Editing Urban legend (section)

==Documentation==

The [[Internet]] has made it easier both to spread and to debunk urban legends.<ref>Donovan, p.129</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend.htm|title=How Urban Legends Work|date=2001-05-16|website=HowStuffWorks|language=en|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref> For instance, the [[Usenet]] newsgroup ''alt.folklore.urban'' and several other websites, most notably [[snopes.com]], focus on discussing, tracking, and analyzing urban legends. The [[United States Department of Energy]] had a now-discontinued service called Hoaxbusters<ref>
{{cite web |url = http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ |title = The U.S. Department of Energy has decided that it no longer wants to be associated with hoaxbusters.ciac.org so this site has been permanently shut down. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922223145/http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ |archive-date=22 September 2008 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> that dealt with computer-distributed [[hoax]]es and legends.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Watstein | first1 = Sarah | last2 = Jovanovic | first2 = John | chapter = Bioterrorism and Biological Warfare | title = Statistical Handbook on Infectious Diseases | year = 2003 | url = https://archive.org/details/statisticalhandb00wats | url-access = registration | series = An Oryx book | location = Westport, Connecticut | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | publication-date = 2003 | page = [https://archive.org/details/statisticalhandb00wats/page/297 297] | isbn = 9781573563758 | access-date = 26 January 2020 | quote = A number of Internet sites are available regarding urban legends and hoaxes, such as [...] the Compute Incident Advisory Committee and Department of Energy's HoaxBusters site at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org.}}</ref> The most notable such hoaxes are known as [[creepypasta]]s, which are typically [[Horror fiction|horror]] stories written anonymously. Although most are regarded as obviously false, some, such as the [[Slender Man]], have gained a [[Slender Man stabbing|following of people that do believe in them]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/21/slender-man-case-anissa-weier-sentenced| title=Slender Man case: girl who attacked classmate gets 25-year hospital sentence| date=2017-12-21| website=the Guardian| language=en| access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref> 

Television shows such as [[Urban Legends (TV series)|''Urban Legends'']], ''[[Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction]]'', and later ''[[Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed]]'', feature re-enactments of urban legends, detailing the accounts of the tales and (typically later in an episode) revealing any factual basis they may have. The [[Discovery Channel]] TV show ''[[MythBusters]]'' (2003–2016) tried to prove or disprove several urban legends by attempting to reproduce them using the [[scientific method]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Zimmerman |first1=Keith |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm62156278 |title=Mythbusters: the explosive truth behind 30 of the most perplexing urban legends of all time |last2=Zimmerman |first2=Kent |date=2005 |publisher=Simon Spotlight Entertainment |isbn=978-1-4169-0929-3 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=ocm62156278}}</ref>

The 1998 film [[Urban Legend (film)|''Urban Legend'']] featured students discussing popular urban legends while at the same time falling victim to killings re-enacting them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Urban Legend movie review & film summary (1998) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/urban-legend-1998 |access-date=2024-03-06 |website= |language=en}}</ref> The 1999 film ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'' purposefully positioned itself as an urban legend to gain viral hype and succeeded in fooling many that it was based on a real disappearance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Blair Witch Project |url=http://haxan.com/blairwitch/ |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=haxan.com}}</ref> The lack of widespread social media and search engines helped it proliferate in the months leading up to its release.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-25 |title=The legend of the viral marketing campaign. |url=https://writinginbound.com/blog/blair-witch-marketing/ |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=Above the Fold by Writing Inbound |language=en}}</ref>

Between 1992 and 1998 ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper "Weekend" section published the illustrated "Urban Myths" column by Phil Healey and Rick Glanvill, with content taken from a series of four books: ''Urban Myths'', ''The Return of Urban Myths'', ''Urban Myths Unplugged'',<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Healey | first1 = Phil | last2 = Glanvill | first2 = Rick | title = Urban Myths Unplugged | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jX0kAAAACAAJ | publisher = Virgin | date = 1994 | isbn = 9780863698972 | access-date = 26 January 2020}}</ref> and ''Now! That's What I Call Urban Myths''. The 1994 comics anthology the ''[[Big Book of Urban Legends]]'', written by Robert Boyd, [[Jan Harold Brunvand]], and [[Robert Loren Fleming]], featured 200 urban legends, displayed as comics.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The British writer [[Tony Barrell (journalist)|Tony Barrell]] has explored urban legends in a long-running column in ''[[The Sunday Times]]''. These include the story that [[Orson Welles]] began work on a [[Batman]] movie in the 1940s, which was to feature [[James Cagney]] as the [[Riddler]] and [[Marlene Dietrich]] as [[Catwoman]];<ref>{{cite news |author= Tony Barrell |url= http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/film/article176017.ece |title= Did You Know: Orson Welles |work= The Sunday Times |date= 5 July 2009 |access-date= 13 March 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140222142755/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/film/article176017.ece |archive-date= 22 February 2014 }}</ref> the persistent rumour that the rock singer [[Courtney Love]] is the granddaughter of [[Marlon Brando]];<ref>{{cite news |author= Tony Barrell |url= http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article184306.ece |title= Did You Know: Courtney Love |work= The Sunday Times |date= 13 September 2009 |access-date= 13 March 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140222142758/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article184306.ece |archive-date= 22 February 2014 }}</ref> and the idea that a [[Farrah Fawcett red swimsuit poster|famous 1970s poster]] of [[Farrah Fawcett]] contains a subliminal sexual message concealed in the actress's hair.<ref>{{cite news |author= Tony Barrell |url= http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/tv/article186376.ece |title= Did You Know: Farrah Fawcett |work= The Sunday Times |date= 4 October 2009 |access-date= 13 March 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140222142752/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/tv/article186376.ece |archive-date= 22 February 2014}}</ref>