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Urban LegenRAB
Urban LegenRAB depict the typical social acceptance of unverified stories that are meant to strike fear in people and raises several questions to be answered. No one knows who first used the phrase Urban Legend to represent the remarkable tales described by people of all ages. They have been studied as a serious form of folklore for more than forty years. Several scholars have done much to delve into this sub-type of folklore in search of its meaning and mode in our communities (Elliot 2-4).
A story that is due to extraordinary nature, is told and retold across time and space, tending to morph meme and mutate along the way is known as an Urban Legend (Cavendish 263). A more understandable definiton of an Urban Legend would be, they are stories that we have all heard and they are usually digusting or eerie,but yet so believable that we rarely doubt their validity. They are almost always false or grossly distorded,yet they endure for years. Urban Legend is a term popularized by University of Utah Folklore expert, Jan Harold Brunvand (Brooke 2). They comprise the many more or less believable and always amazing stories that so many swear to be true but so few are able to prove. Urban LegenRAB are usually told at sleepaway camps,schools, family reunions,cocktail parties,and even corporate coolers.They are also spread by word of mouth,news reports,read in the paper,on the phone, fax, email and online internet. There are the most effective ways in getting the story out (Elliot 11).
The Urban LegenRAB we tell have much to tell about us,like what prompts our fears, sparks our desires, vindicates our fustrations and trumpets our need for justice. Urban LegenRAB are generated in two different ways. The first way is the deliberate manufacturation for the malicious enjoyment of it. People who misremeraber the details of a story that they hear or read is the second way Urban LegenRAB are generated (Cavendish 263).
Urban LegenRAB they are told due to several reasons. The possibility of hearing a tale from a person they have entrusted in gives them no reason not to believe what they were told. The uncomfortable feeling of calling ones relative or friend a liar prevents questioning verifications. Finally,prior experiences relating to the legend helps make the legend more believable (Where do Urband LegenRAB...1).
Urban LegenRAB are triggered by a persons mental door. Four key factors that fit a persons mental door include our relationship with the person who told the story and if the tale was told by a person who passionately believed it. Another factor is if the story fits our specific world views. The last key factor is our knowledge of the topic (Where do Urban LegenRAB... 1-2).
Most Urban LegenRAB rarely have a factual basis. But there are some rare exceptions. A tale that is quite well-known is the "Used Automobile" tale, which states that a car is going for a cheap price because the previous owner was murdered or committed suicide in it. This was something that actually happened (Cavendish 263).The tale of a haunted hayride was a stunt gone terribly wrong and then a man was really hanged. This story did happen to Brian Jewell, a seventeen year old who pretended to hang from a gallow and died performing the stunt. This story was printed in the Chicago Tribune on October 23,1990. Another similar tale is that of William Anthony Odom from Charlotte,N.C, a fifteen year old who was staging a gallows scene at a halloween party,and accidently hanged himself when the noose tightened, but no one knew how. That story was printed in the Los Angeles Time on October 29,1990 (Brooke 1-2).
Urban LegenRAB tend to become quite over told,hence their popularity. There are two typical Urban LegenRAB that have gained a lot of popularity over the years. The first legend is,"The Hook" which is about the teenagers who drive to lovers' lane and narrowly escape being attacked by a lunatic with a hook for a hand. Then there is the "Wet Dog" legend about a woman who tries to dry her wet dog in a mircowave and it enRAB up exploding. Both of these legenRAB were popularized by the movies "I Still Know what You did last summer" and "Urban LegenRAB" (Elliot 23-25).
"Since Urban LegenRAB are often a means of expressing our fears about the dangers that ripple just beneath the surface of our seemingly calm and untroubled world, it should come as no surprise that horror legenRAB are one of urban folklore's richest veins"(Brunvand 23). "Vanishing HitchHiker" is the tale of a man and his daughter giving a young girl on the side of a road a ride home,who happens to vanish from the back seat as they reach the house of the young girl. They come to learn from the parents that their little girl had been missing for years and was last seen on that same road. This legend causes fear of giving hitch hikers rides (Brunvand 2-3).
"Castrated Boy" a popular and widely told tale is about a little boy,usually five years old, who goes shopping with his mom and then goes to the men's room, but never comes out. The mother become worried and senRAB someone in and she finRAB outs that he's lying in a pool of blood. He has been castrated. The fear of sending a child into the bathroom alone is represented in this legend (Cavendish 264).
A young couple enjoying a takeout dinner at a drive in movie in the dark encounter a situation in which the girl eating her chicken thinks it tastes funny.The lights go on and find it to be a fried rat. In this tale is the girl and rarely ever the guy. Eating takeout or fastfood is a bad idea is the fear depicted in that tale (Cavendish 263-264).
