When if first aired in Japan, season one Pokemon episode, “Electric Soldier Porygon” was so flashy and bright that it actually sent 685 viewers to the hospital with complaints of headaches, nausea, and seizures. The event became known as “Pokemon Shock.” The show went on a four month hiatus afterward, and the episode in question has never been rebroadcast.

Reference: http://www.ugo.com/the-goods/cartoon-urban-legends

Well, the "dead person hanging in the background" rumor is popular, but untrue. What the "hanging person" actually is a film crew person who got caught in the shot and quickly ran off the set.

It’s kind of hard to see, but it never did get cut out. I guess the hanging person legend has too much flare to die down.

The video clip in question appears below:

MGM proclaimed at the time of filming, that they had rented 300 birds from ZOO PARK, in Los Angeles, so that the director could select an appropriate few for the background atmosphere amidst the trees.

Among the birds were: golden pheasants, a South American toucan, an African crane and a Saurus crane.

A few of these birds managed to escape and appeared in various shots throughout the filming of THE WIZARD OF OZ.

One of these incidents occurred in the scene discussed here.

The explanation given is that it was one of the larger birds on that particular set that creates the illusion of a person hanging!

Reference: http://www.wendyswizardofoz.com/hanging.htm

One dark and stormy night a woman was listening to her extensive Cliff Richard CD collection when she heard a strange sound. It sent a chill down her spine as she heard a low humming and buzzing noise emanating from under her bed.

She bent down nervously and noticed, to her utter horror, that her Walkman had mysteriously turned itself on and was playing an ominous tune………..backwards.

She quickly snatched the tape player from under her bed and as she did so, she very faintly heard the following words: "Hhhhheeeeeelp meeeeeeee!" In terror she ripped the batteries out of the machine, but it carried on with its haunting plea.

Petrified, she ran to her neighbor’s house and was relieved to find her awake. The neighbor managed to calm her down with some kind words and a stiff drink. She explained to the neighbor the disturbing night’s events, and then they both plucked up the courage to go back to her house to find out what on earth was happening.

Upon their return, the Walkman had stopped, but the words "Help Me!" were written on the floor.

The next day the newspaper headline screamed "Sir Cliff Killed in Car Crash!" He was reportedly heard screaming "help me" by witnesses as his car skated over the icy cliff……How scary is that?

Mary Roberts from Teddington

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You gotta love Robin Williams…… Even if he’s nuts! Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan. What we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.

Robin Williams’ plan…(Hard to argue with this logic!)

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here’s one plan."

1.      "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those "good ‘ole’ boys", we will never "interfere" again.

2.      We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany , South Korea , the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don’t want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3.      All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We’ll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They’re illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4.      All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don’t like it there, change it yourself and don’t hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don’t need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5.      No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don’t attend classes, they get a "D" and it’s back home baby.

6.      The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7.      Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don’t like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8.      If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9.      Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don’t need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10.  All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH…learn it…or LEAVE…Now, isn’t that a winner of a plan?

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.’ She’s got a baseball bat and she’s yelling, ‘you want a piece of me?’ "

If you agree with the above forward it to friends…If not, and I would be amazed, DELETE it!!

Robin Williams did say the final quote about the statue of Liberty, but the rest cannot be positively identified as a quote from Robin Williams.

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via rottentomatoes.com

There is a scene in the movie Three Men and a Baby where you can see the ghostly figure of a small boy who was killed in the house where the scene was filmed. There are also tales of other ghostly objects being seen throughout the movie, most notably a rifle pointing at the head of the “ghost boy”.

That is the legend. Here are the facts. The scene in question was not shot in a house, but on a soundstage in a Hollywood studio. The “ghost boy” is in fact a life-sized cardboard cutout of Ted Danson (who stars in the film), which had been left in the background, presumably accidentally, by a crew member. This cutout is seen in full view in another scene in the movie.

There is no ghost boy. No boy ever died on the set, and no one involved with the movie was ever sued by the mythical parents of said ghost boy.

The above photo is from an article on http://rottentomatoes.com called:
The Ghost Stays in the Picture – Shutter and the History of Ghostly Images

Posted via web from Urban Legends Online

"Mama" Cass Elliot’s death has been reported over the years as having been caused by "choking on a sandwich while in bed and from inhaling her own vomit." The true cause of death, a heart attack, was not determined until an autopsy was performed a week later, but by that time it was too late. Another of rock’s urban legends was born.

