we were kids. And now whenever I have to drive through the woods at night I get the willies something fierce, and have to lock all my car doors and periodically glance into my backseat to make sure nothing horrible has magically spawned back there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-silly-story-or-rumor-but-it-creeps-you-out-anyway/417354.md?page=2)