|
#1
08-23-2010, 01:21 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Top 10 Urban Legends & Myths
We’ve all heard them. Usually, they happened to a friend of a friend’s second cousin, and in almost every case they’re completely untrue. Still, some urban legends have managed to gain a remarkable amount of credibility. From creepy folklore to rumors about celebrities and politicians, here are the top ten urban legends that have managed to gain a popular following. 10. The Automatic 4.0  This one has been making its way across college campuses since the 1970s, and it’s been popping up as a plot point in movies and TV shows for years. It says that any college student whose roommate commits suicide will automatically receive a 4.0 grade point average for the semester as part of the college’s bereavement policy. Other versions tweak it a bit to include ****** or an accident, but all stick to the basic principle of dead roommate=good grades. Not a word of the story is true, of course, and it’s said that the rumor most likely started out as a joke among stressed out college students. 
|
|
#2
08-23-2010, 01:22 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
9. Mr. Rogers Was a Navy Seal
 Fred Rogers and his classic children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood were legendary in the TV world, so it was only a matter of time before a few scandalous rumors started floating around about him. Probably the most popular and downright ridiculous was the legend that claimed Rogers was a Navy Seal during the Vietnam War, and that he had numerous confirmed ****s as a sniper. This same rumor often asserted that the only reason Rogers wore sweaters was to cover up all the tattoos he had gotten during his time in the service. Both tales are completely untrue, but this is one urban legend that refuses to die, and it is often applied to other clean-cut, wholesome celebrities, most notably John Denver.
|
|
#3
08-23-2010, 01:22 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
8. Bloody Mary
 Although it’s more folklore than an urban legend, the Bloody Mary story is so old and well known that it had to make this list. A common game at children’s slumber parties, the story states that the ghost of Mary Worth, a woman who was supposedly executed for being a witch, will manifest when summoned. This usually involves going into a darkened room and shouting her name three times, at which point her face will appear in a mirror. There are a number of variations on the story, with some claiming that the face of Satan appears or that the mirror turns red, and others stating that the name must be said 13 times, but all follow this same general theme.
|
|
#4
08-23-2010, 01:24 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
7. JFK and the Jelly Doughnut Speech
 The story dates back to 1963, when then-President John F. Kennedy traveled to Germany to give a speech. Wanting to express solidarity with the people of Berlin, Kennedy said to them “Ich bin ein Berliner,” which translates to English as “I am a Berliner.” But since a “Berliner” was also a certain kind of popular pastry in Germany at the time, many have surmised that the phrase translated to the crowd as “I am a jelly doughnut,” and over the years a number of stories have surfaced saying Kennedy was nearly laughed off the stage after saying it. It’s hard to say where the story originated, but it has been proven to be a myth, and reports have shown that not only did Kennedy have the phrase translated by a professional interpreter before using it, but that the crowd understood him perfectly.
|
|
#5
08-23-2010, 01:25 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
6. Cokelore
Over the years, there have been so many urban legends about the popular soft drink Coca-Cola that they’ve been given their own name: Cokelore. Probably the most famous urban legend in this regard is the old claim that eating Pop Rocks candy and then drinking Coke will cause stomach damage. Meanwhile, another legend says that the acids in the soda can dissolve a tooth if it’s left in a glass of the drink overnight, and still another asserts that mixing Coke with aspirin produces a drug-like high. All these claims are false, but another popular claim, that Coke originally contained cocaine as a part of its formula, is verifiably true. The drink was created in the 1880s, and even after the negative aspects of cocaine were uncovered, the company continued using trace amounts of the drug in its soda until the 1920s.
|
