History Main / UrbanLegends

* Starting in the 2010s, it became popular to claim that national food chains like [=McDonald=]'s and Starbucks maintained "secret menus" of unadvertised items. This idea resulted in many headaches, since employees aren't trained to make these nonexistent "secret" items. Thus, if you tried to order one of these secret items by name, you'd have to either explain what's in it yourself or hope that one of the employees there had learned on their own how to make one (and considering that recipes for "secret" items vary from site to site, this gets even ''more'' complex). In terms of fast food, In & Out Burger is possibly the only one that actually has such a menu, however, it's primarily made up of variations of existing items and is an open secret to regulars. Occasionally, an item might get popular enough to be featured as an ''actual'' item, like when [=McDonald=]'s featured the [=McGangbang=] sandwich in several advertisements.
** In some cases, the "secret" item might just be completely impossible to make. For example, in early 2022, a hoax started to spread around [=TikTok=] detailing a Starbucks secret item called the "Under the Sea Refresher" (which was shown as a blue drink with a gummy worm in it). While this was clearly fake to those who knew their Starbucks drinks (Starbucks doesn't have any blue drinks, nor do they have gummy worms), many people didn't realize it was fake, leading to upset customers and [[https://www.newsweek.com/starbucks-customers-duped-ordering-made-under-sea-refresher-1679385 many]] [[https://www.distractify.com/p/is-the-under-the-sea-refresher-at-starbucks-real articles]] [[https://www.popsugar.com/food/starbucks-under-the-sea-refresher-tiktok-not-real-48666747 stating]] that it was fake.[[note]]If you ''really'' want to know what it is, it's just light blue Gatorade (the "Glacier Freeze" flavor), gummy worms, and water.[[/note]]

* In the 2010s, the claim became popular that national food chains like [=McDonald=]'s and Starbuck's maintained "secret menus" of unadvertised items. This idea resulted in some headaches, since the employees weren't trained ahead of time to make these nonexistent items. Thus, for example, if you went into a Starbuck's hoping for a "churro frappuccino," you'd have to either hope that some employee there had read the same rumors as you and learned on their own how to make one, or be prepared to explain it yourself. In & Out Burger is one of the few restaurants to have such a menu, but it's both an open secret to regulars and mostly variations of existing items, while [=McDonald=]'s eventually kinda-sorta defictionalized the [=McGangbang=] sandwich by featuring it in advertisements, but at that point it wasn't exactly "hidden".

* In the 2010s, the claim became popular that national food chains like [=McDonald=]'s and Starbuck's maintained "secret menus" of unadvertised items. This idea resulted in some headaches, since the employees weren't trained ahead of time to make these nonexistent items. Thus, for example, if you went into a Starbuck's hoping for a "churro frappuccino," you'd have to either hope that some employee there had read the same rumors as you and learned on their own how to make one, or be prepared to explain it yourself.

* British writer Jeffery Archer often uses urban legends as the basis of a story (although he seems to believe they are true). His short story collection ''A Twist Of a Tale'' contains several, most notably a story based on [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/backseat.asp "the killer in the back seat"]]. (Otto of ''TheSimpsons'' actually told Bart and Lisa a more convincing version.)

* Certain circles of the internet got it in their heads that Nazi Germany issued chocolate which contained meth. While it's no secret that meth use was rampant within the Nazi war machine (though it wasn't exclusive to them either), meth was issued in the form of Pervitin tablets, which were colloquially known as "Panzerschokolade". The supposed bar of the stuff is an edit of a chocolate bar from Zotter, which was founded in Austria in ''1999''. Germany did, however, issue [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scho-Ka-Kola caffeinated chocolate]].

See also OralTradition. If you were looking for the film by this name, [[Film/UrbanLegend look right here]].

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' features Reimi, whose backstory is based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Licked_Hand the Licked Hand]] urban legend, with [[spoiler:Kira Yoshikage as the killer.]]

* ''Film/TheABCsOfDEath'': "E" follows an old urban legend of spiders being able to lay eggs inside people's bodies.

** They won’t disappear if we don’t believe them though, because according to Franchise/TouhouProject, doing so only transports them to [[FantasyNatureReserve Gensokyo.]]

* Certain circles of the internet got it in their heads that Nazi Germany issued chocolate which contained meth. While it's no secret that meth use was rampant within the Nazi war machine (though it wasn't exclusive to them either), meth was issued in the form of Pervitin tablets (which was colloquially known as "Panzerschokolade", which, when [[{{Malaproper}} pronounced by certain accents,]] sounds like "Panzer Chocolate," which may have contributed to the myth). The supposed bar of the stuff is an edit of a chocolate bar from Zotter, which was founded in Austria in ''1999''. Germany did, however, issue [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scho-Ka-Kola caffeinated chocolate]].

