Urban legends

Urban Legends have been around for a very long time. They are the likened to rumors and myths. Most urban legends are not true and are made up for gossip or to embellish one’s story. Some however are true, these legends range in size from the smallest little rumors to the largest legends around.

The first urban legend I looked into was the classic pop rocks and soda myth. The rumor states that a young kid once ate multiple bags of the pop rocks candy (the ones that pop and fizzle in your mouth) and then proceeded to drink multiple cans of soda pop, thus causing a large amount of carbonation to be released and cause the kids stomach to explode. This has been disproved many, many times before. The man who invented pop rocks candy explained that eating pop rocks would cause nothing more harmful then the occasional burp.

The second legend I looked into was a little more realistic and believable. The legend is that major rock band Van Halen has a current performing contract that states that the dressing room is to be furnished with a bowl M&M’s with no brown colored ones in the room. This myth is true, however it has a very good cause. The lead singer David Lee Roth told in his auto-biography that this was thrown into the contract as a test to see if the place hosting the concert had read and abided by it thoroughly. At a concert once held in a Canadian college there where brown M&M’s in the room so the band cancelled the show after discovering the stage didn’t meet the weight requirements in the contract. The college insisted they played anyways so they did, the stage sank into the wooden gymnasium floor causing $80,000 of damage at the college’s expense.

The last myth I have researched is the myth about New England Patriot’s quarterback, Tom Brady, being a part of the Brady Bunch T.V. series. This myth states that Tom was once the fourth member of the series. This is easily disproved since the show aired from 1964 to 1974, Tom Brady however was born in 1977. So therefore he wasn’t even alive to watch the show when it aired.

To conclude there are many urban legends, some true, some false. No matter if they are true or false they can be very misleading and potentially dangerous. Urban legends are just stories some people are unsure about their truth.

Media Class

Well my name is Steve... you don't need to know my last name, and i currently in a Media Analysis class. through the various weeks there have been a few things I have enjoyed in this class. The first being that we learn about various advertising techniques and how companies use them to get you to buy their products. Secondly I also find it interesting how we cover the topic of how different genders are portrayed and how it affects member of that specific gender and members of the opposite gender. The third and final thing about the class i enjoyed was when we made podcasts, it truly showed how technology affects our media and how ideas and word get spread.