http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=123761
You’re welcome. And someone may want to clue in Desmostylus to the joke. Hehehehe…
This friend of my cousin’s started an urban legend once…
I had an idea for an urban legend. You know those sweepstakes where you open the bottle of soda and check under the cap to see if you win the prize? Well, due to a labelling mishap, instead of those bottles getting spread out all over the place, they all ended up on one pallet, going to one store somewhere in Illinois. Somebody would win all the prizes by shopping at the right store!
I think it’s a good 'un.
It taps into an already-existing well of looniness, which probably a good idea for your first UL–you don’t have to build all the infrastructure from scratch. In the rodwatchers, you have a population that has already demonstrated their gullibility, so they’re primed and ready to recieve.
Common household items are all that are required, but the vast majority of people will be too lazy to attempt to test it and will probably just pass it along. Of the people who actually try it, only a few will see nothing and consider the rumor debunked. The majority will just figure that they aren’t doing it right, and some will actually see something.
I look forward to reading complicated “scientific” explanations of this phenomenon and photographic evidence on wacko websites.
Godspeed, little legend!
I don’t believe the UL originally suggested with catch on, but best of luck.
It seems to lack aspects that the best ones, which we used to call rumors, usually have. Two unrelated things, that large numbers of people fear or believe.
The legends that catch on tend to be both believable and unbelievable at the same time. If people know them to be false, they won’t repeat them and if the stories aren’t something quite “unbelievable” they won’t repeat them.
Don’t mean to hijack, but didn’t one of our other esteemed members (Revtim maybe?) start an urban legend too way back when? I could SWEAR someone else was going to do this - but I don’t recall them every saying if it went anywhere or was retold or anything.
And I mean WAY WAY back when…couple of years maybe
No, that’s just an urban legend, it never really happened.
well, someone had to say it
I read somewhere that starting urban legends never works. This friend of a guy I work with said his barber’s dad tried it, and it failed. It has to be impossible, Snopes won’t even debunk it. Also, I think Tommy Hilfiger was on Oprah a few years ago, and said that fake UL thing is baloney. Maybe it was Liz Claiborne, though.
Although, I think if you send an e-mail with that invented UL to everyone on your address list, it might just work. Give it a shot.
So, any news yet?
Okay, it really isn’t an URBAN LEGEND. It’s pseudoscience, and I’m hoping to see it spread through pseudoscience circles. I predict within five years it will have to be debunked on the Skeptic’s Dictionary.
We could try a true urban legend. In fact, why don’t we try three? Three urban legends of varying types:
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CELEBRITY URBAN LEGEND: Christina Aguilera was born Christopher Aguilera; she was a hermaphrodite at birth but was operated on as an infant to make her female. You can’t even see the scars anymore.
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SCIENCE URBAN LEGEND: Enough Aspirin mixed with Coca-Cola will produce highly unstable nitroglycerine that can cause huge explosions. You never hear about this because you need a lot of Aspirin, like 150 regular sized tablets in a single glass of Coke carefully ground up, mixed, and baked, and who tries that? A good side effect is that if you take one Aspirin a day for your heart, taking it with Coke will make it more effective, since nitroglycerine is used to treat heart ailments.
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CONSUMER URBAN LEGEND: The Toyota logo is a symbol of the Illuminati.
Your homework:
Tell ONE person, either in person or E-mail, ONE of these legends. Make sure you select the legend that person is most likely to swallow. Remember; just one person, one legend. Let me know which legend you tell.
It’s TRUE!!! I set up two Owens Corning Float Glass mirrors opposite each other, with a .5 degree offset for clarity in the deeper iterations. In the 5th iteration, a pair of rods appeared. They swept across the 6th and 7th iterations, then a pair of CONES appeared in the 8th thru 11th reflections. Then they traced a double helix into the distance. I don’t understand it all, but there it is!!
Nott
“Blather, prints, replete.”-- a mantra on hair harmony by Oliver Faltz
Snopes has had great success with their Repository of Lost Legends.
I have heard both the Mr. Ed one and the KFC one spread as true.
I like the ‘good mirrors’ and binoculars; just enough detail to explain why it doesn’t work.
I think what you have there are a good way, if they actually get anywhere, of getting yourself into a whole heap of trouble with litigious multi-national companies.
Check out the whole Proctor & Gamble ‘satanic’ UL, they’ve sued left, right and centre over that myth and I think Toyota may not care for yours.
As for your original ‘rods’ UL. It’s way too complicated and before anyone swallows it they’re going to have to understand and swallow the whole ‘rods’ thing, which are pretty much unheard of outside of internet “alien consipracy” websites. The point of ULs is that they should involve everyday ‘urban’ issues and situations and have a hook that makes them good gossip. They should also have a warning or something to say about the listener’s own life. No one is going to drop in your gem about rods into casual conversation unless they want everyone to think they’re a deranged geek.
Try something more along these lines:
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Plastic forks give you mouth cancer. Scientists studies prove it.
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A diet of potatoes and ham alone makes your hair grow faster.
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A man in Japan died died from a cell phone induced heart attack. He had three in his top pocket and his friends, as a joke, phoned them all at once. Unfortunately they were all set to vibrate only and the combined jolt stopped his heart.
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A woman in Canada survived for up to a week trapped in her upsidedown SUV under 50 feet of water in a lake. Unfortunately she wasn’t discovered until a month later. A postmortum discovered that she’d eaten her pet dog that had been trapped in there with her and drank lake water that seeped in through the ventilation system. No one is sure how she managed with the cup holders being upside down.
Here’s one you might like.
A young man died of heart failure at a club when he leaned against a wall of X amt kilowatt loudspeakers and the bass vibrations were so strong his heart effectively burst.
I’ve tricked my friends with that one many a time.