The internet is full of all kinds of information, especially fun facts and urban legends. You can find them on any social platform, and you probably read a few of them every day. Ranging from creepy and disturbing ones to funny and uplifting ones, people really seem to enjoy them and share them online and in real life. Who doesn’t love to liven up a party by surprising friends with some unique trivia? But how do we make sure that the information we’re reading is real and not made up?

Well, this online user decided to find out just that by asking, “What urban legend needs to die?” and they got some surprising and informative answers that might show you why you shouldn’t believe everything you read online. So before you tell fun facts to your friends, check out the answers below to make sure that they’re not fake!

#1

That vaccines cause autism.

#2

That people only use 10 percent of your brain. That is only true for politicians

Image credits: Freeagnt

#3

That you need to wait 24 hours to report someone as missing.

You can, and SHOULD, report someone as missing as soon as they go missing. It could be the difference between finding someone who had a bad fall at home or getting lost in the forest, and finding their body.

Image credits: OaklandLandlord

#4

“Black cats are evil” No they’re not

Edit: getting spammed with “all cats are evil”. Guys, I’m referring to different urban myths around the world which states that a black cat a demonic possession or just pure evil, related to witch and stuff.

#5

The “welfare queen” trope that Americans constantly use to justify exploiting low wage workers and punishing the poor for being poor. It’s a straw man offered as proof that poor people are immoral and that any economic assistance system will only entice them to further immorality. It is false, repugnant, and damaging to not only the poor but the whole economy.

#6

You don’t get sick because it’s “cold” outside or “you don’t have a jacket on”

Image credits: randomandoo

#7

Detoxing treatments…… NO Sharon, “harmful chemicals” are not just going to ooze out of your face and feet if you use that mask… That’s not how the human body works at all damn!

Image credits: DoubleFishes

#8

That touching baby birds or rabbits will cause their mothers to reject them because they smell like human. They absolutely will not. Don’t go messing with babies for kicks, but if you can put a baby (that you are 100% sure belongs there) back in it’s nest, do so. If you aren’t sure, call a wildlife rehabilitator so you’re not putting fledgelings where they don’t belong.

Image credits: Competitive-Ad-9662

#9

Trickle down economics

#10

That MSG is toxic.

EDIT: As an Aussie it took me a minute to work out what all the replies about MTG meant but yes, seeing the full name I agree Margery Taylor Green is as toxic as cyanide. No urban legend there. F*****g lunatic. Especially as an Aussie it’s like “WTF America?”.

#11

That vaginas get “loose” from having sex. There’s really Men out here that believe this

#12

“You can’t get STDs from oral sex”

One of the clinics I work at is a free sexual health clinic. Too many women are in there for mouth/throat/other digestive problems stemming from unprotected oral sex and various STDs.

#13

That the McDonald’s hot coffee lady had a frivolous lawsuit. The coffee was so hot it fused parts of her genitals and she had to have several reconstructive surgeries.

#14

Rich people work hard and are smart and deserve their money.

Edit: Since this turned into a discussion of how rich people get their money, let me elaborate. Under capitalism, rich people get their money by exploiting the labor of the worker, your labor.

You have nothing to sell but your time and your labor, and they take advantage of this, and give you back pennies on every dollar you have created for them, amount depend on how much exactly they can get away with without you taking your labor elsewhere. They can fire you anytime and use the threat of homelessness and starvation against you, for they are the ones who own the shop, the factory, the office, the land, the trade, and without those things, you cannot turn your time and labor into commodities you require and want in your daily life. This is the coercion of labor under capitalism. Always remember that.

This structure is designed to squeeze every bit of value out of you in the form of money, the form of profits. You are always closer to the homeless man on the street then the boss in an air conditioned office. Unionize. Organize.

#15

The government has your best interests at heart

#16

That if you work hard you’ll be successful in life.

#17

You don’t eat spiders in your sleep.

Image credits: sam_my_friend

#18

The idea that there are people in your neighborhood just waiting for the chance to poison your kids by giving them unwrapped Halloween candy.

Image credits: gcm6664

#19

Ostriches. Do not bury. Their heads. In the sand. If they’re afraid of something, they will run, kick, or bite. One of my biggest animal myth pet peeves.

Image credits: otusasio451

#20

Gay people made your child gay.

