Urban Legends Essay

Have you ever received a forwarded text from a friend about an urban legend? Well I have and I think that the majority of them are just to scare you. An urban legend is an apocryphal, secondhand story told as true and is plausible enough to be believed about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic, or exasperating series of events that supposedly happened to a real person. They are usually passed by mouth, e-mail and text. They are told and told again so it would be impossible to find the original source of the story. There are many urban legends but I am only going to write about three of them and they are, how coca cola used to contain cocaine, that eating pop rocks and drinking coca cola will cause an explosion in your stomach and kill you and also, that people put pins, needles and razors in children’s Halloween candy.

The first urban legend I am going to talk about is that eating pop rocks and drinking coca cola together will kill you. According to snopes.com this is false, but many people think it is true. They say that combining the two would cause an explosion due to too much carbon dioxide. After all these rumors they had taken it off the market in 1983 so nobody had access to it anymore, but they released it again in 1985 set up a telephone line that people with concerns could call so that they can be reassured nothing would happen if the candy was eaten. Rumors claimed that a little boy named Mikey that did cereal commercials was killed by this but on the website it says that Mikey is still alive and well and the rumors are false.

The second urban legend I know about is that people place sharp objects in children’s Halloween candy like, pins, needles and razors. It talks about how they insert these objects in candy and then give them away as either an attempt to injure the person who eats the candy, or as a joke. Since the site was last updated it said there had been about 80 cases of this since 1959 but I’m sure there has been many more since then. One case is that in 2000 a man named Joseph Smith was arrested for injuring a 14 year old boy by putting needles into a snickers bar. According to snopes.com this is true and really does happen.

And the third urban legend I am going to talk about is that coca cola used to contain cocaine. This is true, and in 1902 there was about 1/400 grain of cocaine in every ounce of the cokes syrup. They then made the drink completely cocaine free in 1929. Now coca cola is cocaine free and it is one of the top selling soft drink brands.

In conclusion there are many urban legends and most of them are false like eating pop rocks and drinking coca cola together will kill you. But many can also be true like, people put pins, needles and razors in children’s Halloween candy and that coca cola used to contain cocaine. If you hear about an urban legend and you want to know if it is true or just a lie go to snopes.com.