# Snopes is Snippy (Duck Echo)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-is-snippy-duck-echo/145>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 21, 1999, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-is-snippy-duck-echo/145 "1999-07-21T23:33:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 1999, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-is-snippy-duck-echo/145/1 "1999-07-21T23:33:00Z")

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Snopes ([www.snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com)), a repository of urban legend research and debunking, recently ran a piece on the “duck quacks don’t echo” rumor. They basically said, “this is too silly to be true.”

I wrote them a message pointing out that Cecil’s minions had researched this issue (I gave them the column’s URL), and a functionary named “David” wrote back with the following snippy snippet:

‘Sending someone to listen to a duck quack in a courtyard hardly qualifies as “research.”’

Well, it ain’t exactly Nobel Prize material, but it’s a far sight better than pulling an answer out of your ass, which is what Snopes did.

Perhaps this “David” is some hooligan teenager left to look after the keyboards when the real Snopesers were out partying, and only for that reason did I get such a snotty-ass reply.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-is-snippy-duck-echo/145/2 "1999-07-22T01:21:00Z")

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Hmmm, Cecil’s minions proved their hypothesis, and yet “Dave” was still a jerk about it. Weird. Here’s the URL to the article: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/980522.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/980522.html)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-is-snippy-duck-echo/145/3 "1999-07-22T13:22:00Z")

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David is (probably) snopes, himself. The board is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson. Whether he was snippy or not, couldn’t say. They are sticklers for documented evidence, however, and are very well thought of in the Urban Legend community.