Urban Legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or a contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of apocryphal stories believed by their tellers to be true

Despite its name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban area.

Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed by e-mail. People frequently allege that such tales happened to a "friend of a friend" -- so often, in fact, that "friend of a friend," ("FOAF") has become a commonly used term when recounting this type of story.

Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters.

The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear or humor. Many urban legends are presented as warnings or cautionary tales, while others might be more aptly called "widely dispersed misinformation,"

Few urban legends can be traced to their actual origins, and even in these cases, the connections are often obscured by later embellishment and adaptation.

The teller of an urban legend may claim it happened to a friend, which serves to personalize and enhance the power of the narrative. Since people, unconsciously or otherwise, often exaggerate, conflate or edit stories when telling them, urban legends can evolve over time.

Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone, usually a child, acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead.

The legend of the Killer in the backseat and others

Killer in the backseat

The legend involves a woman driving and being followed by a strange car or truck. The mysterious pursuer flashes his high beams, tailgates her, and sometimes even rams her vehicle. When she finally makes it home, she realizes that the driver was trying to warn her that there was a man (a murderer, rapist, or escaped mental patient) hiding in her back seat. Each time the man sat up to attack her, the driver behind had used his high beams to scare the killer.

In some versions the woman stops for gas, and the attendant asks her to come inside to sort out a problem with her credit card. Inside the station, he asks if she knows there's a man in her back seat. In another she hits something, stops, and then the man gets in the back.

The story is often told with a moral. The attendant is often a lumberjack, a trucker, or a scary-looking man; someone the driver mistrusts without reason. She assumes it is the attendant who wants to do her harm, when in reality it is he who saves her life.

The story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo.

The story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. More recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed, anesthetized, and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation a story which folklorists refer to as "The Kidney Heist" such as the erroneous belief that a college student will automatically pass all courses in a semester if her or his roommate commits suicide. While such "facts" may not have the narrative elements of traditional urban legend, they are nevertheless conveyed from person to person with the typical elements of horror, humor or caution.

Melvin A.

Taken from: http://www.snopes.com/