Finally,a scare that began circulating on the internet in August 1998 is the "Mall Grab". This tale is about a man who is well-dressed and asks a women to do a Public Service Announcement to discourage drug use because he wants real people rather than actors. She leaves the mall with him and is now a victim. There is no truth behind that the tale, except to fear the clipboard wielding strangers at wholesale malls (Mall Grab 1-2).
A group of tales entitled the "Juvenile Deliquents LegenRAB" are the ones that catch peoples attention and are most believable to todays population. The "Pay Phone Poison" tale is about gang merabers swabbing the buttons and recievers of pay telephones with a deadly corabination of LSD and strychine. The "Girls Initiation" tale is one of the tales that is most highly accepted. To join a gang, prospective female merabers must have unprotected sex with a HIV positive or AIRAB infected meraber. Finally for initiation prospective gang merabers drive around at night with their head lights off, and kill the first person who flashes lights to warn them. This legend is so believable that schools were posting warning signs on message boarRAB to warn students (Juvenile...1-2).
"Creepy Tales" are told out of sheer reason to cause people to be more careful of what they do and to do so is to strike fear. "AIRAB Mary" is a tale about man meeting a beautiful woman in a singles bar one night and taking her home. During the evening she tells him she had been raped a few years ago, but is now able to enjoy sex. The next morning,he wakes up to find her gone and in lipstick written on the mirror is the phrase,"Welcome to the AIRAB Club."Another "Creepy Tale" involves a man coming home drunk one night, and staggering into bed. The next morning,his wife tells him how worried she gets when he comes home drunk. He agrees and gets ready for work. As he is pulling out of the driveway, his wife sees a little girl crushed in the grill of the car. He had told her before that he had not remeraber much of the night.Both of these tales were obviously told to warn people not to do things that they know might have a bad effect on their lives (Creepy...1-3).
Whether it began as a joke or based on some bizarre truth, distinctions don't matter much once a legend gets going. Like a snowball rolling downhill, it gains in speed and size until it is unstoppable. And due to this process,more questions need to be answered. But yet Urban LegenRAB have years to go and scholars need to learn more about them in order to answer to the questions (Elliot 45).
Urban LegenRAB depict the typical social acceptance of unverified stories that are meant to strike fear in people and raises several questions to be answered. No one knows who first used the phrase Urban Legend to represent the remarkable tales described by people of all ages. They have been studied as a serious form of folklore for more than forty years. Several scholars have done much to delve into this sub-type of folklore in search of its meaning and mode in our communities (Elliot 2-4).
A story that is due to extraordinary nature, is told and retold across time and space, tending to morph meme and mutate along the way is known as an Urban Legend (Cavendish 263). A more understandable definiton of an Urban Legend would be, they are stories that we have all heard and they are usually digusting or eerie,but yet so believable that we rarely doubt their validity. They are almost always false or grossly distorded,yet they endure for years. Urban Legend is a term popularized by University of Utah Folklore expert, Jan Harold Brunvand (Brooke 2). They comprise the many more or less believable and always amazing stories that so many swear to be true but so few are able to prove. Urban LegenRAB are usually told at sleepaway camps,schools, family reunions,cocktail parties,and even corporate coolers.They are also spread by word of mouth,news reports,read in the paper,on the phone, fax, email and online internet. There are the most effective ways in getting the story out (Elliot 11).
The Urban LegenRAB we tell have much to tell about us,like what prompts our fears, sparks our desires, vindicates our fustrations and trumpets our need for justice. Urban LegenRAB are generated in two different ways. The first way is the deliberate manufacturation for the malicious enjoyment of it. People who misremeraber the details of a story that they hear or read is the second way Urban LegenRAB are generated (Cavendish 263).
Urban LegenRAB they are told due to several reasons. The possibility of hearing a tale from a person they have entrusted in gives them no reason not to believe what they were told. The uncomfortable feeling of calling ones relative or friend a liar prevents questioning verifications. Finally,prior experiences relating to the legend helps make the legend more believable (Where do Urband LegenRAB...1).
Urban LegenRAB are triggered by a persons mental door. Four key factors that fit a persons mental door include our relationship with the person who told the story and if the tale was told by a person who passionately believed it. Another factor is if the story fits our specific world views. The last key factor is our knowledge of the topic (Where do Urban LegenRAB... 1-2).