* Certain circles of the internet got it in their heads that Nazi Germany issued chocolate which contained meth. While it's no secret that meth use was rampant within the Nazi war machine (though it wasn't exclusive to them either), meth was issued in the form of Pervitin tablets (which was colloquially known as "Panzerschokolade"). The supposed bar of the stuff is an edit of a chocolate bar from Zotter, which was founded in Austria in ''1999''. Germany did, however, issue [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scho-Ka-Kola caffeinated chocolate]].

* [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Fred Rogers]] was a sniper in the military and has a large kill count. This is bunk as he wasn't even in the military.

** Common Disney lore is that Walt was [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] after he died, and his body is suspended in a secret chamber somewhere in Disneyland. Nope, he was cremated and his ashes are kept in a plot at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California. The source of the rumor isn't certain. One theory is that Disney animator Creator/WardKimball circulated the story as a joke. One cryogenics advocate claimed in a 1972 interview that representatives from Disney contacted him with questions about the process shortly before Walt's death, but there doesn't seem to be much other evidence to back up the notion that Walt was interested in being frozen.

** The first part of this that is bunk is that Hitler's body ''was'' found; it was just so badly burned by a botched cremation that he was not immediately recognizable. Stalin actually ordered the body confiscated by SMERSH (the predecessor to the KGB), who managed to confirm his identity using captured German dental records and testimonies of his interned subordinates. After that, his body was unceremoniously buried somewhere in East Germany, where they stayed for a few months before being exhumed and buried somewhere ''else'' in East Germany, before eventually being exhumed again in 1970, crushed up thuroughly to leave no trace, then dumped into the Biederitz River.

** As for the second part, there is some truth, as several high-profile Nazi officers fled to South America (who were neutral towards Germany during the war) to escape punishment during the Nuremberg Trials, and the idea of a secret "Fourth Reich" came about through the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf "Werwolf"]] unit organized by Goebbels as a way to harass Allied forces in occupied Germany, but such a unit was more a propaganda piece than a real threat, as any Nazi resistance force had nowhere ''near'' the numbers or resources to support even a small resurgence anywhere. As for Antarctica, it is likely that many assumed such an isolated and sparsely-populated continent would be perfect for hiding a secret Nazi army, but this completely discounts the fact that Antarctica is sparsely-populated for a ''reason'', namely that it is so cold and devoid of any sort of resources to speak of that having any sort of large population there would be downright impossible without specialized cold-weather equipment that puts the idea of Antarctica being the new Nazi Germany squarely into StupidJetpackHitler territory.

* In the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'', the crew finds a [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/scuba.asp scuba diver in a tree after a forest fire.]]
** Although in this case [[spoiler: [[ScoobyDooHoax the killer simply put the corpse in a diving suit, dumped it in a forest and started a fire to try and make it look like the legend had happened and hide his crime. The body wound up in the tree because his tank turned him into a human rocket]]]].
** In another episode, a couple of idiots killed a young woman who'd suffered a drug overdose, by transfusing some of their own (incompatible) blood into her. They were imitating an urban legend about drugged-out rock stars' "getting their blood replaced" as a remedy. Cue references to Film/PulpFiction.

* A persistent rumor holds that Ronnie Van Zant, the lead singer of Music/LynyrdSkynyrd, was killed in the band's infamous plane crash because he hated seatbelts and was sitting in the middle of the plane's aisle. However, while Van Zant had been napping in the aisle earlier[[note]]not, as some believe, because of any particular distaste for seats or seatbelts, but rather because he was suffering back pain and that was the only place he could fully lie down[[/note]], at least three witnesses (including one who was sitting next to Van Zant during the crash) place Van Zant in a seat at the time of impact, and at least one of these is certain he was wearing a seatbelt (though this is disputed by another survivor). What's more, a reckless act is certainly not needed to explain Van Zant's death, given that three other passengers, who were undisputedly buckled into their seats, were also killed; one survivor later stated that the seatbelts simply ended up being largely ineffective because most of the seats themselves broke loose in the impact[[note]]incidentally, this same survivor, bodyguard Gene Odum, survived despite (by his own admission) not having his seatbelt on, further lending credence to the idea that seatbelt use was not a determining factor in death or survival[[/note]]. All four passengers killed in the crash were sitting in the same section of the plane, which took the worst of the damage.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/YuuyamiDooriTantenkai'' involves a trio of kids investing local urban legends in Hirumi City.

