URBAN LEGENDS

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URBAN LEGENDS

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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Urban Legends, like Hip Hop and Rap Exhibit many
features of Literature They are dramatic, and
play on such emotions as fear or
embarrassment. They are filled with such
rhetorical devices as Hyperbole (overstatement),
Antithesis, Symbolism, Irony, and especially
Poetic Justice. They appear credible, because
they are grounded in reality, and because they
explain mysterious phenomena. They are also
based on stereotypes and archetypes we see around
us every day. They get our attention, because
they are gross and sexual and scatalogogical and
Titillating. And they are documented, because
they always happened to a Friend of a Friend.
They are therefore called FOAF tales.
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YOU PROVIDE THE ENDINGS

• A man goes to a hotel with a beautiful, sexy
  woman he met at a party. They make mad,
  passionate love, after which he falls asleep.
  When he wakes in the morning, the woman is gone,
  but written in lipstick on the mirror is this
  message
• Welcome to the world of AIDS.

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• The driver of a cement truck goes past his house
  at lunch time and sees a brand new car in the
  driveway. He is suspicious that his wife has a
  male visitor, so he sneaks up to the house and
  hears a mans voice. In anger, he
• backs his truck up to the new car and dumps in
  his lad of cement.
• Later he learns that his wife has just purchased
  the new car for his birthday.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 302)

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• On a cold and rainy night, a man sees a young
  woman standing at a bus stop with no coat and no
  umbrella. He stops and offers her a ride home,
  which she gratefully accepts.
• Because the two are so compatible and she lives
  right on his way, he aranges to pick her up on a
  regular basis. But after a few evenings she
  isnt there. He goes to the house where he has
  been dropping her off and learns that
• 20 years ago she had been killed by a speeding
  car at that very bus stop.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 303)

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• A vacationing husband takes off all his clothes
  and is relaxing in the back of the camper while
  his wife takes a turn driving.
• When she stops suddenly, he jumps out to see what
  the trouble is. It is just a dog crossing the
  road, so the wife
• speeds off not realizing that she has left her
  naked husband behind.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 303)

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• Tell us each of these urban legends
• The Alligators in the Sewers
• The Baby on the Roof
• The Fifty-Dollar Thunderbird
• The Dog in the Oven
• The Second Blue Book
• The Baby and the Turkey

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• The Death of Little Mikey
• The Elephant That Sat on a VW
• The Finger in the Dogs Throat
• The Mickey Mouse Acid
• The Hairy-Armed Hitchhiker

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• The Manhattan White
• The Phantom Hitchhiker
• The Purse in the Changing Room
• The Maniacs Hook
• The Stuck Couple

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RUMORS When Willie Sutton was asked why he
robbed banks, he replied Because thats where
the money is Mary Baker Eddy was buried with a
telephone so she could talk to the other
side John Dillingers member is at the
Smithsonian Institution Humphrey Bogart posed
for Gerber baby picture Tobacco Companies own
large marijuana plantations in South America
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There are ground worms in McDonalds
hamburgers Pop Rocks have exploded inside
childrens stomachs Cigarette filters are made
of ground glass Some Girl Scout cookies are
laced with hashish Procter and Gambel
advertisers are Devil worshipers
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and that Some Kentucky Fried Chicken is actually
Peoples Fingers and that one of the
ingredients of Coca Cola is cocaine.
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TRUTH But the one about the Kentucky Fried
Finger actually happened, but it was at Wendys
and it was a customers finger. and its also
true that one of the ingredients of Coca Cola
used to be cocaine.
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Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus
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Three Blind Mice
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• JACKALOPE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOrbKXdfs-V8
• TOP 25 URBAN LEGENDS
• http//list25.com/25-most-popular-urban-legends-st
  ill-being-told/