# What's the most obvious lie you've ever believed past childhood? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616 "2020-02-08T05:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/81 "2020-02-11T20:35:51Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > When I was in middle school, my mom told me that you could get pregnant without having sex. Something about how if bodily fluids are involved and your vagina is exposed, the fluids can find their way into your vagina and impregnate you. Since I never received any sex education (only abstinence education), it took me a while to be disabused of this notion. This makes me question something I heard many years ago, that if you cum in a woman’s mouth and you kiss her afterwards, you can accidentally impregnate her if you, then, give her head. Now that I think about it, this was probably started by a dude who really did not want to kiss his lady’s mouth after a blowy. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/82 "2020-02-11T20:37:12Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > I sharted once. I could smell it, not taste it. Could you smell it with your balls? ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/83 "2020-02-11T20:39:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m pretty sure I believed the old “you eat ten spiders a year in your sleep” chestnut at some point. > > There are a lot of those. Perfectly smart people think that hair and fingernails grow after people die, or that humans only use ten percent of their brains, or that baby birds will be abandoned if you so much as lightly touch one, or that Einstein failed math. All these statements are false, but commonly believed, in part because there’s rarely a compelling reason to know better. Now I can hear the sound of my whole world crashing all around me…with my balls. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/84 "2020-02-11T20:54:33Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Disney not only lied, they completely fabricated the footage. The scenes were filmed near Calgary, where there was a suitable cliff over a river (not the Arctic Ocean). They had to import the lemmings, which don’t occur anywhere near there. They used a turntable to film the “migration” and make it look like there were many more lemmings than they actually had. And then they pushed or flung the lemmings over the cliff into the water, to make it look like they were jumping. Did the myth of the suicidal lemmings predate the film, though? If so, where did it come from? If not, well, why? What was the pitch meeting like that ended with ‘…and then we throw all the little furry bastards off a cliff, and film it. Step three, profit!’? ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/85 "2020-02-11T20:58:56Z")
1 - “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” 2 - “your cheque is in the mail” 3 - a lie I got away with for some years in my 20’s. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/86 "2020-02-11T22:29:16Z")
A grade school teacher told us that AD meant “after death,” so between BC and AD there were 33 years not accounted for on any calendar. I probably believed that for 10-12 years. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/87 "2020-02-11T22:41:46Z")
Here’s a post for two threads. When I was a kid my dad told me that the Japanese built a city called [Usa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usa,_%C5%8Cita), so that they could label stuff produced there as Made In USA. As the link indicates, not true (though in this case I suspect my father may have believed it himself.) j ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/88 "2020-02-11T22:54:59Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Did you see that a real doctor had asked for a cite for the latter claim? I assume the request for a cite is for the claim that semen on the perineum can directly lead to impregnation, which is of course not possible. As the doctor already acknowledged, it is theoretically possible for semen that originated outside the vagina to make its way in there and cause pregnancy (e.g. trickling in there from the perineum), albeit unlikely. But I think it’s a better sex education message to say “just because you came outside the vagina, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get her pregnant” rather than “as long as you come outside the vagina, you’re not very likely to get her pregnant”, even though both are factually correct. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/89 "2020-02-12T02:48:57Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Did the myth of the suicidal lemmings predate the film, though? If so, where did it come from? If not, well, why? What was the pitch meeting like that ended with ‘…and then we throw all the little furry bastards off a cliff, and film it. Step three, profit!’? Yes, all kinds of mythical explanations for their appearance and disappearance. Lemming populations boom and bust, leading to hoards of lemmings appearing suddenly (dropped from the sky?), getting into everything, and swimming randomly away from shore. Then, after a while, there are none. Like, _none_. They’ve all gone. Did they all walk out to sea? Also, they are an arctic creature – so they were almost mythical to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/90 "2020-02-12T06:21:21Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Don’t let these beliefs hold you back. > Swallow as many spiders as you want. Nobody is stopping you but yourself. One night while I lay in a sleeping bag, a spider crawled across my balls. It tasted awful. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/91 "2020-02-12T07:43:48Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > I assume the request for a cite is for the claim that semen on the perineum can directly lead to impregnation, which is of course not possible. As the doctor already acknowledged, it is theoretically possible for semen that originated outside the vagina to make its way in there and cause pregnancy (e.g. trickling in there from the perineum), albeit unlikely. But I think it’s a better sex education message to say “just because you came outside the vagina, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get her pregnant” rather than “as long as you come outside the vagina, you’re not very likely to get her pregnant”, even though both are factually correct. The claim was > [@](#): > > If semen gets on the **skin** of the perineal area, it can indeed lead to pregnancy. (my bolding) which is silly because there is nothing special about the skin. If you are going to provide good sex education then discussing it realistically is better rather than providing nonsense. The pull out method has a very high failure rate from other factors, including men failing to pull out. That’s what kids need to be told. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/92 "2020-02-12T11:36:13Z")
Balls to brain: “I taste something fishy here!” Brain to balls: “Keep it up, we will eventually like it. Do NOT hurry!” ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/93 "2020-02-13T01:37:09Z")
I believed the “blood turns blue after the oxygen is delivered; that’s why veins look blue” myth way, way later than I should have. Like, my son who was in 4th grade corrected me saying “That’s not what Mrs. Teacher said. She said that’s a myth.” So I looked it up. Oops. “Oh yeah? Well my Mrs. Teacher Lady from back in the 1970s was wrong!” I also believed ponies were juvenile horses until I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Arguyle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cab0a1/32.png) [@Arguyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arguyle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/94 "2020-02-13T07:09:17Z")
If its burning its working ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/95 "2020-02-13T08:16:26Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > When my grandfather was a boy - this would’ve been in the late 1800s - he attended a family gathering. His father and uncles were tending some grape vines. My grandfather announced that he wanted to help. The men told him that tending grape vines was extremely dangerous, delicate work that simply could not be done until much later in life…And, then, it dawned on him for the first time that the men all those years past had just wanted to gossip among themselves without a small boy listening - and they had told a really bold lie to get him to go away… and he’d believed it for 30 years. This reminds me so much of a post that I can’t link to because I can’t find it. Suffice to say, someone posted this exchange with her SO (paraphrased): Her: Aw, this plant died. Him: Wait, don’t throw it out! Just pour in a lot of water. Her: That won’t work; it’s too late. Him: No, you can save a plant by watering it a lot. When I was in elementary school, we were growing flowers to give to our moms on Mother’s Day, and I forgot to water mine, and the week before Mother’s Day, it looked just like that. So the teacher told me to pour in some water, and the next day I came in and it was in full bloom. **It grew overnight.** Her:…In however many years since then, you never figured out that the teacher replaced your dead flower with a live one? Him: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/96 "2020-02-13T12:13:15Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > “Oh yeah? Well my Mrs. Teacher Lady from back in the 1970s was wrong!” A very wise teacher once told us that much of what he was teaching would likely some day be proven wrong. He said school should be looked at as learning _how_ to think, not _what_ to think. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/97 "2020-02-13T16:23:11Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > I also believed ponies were juvenile horses until I read this thread. This one is kind of iffy. Like millions of other examples in English, people use pony as a shorthand and most non-horse people understand the meaning. It’s more of a linguistic mistake than not understanding there are small horse breeds. I doubt if you were standing in front of an adult pony, you would think, ‘there’s a juvenile horse’. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/98 "2020-02-13T16:48:27Z")
“The beef in Jack in the Box all-beef tacos is actually soy” “The meatballs in Subway subs are actually just bread” In retrospect it seems like they would be setting themselves up for a massive lawsuit if a place called something meat when it was actually entirely non-meat. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/99 "2020-02-13T17:26:05Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > “The beef in Jack in the Box all-beef tacos is actually soy” > > “The meatballs in Subway subs are actually just bread” > > In retrospect it seems like they would be setting themselves up for a massive lawsuit if a place called something meat when it was actually entirely non-meat. When I was a kid my dad told me Dairy Queen at some point was required to stop using “burger” to describe their high soy content patties. I think that was the origin of hunger buster. This thread has made me question that. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/100 "2020-02-13T17:40:25Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > When I was a kid my dad told me Dairy Queen at some point was required to stop using “burger” to describe their high soy content patties. I think that was the origin of hunger buster. > > This thread has made me question that. There are an astonishing number of people who believe(d) that KFC changed it’s name from Kentucky Fried Chicken because they stopped using chicken. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616.md?page=6)