At 5’5" and 238 lbs., Mama Cass was twice the normal weight for a woman her age and height. The effects of long-term obesity, drug abuse and crash diets had weakened her heart to the point of failure. Because she was a large woman, and there was a sandwich on the nightstand when her body was found, an irreversible connection was made. That it was a ham sandwich (an obvious commentary on her weight) was added after the fact. However, no traces of food were found blocking her trachea, and there was never any indication that food played a role in her death.

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"Love Rollercoaster" is a song by American funk/R&B band The Ohio Players, originally featured on their 1975 album Honey. The song was a hit upon its initial release, reaching the top of both the R&B and pop charts, and still sees wide airplay on classic funk and R&B stations. The song uses the roller coaster, a common theme park attraction, as a metaphor for the ups and downs of dating and romantic relationships.

While the song is known within the music community for its distinctive and influential sound, within the popular imagination it remains best identified with a persistent urban legend. During an instrumental portion of the song, a high-pitched scream is heard (between 2:32 and 2:36 on the single version); this was Billy Beck, but according to the most common legend, it was the voice of an individual being murdered live while the tape was rolling. The "victim’s" identity varies greatly depending on the version.

The supposed sources of the scream have included an individual who was killed at some prior time, her scream inexplicably recorded and looped into the track. Another version tells of a rabbit being killed outside the studio whose scream was accidentally picked up by the band’s recording equipment – highly implausible, since professional recording studios are soundproof. The most widespread version of the myth, however, tells that Ester Cordet, who appeared nude on the Honey album cover, had been badly burned by the super-heated honey used for the photo shoot, which occurred simultaneous with the recording session, and her agonized screams were inadvertently captured on tape. A further variation had Cordet suffering permanent disfigurement due to the burns; she interrupted the band’s recording session, threatening to sue, at which point the band’s manager stabbed her to death in the control room. Both of the latter two scenarios, however, are impossible as Ester Cordet is still alive.

Casey Kasem reported the urban myth of the woman being killed in the studio recording booth on his radio show, American Top 40, when the song was on the charts in 1976. Jimmy "Diamond" Williams explained that the scream was nothing eerie or disturbing:

"There is a part in the song where there’s a breakdown. It’s guitars and it’s right before the second verse and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches like Minnie Riperton did to reach her high note or Mariah Carey does to go octaves above. The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, ‘Did you kill this girl in the studio?’ The band took a vow of silence because you sell more records that way."

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Rollercoaster

Jacob from Alamogordo NM

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The setting was a rock concert for the Grand Funk Railroad. After playing for some time, just after a featured guitar solo, someone near the front of the crowd began booing loudly. In response to the booing, a member of the band came to the mike and asked, "If you think you can do better, come on up here."

Up walks Eric Clapton.

Variations:

• A standup comic is bombing during his routine when he starts to get heckled by someone in the crowd. The comedian goes a couple of rounds with the heckler but quickly runs out of material. He says, "if you think you can do better, why don’t you come up here and try."

Up walks Robin Williams.

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In any case, when the surgery was finally done the medical team was sworn to secrecy (unsuccessfully, we must conclude) and Gere went on his merry way, suffering no permanent damage other than to his reputation.

An older woman took her first trip to Las Vegas last year. She had done very well playing the slot machines, winning a bucket full of quarters. Karen needed a break, and she left the casino heading toward the elevators, taking her bucket with her.

She steps into the elevator and before the doors shut, four beefy, leather-clad African-American men step in. Karen (never having spent much time with African Americans) clutches her bucket close to her body.

One of the men says, "Hit the floor, lady," and she does: quarters fly everywhere. The men bust up laughing and they help Karen collect her winnings. One of the men explains that he meant for her to select her floor. They help her collect her quarters and the elevator arrives at her floor. She leaves embarrassed, and the men are still laughing.

Later that evening, a dozen roses are delivered to Karen’s room. There is a one hundred dollar bill attached to each rose. The note attached read:

Thank you for the best laugh I’ve had in years!

Eddie Murphy

Variations:

·         The celebrity can be either Eddie Murphy, Michael Jordan or Reggie Jackson.

·         The story takes place in New York City, Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

·         Sometimes the man is alone, other times he has bodyguards.

·         The story has been told where the man has a dog named "Lady." Instead of saying "hit the floor," he says "sit Lady," referring to the dog.

·         Depending on the version of the story, the woman finds her hotel bill taken care of instead of a bouquet of roses.

Photo credit: http://www.pbase.com/1eyeclosed/image/58612423

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