Urban Legend
26 entries on file
The Hook Man Murdered Lovers
A classic campfire story with no documented victims
Strangers Put Razor Blades in Halloween Candy
A myth that created unnecessary Halloween fears
Mr. Rogers Was a Navy SEAL
Fred Rogers was a children's entertainer, not a military operative
Drop Bears Are Just a Myth to Scare Tourists
One of the most dangerous misconceptions you can carry into the Australian bush.
Organ Thieves Steal Kidneys from Tourists
A widespread myth with no verified cases
Giant Alligators Live in New York City Sewers
An enduring legend with no verified sightings
A Ghostly Hitchhiker Vanishes from Moving Cars
A folklore motif found across many cultures
Daddy Longlegs Are the Most Venomous Spiders
They're not venomous or pose minimal threat
Dogs See Only in Black and White
Dogs see in colour, just with different colour sensitivity
Humans Only Use 10% of Their Brain
We use virtually all of our brain throughout the day
Bulls Are Enraged by the Colour Red
Bulls are colour-blind to red; movement triggers aggression
All Australian Animals Are Trying to Kill You
The vast majority of Australian fauna is harmless; dangerous species are statistically rare
JFK Accidentally Called Himself a Jelly Donut in Berlin
'Ich bin ein Berliner' was correct German, and the crowd understood it
The Killer Is Calling from Inside the House
A horror movie trope with limited real-world basis
Marilyn Monroe Was a Size 16 (Modern Equivalent)
Monroe was around a size 8-10, not a modern size 12-14
Carrots Are Naturally Orange
Orange carrots were bred in the 1600s
Tomatoes Are Vegetables, Not Fruits
Botanically, tomatoes are fruits
Diamonds Are Just Compressed Coal
Diamonds and coal have different origins
Bats Are Blind and Must Use Echolocation
Bats have functional eyes and use vision too
Lemmings Commit Mass Suicide in Synchronized Fashion
Disney created fake footage for a 1958 documentary
Typing Your PIN Backwards at an ATM Alerts Police
Urban legend with no technical basis; ATMs have no mechanism to detect reverse PINs or trigger alerts
The Word 'Picnic' Has a Racist Lynching Origin
It is 17th-century French for a shared meal, with no link to violence
Mrs O'Leary's Cow Started the Great Chicago Fire
The reporter who wrote it later admitted he made the cow up
Using Your Mobile Phone at a Petrol Station Can Spark a Fire
There is no documented case; the real, rare risk is static electricity
Lasseter's Reef of Gold Was Real
Decades of expeditions, no reef, no gold, plenty of dead men
Bunyips Are Purely Mythical
Aboriginal warnings about water-dwelling creatures match patterns colonial naturalists treated as folklore and modern palaeontology calls megafauna memory