#21

The Bermuda f*****g Triangle. I live in Bermuda. The triangle is smack dab in the middle of hurricane territory so ships and planes back in the day (that didn’t have weather mapping) would get spanked by them frequently. It’s so irritating when you’re trying to introduce yourself, saying “I’m from Bermuda” and the response is “LiKe ThE tRiAnGle oMg hOw diD YoU sUraViVe”

Edit: Bermuda also has the highest cost of living in the world. More than NYC, Switzerland, or Dubai

Edit 2: methane from ‘volcanos’ in the triangle is just bogus. The only volcano that’s anywhere near the triangle is the DORMANT one that formed Bermuda.

Many a hurricane passes through the “triangle” every single year. Go back a couple hundred years and I’m sure you’d think that traveling through there was ‘cursed’ when realistically it was just a stupid time of year to travel that way

Edit #3: thank you for the upvotes! I just want people to see my little island x

Y’all are ridongculous! 4k+?? That’s over 5% of the population
Edit#4: we are now at over 10% of the population… lordamercy

P.s. Bermuda doesn’t have sharks like that. No one has ever been attacked. At most, a couple tiger sharks and nurse shakes have been seen (which is an island wide spectacle) but they aren’t on our radar like that. Same with tectonic plates. Nowhere near any of them

Image credits: WinnerInfamous

#22

All the human traffickers that lurk in Target, Walmart, etc looking to snatch up random children and/or women.

People are more than likely to be trafficked by people they know than random strangers.

#23

That there are hot women in my area waiting for me to “chat with them”.

#24

That you can target fat on a particular place on your body, like tummy fat. Fat doesn’t know where it lives.

Edit: I am, believe it or not, aware of the existence of plastic surgery. You don’t need to tell me about it.

Image credits: catsdelicacy

#25

That your pullout game is strong. No, it isn’t. Invest in an actual form of pregnancy prevention.

#26

That there’s litter boxes in high school classrooms. I’ve heard this about 3-4 different schools in my area.

Edit: I get there’s litter to clean up vomit and for the active shooter stuff. I’m talking about the people who swear they “know someone” who says there’s a litter box for a girl in a cat suit and b******g tail who makes all the students watch her poop in the corner.

It’s an anti LGBTQIA+ dog whistle.

#27

That if you swallow gum it takes 7 years to digest

#28

That it’s a felony offense to rip the tag off of your Mattress.

There was a major scandal in the past, where a couple mattress manufacturers were recycling used mattresses, re-stuffing them, and subsequently reselling them. ?

It is ONLY illegal for stores and manufacturers to rip the tags off of new mattresses for sale. However, once you buy it, and your mattress warranty expires (usually after 1 year or less), feel free to rip that annoying tag off

Image credits: Extreme_Today_984

#29

“Blood is blue inside your body & red when it comes out.”

Nope.

Image credits: weedbetterknot

#30

That shaving something will make the hair thicker.

#31

That daddy long legs are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs just aren’t big enough to spread enough venom. Edit: I’m referring to cellar spiders. Daddy long legs is vague term that describes several types of arachnids, none of them are venomous though.

Image credits: BlackConverse020

#32

That it’s super illegal to turn on your cars inside dome light while driving at night.

Image credits: Both-Invite-8857

#33

That doctors will let you die if you are an organ donor to steal your organs.

Image credits: Clarence_Bow

#34

Vaccines cause autism, and the COVID vaccine was the Mark of the Beast.

The heel stick done on newborn babies to test for PKU and other genetic diseases is also not the implantation of a microchip.

#35

Bigfoot. It’s 2023, if you can’t get at least, a 720p video of him, Then give it up!

#36

My dad coming back with the milk

#37

People giving out free drugs to kids.

#38

That Bill Nye is either dead or got busted for some drug-related thing. I hear it every year from my students and every year I have to tell them that no, the nerdy bow-tie scientist from the Disney channel did not get busted trying offload 3 pounds of meth on some undercover cops.

#39

The customer is always right

#40

Phil Collins and the reason he wrote In The Air Tonight. It was about his divorce. There was an interview about it.
Edit: The urban legend I heard was that a friend of Phil’s drowned and a guy let him drown. Years later, the guy was at Phil’s concert so Phil put the spotlight on the guy and sang this song. That’s my version of what I heard.