* UserfulNotes/AdolfHitler, being one of the most infamous men in history, has several legends surrounding him, naturally, most of which surround his death in Berlin 1945, as the Soviet army was practically pounding on his door. Most prominently, the legends say the Soviets NeverFoundTheBody and that he may have faked his death, either fleeing to South America or Antarctica to continue running the remnants of the Nazi regime in secret, in hopes of one day returning to launch a "Fourth Reich" against the world.

An Urban Legend is a story which imparts information or AnAesop (explicit or implicit) and which purports to be the account of a true event which happened locally, fairly recently, and to someone the teller knows (often a "friend of a friend"). Even though the story is supposedly merely secondhand, it has usually been passed along through several sources and altered in the telling (to make it more 'local,' plausible, or what have you). Some, like folklorist Jan Brunvand or [[{{WebSite/Snopes}} Snopes.com]], collect these critters and try to evaluate their claims.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'', both parts, are about urban legends that start to mysteriously come true. ''Innocent Sin'' has this more as a central theme, although it is not absent from ''Eternal Punishment''.
** The plot of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' is kicked off because of a urban legend of the Midnight Channel, where you see your soulmate if you look into an empty TV at midnight on a rainy day. Turns out, [[MentalWorld there's a bit more than that]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' plays around with both the GodNeedsPrayerBadly and ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve tropes quite a bit and, as a result, urban legends have lately begun popping up all over Gensoukyou. This culminated with the ''Urban Legend in Limbo'' incident, during which various characters intentionally spread rumors and urban legends in order to make use of their powers. Notable urban legends that appeared in Gensoukyou during these turbulent times were [[StockNessMonster Nessie]], [[TheSevenMysteries The Seven Mysteries of the School]], TheMenInBlack, [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Okiku]], [[GlasgowGrin Kuchisake-Onna]], [[{{Creepypasta}} Hasshaku-sama]] and [[TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse Mary-san]] as well as the wish-granting [[Literature/TheMonkeysPaw Monkey Paw]], SpontaneousHumanCombustion and seven magical balls capable of granting whoever gathers all of them a single wish. This all eventually leads to a major OhCrap moment in ''Manga/ForbiddenScrollery'' when the oldest and most common urban legend of all time starts circulating: TheEndIsNigh.

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* ''[[WebSite/{{Snopes}} Snopes.com]]'' reports a number of urban legends as true (though they're still in a noticeable minority), including some rather unbelievable ones such as [[http://www.snopes.com/medical/asylum/fbipizza.asp this seemingly farcical account]], on which they comment: "The above-quoted tale about FBI agents trying to order pizza delivery to a psychiatric hospital is one of those pieces that serves to remind us that no matter how bizarre, far-fetched, or incredible a story may seem at first glance, it should never be entirely discounted without at least some effort being made to verify it."

* OlderThanTelevision: In New Jersey in the GayNineties, some people believed in the spook rabbit, [[Main/KillerRabbit a rabbit that attacked dogs and left their bellies bloodied and covered in small cuts]] and was ImmuneToBullets. The legend is now believed to have come about from dogs being cut by thorns and other undergrowth.

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: The number 13 is associated with misfortune according to an old superstition.
* AlienAbduction: Some people claim to have been kidnapped or visited by extraterrestrial beings.
** AliensStealCattle: This trope is derived from tales of aliens allegedly abducting, killing, and mutilating cows or other domestic animals.
* AncientAstronauts: A pseudohistorical conspiracy theory which claims that alien visitors came down to Earth during prehistoric/ancient times and influenced the development of early human civilizations.
* Area51: A real-life US Air Force base located in Nevada. Due to its highly classified status, it's been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories which claim that it's being used by the US government to store captured alien spacecraft and reverse-engineer them into experimental military aircraft.
** RoswellThatEndsWell: A notorious UFO sighting that was reported near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Although the US military officially stated that the object was merely a weather balloon that fell out of the sky, popular conspiracy theories emerged which claimed that it was actually an alien spaceship that crash-landed and was then secretly transported to a military base (like Area 51).
*** AlienAutopsy: This trope is based on an infamous short film that was aired on the {{Creator/Fox}} network in 1995, which allegedly contained footage of an alien corpse from the Roswell incident being dissected by the military, but is widely considered to be just a hoax.

* TheBermudaTriangle: A loosely-defined region of the Atlantic Ocean (somewhere between Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico), where numerous ships and planes were alleged to have mysteriously disappeared. The explanations range from bad weather to supernatural phenomena.
* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: At least one legend evaluates the story of a babysitter who receives menacing phone calls from an upstairs extension.