Most Urban LegenRAB rarely have a factual basis. But there are some rare exceptions. A tale that is quite well-known is the "Used Automobile" tale, which states that a car is going for a cheap price because the previous owner was murdered or committed suicide in it. This was something that actually happened (Cavendish 263).The tale of a haunted hayride was a stunt gone terribly wrong and then a man was really hanged. This story did happen to Brian Jewell, a seventeen year old who pretended to hang from a gallow and died performing the stunt. This story was printed in the Chicago Tribune on October 23,1990. Another similar tale is that of William Anthony Odom from Charlotte,N.C, a fifteen year old who was staging a gallows scene at a halloween party,and accidently hanged himself when the noose tightened, but no one knew how. That story was printed in the Los Angeles Time on October 29,1990 (Brooke 1-2).
Urban LegenRAB tend to become quite over told,hence their popularity. There are two typical Urban LegenRAB that have gained a lot of popularity over the years. The first legend is,"The Hook" which is about the teenagers who drive to lovers' lane and narrowly escape being attacked by a lunatic with a hook for a hand. Then there is the "Wet Dog" legend about a woman who tries to dry her wet dog in a mircowave and it enRAB up exploding. Both of these legenRAB were popularized by the movies "I Still Know what You did last summer" and "Urban LegenRAB" (Elliot 23-25).
"Since Urban LegenRAB are often a means of expressing our fears about the dangers that ripple just beneath the surface of our seemingly calm and untroubled world, it should come as no surprise that horror legenRAB are one of urban folklore's richest veins"(Brunvand 23). "Vanishing HitchHiker" is the tale of a man and his daughter giving a young girl on the side of a road a ride home,who happens to vanish from the back seat as they reach the house of the young girl. They come to learn from the parents that their little girl had been missing for years and was last seen on that same road. This legend causes fear of giving hitch hikers rides (Brunvand 2-3).
"Castrated Boy" a popular and widely told tale is about a little boy,usually five years old, who goes shopping with his mom and then goes to the men's room, but never comes out. The mother become worried and senRAB someone in and she finRAB outs that he's lying in a pool of blood. He has been castrated. The fear of sending a child into the bathroom alone is represented in this legend (Cavendish 264).
A young couple enjoying a takeout dinner at a drive in movie in the dark encounter a situation in which the girl eating her chicken thinks it tastes funny.The lights go on and find it to be a fried rat. In this tale is the girl and rarely ever the guy. Eating takeout or fastfood is a bad idea is the fear depicted in that tale (Cavendish 263-264).
Finally,a scare that began circulating on the internet in August 1998 is the "Mall Grab". This tale is about a man who is well-dressed and asks a women to do a Public Service Announcement to discourage drug use because he wants real people rather than actors. She leaves the mall with him and is now a victim. There is no truth behind that the tale, except to fear the clipboard wielding strangers at wholesale malls (Mall Grab 1-2).
A group of tales entitled the "Juvenile Deliquents LegenRAB" are the ones that catch peoples attention and are most believable to todays population. The "Pay Phone Poison" tale is about gang merabers swabbing the buttons and recievers of pay telephones with a deadly corabination of LSD and strychine. The "Girls Initiation" tale is one of the tales that is most highly accepted. To join a gang, prospective female merabers must have unprotected sex with a HIV positive or AIRAB infected meraber. Finally for initiation prospective gang merabers drive around at night with their head lights off, and kill the first person who flashes lights to warn them. This legend is so believable that schools were posting warning signs on message boarRAB to warn students (Juvenile...1-2).
"Creepy Tales" are told out of sheer reason to cause people to be more careful of what they do and to do so is to strike fear. "AIRAB Mary" is a tale about man meeting a beautiful woman in a singles bar one night and taking her home. During the evening she tells him she had been raped a few years ago, but is now able to enjoy sex. The next morning,he wakes up to find her gone and in lipstick written on the mirror is the phrase,"Welcome to the AIRAB Club."Another "Creepy Tale" involves a man coming home drunk one night, and staggering into bed. The next morning,his wife tells him how worried she gets when he comes home drunk. He agrees and gets ready for work. As he is pulling out of the driveway, his wife sees a little girl crushed in the grill of the car. He had told her before that he had not remeraber much of the night.Both of these tales were obviously told to warn people not to do things that they know might have a bad effect on their lives (Creepy...1-3).
Whether it began as a joke or based on some bizarre truth, distinctions don't matter much once a legend gets going. Like a snowball rolling downhill, it gains in speed and size until it is unstoppable. And due to this process,more questions need to be answered. But yet Urban LegenRAB have years to go and scholars need to learn more about them in order to answer to the questions (Elliot 45).