Idiotic urban myths

[Hermiod]

Some of my favourites:

- Kentucky Fried Chicken contains various substances designed to reduce fertility in black men and that Colonel Sanders left instructions in his will that 10% of the company's profits be donated to the Ku Klux Klan.

- Men think about sex every seven seconds.

- Humans only use ten percent of their brains. People who believe this might, I suppose.

- Using a mobile phone in a petrol station forecourt is dangerous and may cause an explosion.

 

[JarodRussell]

Men think about sex every seven seconds.

That's a pretty stupid myth. We all know that we think about sex every single second.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Fan Death, yes, if you sleep with a fan running in the room you will die. A common urban myth in Korea.

 

[Shazam!]

Fore Street cats

Is that a gang?

 

[Captain Shaw]

Lady Gaga was born a woman. Please, she's a man, baby! Yeah!

Chinese restaurants sometimes have spotty health records. Enjoy those deer-quality carrots and gawd knows what's in that egg roll.

My step-grandfather used to be be a health inspector and he said the Chinese restaurants he used to inspect where usually the cleanest.
It was the Greeks he used to have arguments with.

 

[Guartho]

The rainbow conspiracy.

Someday, they'll find it... the rainbow... connection.

 

[RobertVA]

The rainbow conspiracy.

Oh No! They're spraying Dihydrogenoxide!

 

[John Picard]

Claims of not to take a bath or shower during a storm because a lightening strike would electrocute said bather. Chances are highly improbable because the electrical strike would A) have to hit the water supply line or drain line, and B) much of today's supply lines and drain lines are PVC (plastic).

I will remind any Doubting Tomas' that a large majority of oceangoing ships are made of steel, generate their own electricity, and all electrical systems use the hull as ground

 

[Roger Wilco]

According to a book I was reading in B&N the other day, more college-educated people believe in ghosts now than did in 1930...

We're getting dumber...

Not to invite the Evil Hordes Of The Forum That Dare Not Speak Its Name, but, how is this any more stupid than believing that a guy whose mother was a virgin rose from the dead 2000 years ago?

- Using a mobile phone in a petrol station forecourt is dangerous and may cause an explosion.

I don't believe there could be any harm in that either, but I've seen signs prohibiting use of cell phones at gas stations, just saying. It's not that far-fetched for people to believe in something like that when they are actually forbidden to do it.

 

[ParticleMan]

Claims of not to take a bath or shower during a storm because a lightening strike would electrocute said bather. Chances are highly improbable because the electrical strike would A) have to hit the water supply line or drain line, and B) much of today's supply lines and drain lines are PVC (plastic).

I will remind any Doubting Tomas' that a large majority of oceangoing ships are made of steel, generate their own electricity, and all electrical systems use the hull as ground

Heh...that reminds me...when I was a kid, I was terrified to pee during a lightning storm lest a strike travel through the toilet and up the stream...

And speaking of stupid things people believe...I worked part-time at the local Walmart during the summer of 2008. I had an elderly man come through my line who felt it was necessary to inform me that Obama was the literal Antichrist and that his election would signal the end of the world...

 

[Deckerd]

Mythbusters busted the mobile phone in a fuel station thang years ago.

They also busted the peeing on a live line thang too.

 

[Mary Ann]

I had a friend in college who's family owned a couple of chinese restaurants. One of them was near Elon College in NC. About every two years, that stupid cat rumor would surface and kill business for a while.

It's just a basic racist thing that people are all-too-willing to believe.

Most people are fairly stupid.

Why do you think Discovery Channel hosts stupid shows like "Weird or What?" or "A Haunting" and SyFy has marathons of Ghost Hunters?

According to a book I was reading in B&N the other day, more college-educated people believe in ghosts now than did in 1930...

We're getting dumber...

Yes, I've been hearing the cats-in-chinese-food rumour for years, but this was some idiot talking about it in a very loud voice on public transportation. If this had happened when I still lived in Toronto someone would have smacked the guy, but a lot of people here are ignorant bigots and were nodding in agreement.

When The Learning Channel first aired I watched it all the time as the shows were excellent, and still were when I moved to the UK in '95. When I visited Canada in '00 I was shocked by how much TLC had dumbed down. It was hugely disappointing.

Yes, the world is definitely overpopulated by Daily Mail readers...

 

[Broccoli]

The biggest urban myth:

The female orgasm.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

The biggest urban myth:

The female orgasm.

Not from where I'm........sitting.

 

[greenguy]

The biggest urban myth:

The female orgasm.

Not from where I'm........sitting.

I know it's not a myth, YR.

 

[John Picard]

The biggest urban myth:

The female orgasm.

Not from where I'm........sitting.

I know it's not a myth, YR.

Same here

 

[propita]

Chinese restaurants sometimes have spotty health records.

I know someone who used to work for the Board of Health of Long Beach, CA. He would inspect all these restaurants, among other places. He said that a lot of the Chinese restaurants, the people ran them like they were their own home kitchens, so they didn't follow all the legalities.

He told us stories of his boss.

One time, the boss goes into the kitchen's freezer, which is not real cold, and finds a toothless old Chinese guy trimming the rot off the meat.

Another time, the boss confiscated rotting meat, but couldn't throw it in the dumpster outside because he had seen the owners retrieve it and cook it when he'd done that in the past. So he put it on the top (outside) of his car's trunk. He's driving down the street with this bloody, rotten meat cooking there on his car in the heat, gets to a 7-11, shows his badge, and tells them to open the locked dumpster. He dumps the lousy meat there and has them lock it up. That had to have smelled like someone dumped a dead body.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I have this book on urban legends, and it's amazing how the digital age has made urban myths more ubiquitous, especially when sent via e-mail. I wish more people would use common sense before forwarding e-mails to hundreds of people on their contact lists. Some of the dumbest ones I have received:

* A missing girl (who has been long found, was never missing to begin, or does not even exist)
* Microsoft sending money to people who forward e-mails to all their contacts
* On-line signature petitions to be sent to the White House
* A story that usually begins with "My neighbor's friend's boss's wife's sister heard from it so and so ..."

Sometimes I just want to reply to all, "Ever heard of Snopes.com?"

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Not from where I'm........sitting.

I know it's not a myth, YR.

Same here

You guys better watch out. It is my understanding MLB is becoming quite proficient with those explosive devices.

 

[John Picard]

I have this book on urban legends, and it's amazing how the digital age has made urban myths more ubiquitous, especially when sent via e-mail. I wish more people would use common sense before forwarding e-mails to hundreds of people on their contact lists. Some of the dumbest ones I have received:

* A missing girl (who has been long found, was never missing to begin, or does not even exist)
* Microsoft sending money to people who forward e-mails to all their contacts
* On-line signature petitions to be sent to the White House
* A story that usually begins with "My neighbor's friend's boss's wife's sister heard from it so and so ..."

Sometimes I just want to reply to all, "Ever heard of Snopes.com?"

I knew a guy who was a constant bullshit artists. I swear that he LOVED to hear the sound of his own voice. You know the type -- talks loudly; every story tops anything anyone else has done, etc.

Anyway, around 10 years ago or so, somehow the subject of the infamous, "Guy wakes up in a bathtub of ice with a note and his kidney missing" and this clown tells me, "Oh yeah, man. That shit is REAL. It happened to a Colonel at the base -- well, not her directly, but one of her rent houses down in New Orleans." He proceeded to argue with me for five minutes when I told him that he was full of shit.