An urban legend is a story, passed from person to person, about an event that is said to have really occurred. The story is phrased in believable terms, but the ending is usually horrifying, shocking, or humorous. By definition, urban legends are false—either completely made up or based on actual events but greatly exaggerated or distorted.
The term "urban legend" has been in use only since the 1930s, but the phenomenon has probably existed as long as human society has existed. People tend to believe and to pass on stories that are reasonable, interesting, and make a point. Folklore experts who study urban legends say that the accounts usually come from a credible source (a friend, relative, or coworker), have a narrative form (a story with characters and a plot), and contain elements of humor, caution, or horror.
One of the most common types of urban legends is the cautionary tale, like the account of a man who has a drink in a bar with a strange woman and wakes up in a hotel room, alone, missing one of his kidneys. Similar to this is the contamination story, such as the widely known myth about someone who bites into a piece of fast-food fried chicken, only to find a rat carcass underneath the breading.
These kinds of stories are thinly disguised warnings. They tend to reflect the anxieties common in a society—fear of strangers, distrust of fast food (see entry under 1920s—Food and Drink in volume 2), concern about gang violence, and so on.
Development of the Internet (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5) has made the problem of urban legends worse, but it also offers a cure. Internet access allows anyone to pass an urban legend on very quickly to a large number of people, whether through a newsgroup, chat room, bulletin board, Web site, or via e-mail (see entry under 1990s—The Way We Lived in volume 5).
Thus, a misleading story or a malicious rumor can spread widely and rapidly. However, the Internet also allows the development of Web sites that collect current urban legends and identify them as such. Several such sites exist, allowing anyone to check whether the latest "weird story" is fact or another urban legend.
Sound familiar? You've might have heard the same story. Except that it was someone's boyfriend's brother—or friend's cousin, or doctor's travel agent—who became ill. Either our food inspection system has gone downhill fast, or the story is an urban legend.
Urban legends are an important part of popular culture, experts say, offering insight into our fears and the state of society. They're also good fun.
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Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter.
Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn't as important as the lessons they impart, experts say.Urban legends aren't easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or—more commonly today—in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous "it happened to friend of a friend" (or FOAF) clause that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible.
"The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us," writes Jan Harold Brunvand in "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1981). "We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate repoAdvertisement
Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter.
Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn't as important as the lessons they impart, experts say.Urban legends aren't easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or—more commonly today—in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous "it happened to friend of a friend" (or FOAF) clause that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible.
"The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us," writes Jan Harold Brunvand in "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1981). "We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports."rts."
The making of a legend
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Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter.
Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn't as important as the lessons they impart, experts say.Urban legends aren't easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or—more commonly today—in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous "it happened to friend of a friend" (or FOAF) clause that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible.
"The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us," writes Jan Harold Brunvand in "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1981). "We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports."
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A renowned folklorist, Brunvand is considered the pre-eminent scholar on urban legends and "The Vanishing Hitchhiker," named for a classic legend, the subject's seminal work. The definition of an urban legend, he writes, is "a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or 'moral.'"
Most urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson, Koven agreed, that is always interpreted differently depending on the individual. The lessons don't necessarily have to be of the deep, meaning-of-life, variety, he said.
Legends need to make cultural sense
Urban legends are also good indicators of what's going on in current society, said Koven, who is part of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) and is editor of its peer-reviewed journal, Contemporary Legend.
"By looking at what's implied in a story, we get an insight into the fears of a group in society," he told LiveScience. Urban legends "need to make cultural sense," he said, noting that some stick around for decades while others fizzle out depending on their relevance to the modern social order.
It's a lack of information coupled with these fears that tends to give rise to new legends, Koven said. "When demand exceeds supply, people will fill in the gaps with their own information…they'll just make it up."
The abundance of conspiracy theories and legends surrounding 9/11, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina seems to point to distrust in the government among some groups, he said.
A lot of fun, too…
But urban legends aren't all serious life lessons and conspiracy theories, experts say, with the scariest, most plausible ones often framed as funny stories.
Those stories can spread like wildfire in today's Internet world, but they've been part of human culture as long as there has been culture, and Brunvand argues that legends should be around as long as there are inexplicable curiosities in life.
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