I have been fascinated with urban legends for a long time -- ever since I started to use the Internet regularly, to be precise. Like most readers, my inbox has often been full of forwarded email tales, and I've read more than my fair share on online forums. Most recently was a rather worrying piece -- purported to be from the police, posted by a very intelligent person, prefaced with "I don't normally post this sort of stuff, but it's from a reputable source!" -- about the dangers of flashing your headlights at cars whose drivers had not switched on theirs. Wow!
After reading this, I immediately tapped a few terms into Google and found the true story about that urban legend. And that’s how I discovered the Snopes.com: The Urban Legends Reference Pages.
I now find Snopes indispensable. Every time I hear a funny tale, I have a good think about it and then challenge its veracity by checking there. I'm getting much better at spotting absolute bollocks before I've read even the first sentence of an email whose subject line reads, "Fwd: FWD: Fw: Fw: FWD:".
Shamefully, it wasn't until very recently that I searched the pages of Snopes to see what information of a poop-related nature I might find there. Some little nuggets floated to the top of the search function; I'd like to give you a little sniff of what I found.
A couple has anal sex on a white sofa. An accident follows. And the cheeky young scamps do? Yes, you've guessed it -- they blame it on the dog!
I'm sure everyone has heard this or variations on it. I remember hearing it when I was at high school. Some chap spews up all over the poor girl with whom he's managed to score. What does she do? Quite right -- she shits on his chest!
This one is far stranger -- in fact, I'm amazed that I haven’t happened upon this until now. Rumor has it that in order to win a gross-out contest, jazz-rock legend Frank Zappa shat on stage and ate it. Er… yes. I'm pleased to tell you that it appears to be untrue.
Finally, here is a reference fit for PoopReport: a short piece on the origin of that good old four-letter word that we know and love. Did it start as an acronym for "Ship High in Transit?" Clearly, I don't need to give you the answer to that one. The people who circulate that story must have the same microscopic amounts of grey matter as those who would have you believe that "fuck" was originally an acronym for "For Unclean Carnal Knowledge" or, more creatively, "Fornication Under the Consent of the King." Yes, the origin of "shit" has very little to do with things that float on water.
Can you find any other poop legends on Snopes? I don’t know if the Mountain Dew Pitch Black legend is on there, but it should be.
