Top 5 Unusual Urban Legends
The Top Five Unusual Urban Legends of All Time
Urban legends have been the source of story telling good times and fright induced sleepless nights the world over for as long as anyone can remember. The problem however is that the tales of the Candyman and company are now so rehashed, that there’s nothing new to tell around the campfire, or indeed the dormitory, when you’re trying to inspire awe are scare the crap out of everyone. To set right this wrong, I’ve dug up the most obscure and outrageous legends of urban origin, purely for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.
- Woman Gives Birth to Rabbits in Hampshire
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. A long, long time ago in a little English town called Godalming (Surrey) a woman by the name of Mary Toft was attracting attention for some rather peculiar reasons. The year was 1726 and mother of three Mary announced a fourth pregnancy, however what eventually popped out wasn’t a bouncing baby. Instead several pig organs emerged, which were then taken by her baffled husband to an equally baffled midwife. An uneventful month then went by but then Mary started giving birth to dead rabbits at a rate of one a day. The tales of little Miss Mary were now attracting attention from outside of Surrey and before long specialists from Switzerland and Westminster were called in. Still baffled King George I dispatched his personal surgeon who saw Mary give birth to a dead rabbit or two and still couldn’t explain it. Eventually it came down to Sir Richard Manningham, who suspicious of Mary, brought her to London and finally unveiled the truth. A servant was discovered smuggling in rabbits for Mary’s precursor to Thailand’s Ping Pong Ball show and Mary confessed. She had all along been inserting the poor old rabbits and various animal parts, inside herself, and was imprisoned for gross deception. Mary was later released without being prosecuted, but the legend lived on!
- Giant Human Skeleton Excavated in the Arabian Desert
Way back in 2004 startling images started emerging from the depths of the Arabian Desert. The problem about said images was this. They were all titled with military headings and showed a highly secure excavation site, somewhere in the desert outside of Dubai. In the depths of this sandy dig it was possible to see the outline of a skeleton. This in itself was not unusual. The thing that didn’t quite fit however was the diminutive size of the archaeologist dusting off the skull. On closer inspection it appeared that this standard six foot tall man was comparatively no larger than the skull in question. He was apparently standing next to the remains of a giant! Conspiracy theorists went crazy, legions of anti evolution dim wits took it as a sign of biblical confirmation (Goliath etc) and the photo appeared in blogs, and papers the world over. Alas this was a photoshop job, manufactured specifically for the 2002 worth1000.com contest, but the build up and new media frenzy remain legendary.
- A Tale of Two Tooth Brushes
Bringing it back to travel we have the unforgettable and slightly disgusting tale of two tooth brushes. Alight your imagination if you will with the image of a young, newly wed couple from California. For the sake of the story let’s call them Jack and Jill. For their honeymoon Jack and Jill jetted off to the Bahamas where they stayed at a hotel described in the brochure as: “understated and charming.” Not deciphering this ingenious code as “overpriced sh*t hole,” the couple checked in and one day later returned to their room only to discover that everything had been stolen! Everything that is except their old school ‐ film camera and their respective toothbrushes. It seemed odd that the burglars would take everything and miss out on the not inexpensive camera. The couple however made the best of what they had until the chartered flight home. It was only when the film came back from the developers that Jack and Jill discovered the gruesome reason why the camera was left behind. Between photos of Jack and Jill golfing, and Jack and Jill making do, were two rather disturbing shots. Shots of two tooth brush handles protruding from a certain, dirty orifice no less. This urban legend has never been disproved. Shudder.
- Chandelier Supernova
This one’s been rotating on the urban legend rotisserie for a long time and with each fiery turn, a layer of slippery, secret spinning, sticky stuff slips off and a new variation is born. The most recent harks back to a travelling theatre troupe in Cold War Russia (I think the teller of said tale may have read Capote’s account of what happened when the production of Porgy and Bess went to the Soviet Union, but I digress). During this tour, suspicion that secret services were bugging the hotel rooms en route was rife, so at each stop the cast avidly riffled through the nooks and crannies, hoping to discover a clandestine device or two. On one particular eve, two actors happened upon a suspicious lump underneath a rather large rug. Peeling back the rug the thespians discovered a suspicious pipe descending into the floorboards. Having concluded they were indeed being spied upon, the pair went about pulling up the wires inside the pipe, unknotting some and cutting the rest. As they tore through the final thread, a wholly unsettling cashing noise commenced, culminating in what sounded like the smashing of a thousand glasses. Evidently the actors had released the wire support ropes of the chandelier in the room below. The sleeping couple in the bed below never saw it coming.
- A Killer Tan
Like all good urban legends, this is a tale that’s never been disproven. It was the day before Melissa and John were set to be wed. Despairing over her pale flesh and desperate for everything to be perfect Melissa hit the local tanning salon for a quick session on the UV beds. Not satisfied with the results Melissa deftly dashed to the nearest salon for a cheeky, and highly inadvisable, additional 12 minutes. Like a woman possessed, Melisssa had hit all 11 salons in town by the time the sun set and she was finally verging on the shade of tangerine she desired. Unbeknownst to her however, this intensive tanning had an effect that was more than just skin deep. The massive burst of radiation had in fact began a process of slowly cooking her insides and by lights out on Melissa and John’s wedding night, poor old Mel was a gonner, suffering a terrible death brought about by multiple organ failure. Sad times.
‐ Rob Savage
No comments were found
