I like urban legends. There is something about them that is amazing. The difference between fantasy and urban legend is that urban legend has a hint of truth. Urban legends are something that you could in theory try, but that you wouldn’t for ethical or other reasons. There are legends that make me go noooo!! is that really true? I think that’s the fun part about them: to constantly wonder if the legends are really true or not.

The legends with gore are interesting to me because it’s hard to believe that something like that could actually happen. One of the weirdest stories I’ve heard is the one about the microwaved poodle. Though I believe that harming animals is totally wrong, a part of me wonders how something like this could even happen.

So the legend goes that it’s this old lady’s birthday, and she gets a microwave. Later on that day she washes her dog. So she’s drying her dog with a blow dryer and she thinks, “How can I make it go faster?” The lady happens to look at the microwave and gets an idea. So she grabs the dog and puts him in the microwave and sets it on high. A minute passes and the dog seems less wet. But then the dog blows up and the lady faints. Is it true or not?

While I never would reenact that urban legend myself, there are some tales that you can observe firsthand. There’s a really eerie urban legend that you can see in the movie The Wizard of Oz. I find this one to be interesting because there are a lot of opinions about it. The story goes that an actor playing a munchkin didn’t make it into the Lollipop Guild or something and that crushed his spirit. So he committed suicide. But, unbeknownst to the cameraman, the suicide was captured on tape during filming. I’ve watched both versions of the WOZ (black and white & color) and in the b&w version it looks like something is swinging side to side. As for the color version I can’t really tell. I believe this legend is true because it adds an eerie feeling to an otherwise cheery movie.

Some people are really into finding out the truth behind urban legends. Not me. For example, there’s a website called Snopes.com, which is a database of urban legends. They document the stories and try to prove if they’re true or false. It’s interesting, but I don’t like to go on it that often because I prefer not to know definitively if something is true or false.

You could say that the pleasure in reading about urban legends is going back in forth in your head, wondering, is it true or is it false?