* {{Creepypasta}}: Works of horror fiction posted on the Internet, which are often deliberately written in the style of some spooky urban legend.
** TheMostDangerousVideoGame: This creepypasta trope is most likely inspired by the urban legend of ''{{VideoGame/Polybius}}'', a fictitious 1980s arcade game which supposedly [[BrownNote caused negative effects to the players' mental and physical health]].

* {{Curse}}s: Some people attribute bad things happening in real life to supernatural causation rather than random coincidence.
** CurseOfThePharaoh: This trope probably originates from sensationalized rumors surrounding the discovery of Pharaoh {{UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun}}'s tomb in 1922, in which multiple members of the archaeological crew who were present died from various unusual circumstances not too long afterwards. However, this alleged "curse" did not seem to (immediately) kill or affect everyone who was involved in the tomb excavation.
** TheProductionCurse: Legends about catastrophes involved in the making of a film or television show. While some describe a genuinely TroubledProduction but blame it on, say, a vengeful ghost, other legends are either made up or arise from misinterpretation (e.g. a large bird in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' being mistaken for the body of a Munchkin actor hanging himself).
* DangerTakesABackseat: There are tales of criminals hiding in the back of someone else's car, waiting to ambush the driver.
* DidAnastasiaSurvive: After the [[RulingFamilyMassacre massacre of the Romanov imperial dynasty]] during the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]], rumors had soon emerged about [[UsefulNotes/AnastasiaNikolaevnaRomanova Grand Duchess Anastasia]] (Tsar Nicholas II's youngest daughter) somehow escaping alive from the carnage. Though such claims about the princess' alleged survival have been proven false.
* ElvisLives: Some people believe that Music/ElvisPresley didn't actually die in 1977, claiming that the King of Rock and Roll actually faked his death and is just hiding out somewhere!

* GhostStory: This is perhaps the oldest and most popular type of spooky folktale that is still being shared today. Many old (usually {{abandoned|Area}}) buildings and other remote, secluded places around the world are alleged to be {{haunted|Headquarters}} by ghosts, demons, spirits, and other supernatural entities, often scaring the crap out of people who claim to have witnessed such things.
** BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts: A fairly common ghost story in which a motorist picks up a hitchhiker off the road and takes them along for the ride, only for the driver to later find that their mysterious passenger has suddenly vanished...
** LivingShadow: Many people claim to have seen "shadow beings", which are apparently spiritual entities made of darkness. However there is an easy scientific explanation for this phenomenon; they're merely hallucinations, often resulting from sleep paralysis.
** SpeakOfTheDevil: Some legends (such as the one about "Bloody Mary") claim that ghosts or spirits can be summoned by chanting their name, typically in front of a mirror.
* HookHand: One of the most famous urban legends features a SerialKiller with a hook for a hand who stalks couples at MakeOutPoint.

* MoonLandingHoax: A conspiracy theory which claims that {{UsefulNotes/NASA}}'s famous Apollo 11 Moon landing mission never actually happened, alleging that the US government decided to just stage a fake Moon landing at a film studio instead.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: Myths and rumors that are attached to works of fiction and other media.
** UrbanLegendOfZelda: Myths and rumors about "hidden" content in video games.
* PyramidPower: Claims about the remarkable properties of pyramids often come up; both contemporary structures built with modern materials and the pyramids of antiquity.
* RazorApples: Apocryphal tales about razor blades and poison being maliciously placed in Halloween candy and given to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters, which inspired paranoid adults to warn children about watching out for tampered candy.
* ScareEmStraight: It's easy to see certain legends as a coded warning against more mundane dangers. There may not be a hook-handed killer at MakeOutPoint, but indulging in too much AutoErotica carries penalties of its own.
* SewerGator: Alleged sightings of alligators dwelling in unlikely locations, such as the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewers beneath]] [[BigApplesauce New York City]].

* StockUnsolvedMysteries: For every unexplained diappearance, there will be about five legends claiming aliens, monsters, magic, the government, etc. were involved.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Oftentimes, false rumors and phony stories are distantly based on some real events that were heavily distorted after many different people orally recounted them. Or perhaps the original storyteller [[UnreliableNarrator wasn't being very honest in the first place]].

** Another show with a very similar format format was TLC's ''Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed'', hosted by Natasha Henstridge. The full series is currently available [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFtpZ659RpvF42PE6uKm6mQjuz8uDq2jp here]], via [=FilmRise=]'s Youtube.