Urban legend
From RationalWiki
| “ | My brother's girlfriend's cousin told her that she knew this guy who strapped a rocket to the top of his car and it took off straight into a cliff at like 7000 mph and when they found the wreckage, like, Dude, there wasn't one piece larger than a Or something... | ” |
Urban legends are modern myths, as opposed to traditional myths and legends that may be thousands of years old. While urban legends have their own long history, the advent of the Internet (and the popularity of chain e-mails) has dramatically increased the speed at which these stories propagate. In this way, urban legends may repeat, sometimes with slightly changed details, every few years. Unlike traditional legends, urban legends typically deal with events which have occurred recently, thereby facilitating their verification (or, more likely, debunking). [1]
The actual truth value of an urban legend is approximately inversely proportional to the number of times that the story teller reminds you that the story is true.
[edit] Legal legends
Some of the most famous urban legends to propagate across the internet deal with frivolous lawsuits; the Stella Awards are presented to the most idiotic claimants. According to the True Stella Awards and Snopes.com, stories about frivolous lawsuits that circulate through chain e-mails are almost entirely fabricated.[2] The genuine lawsuits are even more hilarious.
[edit] Some obligatory snark
If urban legends stay around long enough, they may be written in book form, and who knows, in a couple of thousand years people may make a religion out of them.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Snopes.com and Mythbusters being the most famous debunkers of urban legends.
- ↑ True Stella Awards website