#41

That Dungeons and Dragons is satanic witchcraft, that’s still a popular ideal in the bibble belt

#42

You’ll go blind.

#43

I would say the Megalodon. It’s been extinct for millions of years and isn’t sitting at the bottom of the f*****g ocean waiting for the comeback of the century. Its dead lets be thankful.

#44

The one about the boa constrictor measuring itself against a woman in her bed before eating her. Or just in general, any stupid story about snakes eating humans.

I have a boa constrictor who’s 5 feet long. My coworker once tried to convince me that she can eat me. I couldn’t figure out if this idiot doesn’t understand *how* snakes eat, or doesn’t understand that a human *absolutely cannot* fit inside a snake that small.

#45

That cats steal babies breath

#46

The story about a pet snake measuring you.
It’s utter horseshit and explaining it every time I tell someone “I have a snake” is annoying.

#47

That baby deer are abandoned.

#48

That if you ask if someone’s a cop, they have to tell you if they are a cop

#49

Coca-Cola did not invent Santa Claus/Christmas tradition of choice. All they did was standardize red and white as Santa Claus’s definitive colors. Before that, it was common to see him depicted in green or purple or blue as well as red and white.

#50

If somebody’s having a seizure, stick an object in their mouth to prevent them from swallowing their tongue. Like wtf?

#51

No, “sex traffickers” aren’t leaving flyers on your windshield or toothpicks in your door handles. Sex traffickers are literally pimps, that’s the legal term for them. When a woman is sex trafficked, she is being whored out, probably because she is addicted to drugs. You are not going to get followed home and kidnapped and sold to some Saudi prince because someone left a “I buy junk cars” on your 1998 Accord with peeling clear coat.

#52

You can suffocate if you leave a fan on while you sleep (you can’t)

Urine is sterile (it’s not)

Highways have straight segments so that airliners can land on them in emergencies (they don’t)

You should drive at a normal speed in low-visibility weather so the car behind you doesn’t hit you (you should slow down)

You can suck out the venom from snake bites (you can’t)

Men think about sex every 7 seconds (they don’t)

#53

Loch ness monster… Its been here since the dinosaurs

#54

Our seventh grade English teacher Miss Jackson was not in Playboy in the 1980s… It does not matter that your brother’s cousin’s neighbor has the actual issue and they are going to bring it in to school someday.

Image credits: Loud_Butterscotch110

#55

In my country, there’s something called “Deochi or deochiat”, which mainly translates to “evil eye” or “getting evel eyed”.

It is believed that this happens when an older person admires a younger person too much. Aaaand no, not in a disturbing way, more like, a grandma admiring her grandson for how handsome he is and such. The grandson starts feeling sick, fatigued, nauseous, etc.

This is an actual, real phenomenon that happens because of the widespread belief in it.

I’ve experienced it a couple of times when I was young, and I’ve seen many others experience it.

The “cure” for this “deochi”, is most of the times a prayer, or a charm that, get this, you can’t be taught, you have to “steal” it from a gypsy.

It all of course is fake, just superstition, the power of belief. After I figured it out and stopped believing it at idk, 14-15, I’ve stopped experiencing it completely.

The people I managed to convince that this doesn’t really exist, stopped experiencing it as well, confirming my theory.

Just goes to show how influential believing in stupid stuff can be.

#56

The idea that GMOs are bad for you. Seriously, we’ve been modifying plants and animals for years via breeding. Stuff like CRISPER is basically just a more precise version of that, the difference between doing surgery with an obsidian dagger and a sterilized scalpel.

#57

Being afraid to flash lights at another car driving with their headlights off for fear that they’ll chase you down and murder you

#58

you can’t leave the class if the professor doesn’t show for 15 minutes, nor can you pass by catastrophe

#59

La Chupacabra. Enough is enough. Too many children have died wandering through the jungle, not to mention all the goats. We have to stop this thing once and for all.

#60

Boiling frogs.

Frogs jump out of water when it gets too warm for them.

#61

That Marilyn Manson had a rib removed to suck his own member

Image credits: LiliumLena

#62

All the ones about human trafficking that create a totally fictionalized idea of what human trafficking actually looks like.

#63

Alpha Males

#64

That if you eat gluten your d**k shoots off of you like a rocket.

#65

If you look under that one truck in Pokemon you can find a Mew.
Source: boredpanda.com