Pre-internet social contagions

[Johnboy]

It's an interesting song, that, musically speaking. The verse is all dark and ominous a bit like Dirty Diana, but then there's this weirdly cheery synthy chorus, like two different songs bolted together.

Yes I see what you mean how they differ in tone but it's remarkable how similar the metre and melody are - I didn't notice this until I read it in Popular blog.

[Zetetic]

I recently read the same thing though, can't remember where. Could have been that book on Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy?

I don't think so, because it's obviously bollocks. (Change my mind, etc.)

(Chernobyl : History of Tragedy does mention the broadcast of the April episode of Песня-86/Song 86 which, I think, was the Soviet Song of the Year programme. You can find episodes, including the '86 final on YouTube, but I wouldn't bother.)

[Noddy Tomkey]

Ricky Martin dog food on their genitals

I heard this in person from an American in the early 2000s so this is now trans global rumoury.

[thecuriousorange]

Talking of silly dances, in an episode of Derry Girls they all do a silly 'dance' (not a dance, they all sit in a line and do rowing motions) to the song "Rock The Boat".  Can anyone tell me if that was ever a real 'thing' or did the makers if the tv show invent it?

That's a definite thing and we all did it at a big family wedding last month. In Donegal.

[purlieu]

Have we done Marc Almond's stomach of cum yet?

...and the same rumour 15 years earlier, but about Prince

I first heard it about Rod Stewart.

I heard that somewhere they get all the CVs in an unsorted pile, and then take the top half and throw them in the bin sight unseen - because 'they don't want unlucky people working there.'

I once told someone this and pretended I thought it was actually a fairly decent way of getting rid of half of the hundreds of people who were chasing a single position. I was shocked by how violently they disagreed with me. But rationally, you might as well do that.

It's nothing to do with luck, but it is how a fair few employers cut down their piles of applications, which I know from first hand experience of working in management level jobs. If an employer doesn't have an HR department doing that work, I don't blame them.


These are all entertaining ones, which are so much better than the bollocks that came along once the internet became common. "A duck's quack is the only sound that doesn't echo"? Fuck off.

[thecuriousorange]

It would be remiss of us to not mention the story of someone having a wank with their eyes closed and opening them to find a cup of tea left by their mum.

[Astronaut Omens]

If I was the examiner in that barometer situation I would have failed the smart arse kid because at no point did I say he could use a piece of string as well as the barometer, so his answer is shit and wrong.

Yeah, but I think the Wiki article above describes very nicely why is became a talking point amongst educationalists-the original question IS shit. It's a bizarre, convoluted bit of nonsense, no-one has or ever will attempt to find out the height of a building that way.
If anything, a good teacher should be trying to elicit the 'smart-arse' answer. Do you know this one:
e.g. There are ten birds in a tree and I shoot one of them, how many are left in the tree?
Wouldn't the 'straight' answer to that be a lot less intelligent than the 'smart-arse' answer?

[Astronaut Omens]

Which is rubbish really because you could say one 'yeah' sarcastically and still sound negative.  Yet the wag in the story wasn't being sarcastic at all, because he went on to become Georgie Fame.

Thank you for pointing me in the direction of that tune, it's slammin'!

[touchingcloth]

You should always by drinks in bottles rather than cans, because cans always have rat piss on the tops cos warehouses.

[Zetetic]

This is clearly at odds with "pre-internet" bit of the title, but planking seems to have made a sudden comeback amongst British healthcare workers, of all people (in particular mental health and learning disabilities nurses and their managers? In particular in my part of the world?).

Very odd see a lot of middle-to-late aged people re-enacting a fad from 10 years ago mostly associated with teenagers being a bit silly.

[touchingcloth]

What are they planking on? MRI machines?

[Head Gardener]

[Brian Freeze]

How about chain letters?

Never got one as it seemed to be the girls that had them at primary school. I think i can remember seeing one and can definitely remember there being an assembly given by the headmaster about the general bullshit of their contents. Very early eighties that was, but a rural school so probably quite a bit behind the times. Went quiet after that I think.

We were probably more concerned about the farmer who shot kids who went on his land. That was a great rumour.

[Brian Freeze]

How about Pierce Brosnan being responsible for the "wash before use" warning on salads?

Or Van Morrison writing an episode of Mr Bean?

I heard these last night on an old Blindboy episode so they might be only familiar to our Irish correspondents. He did clarify that they are both bullshit.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I heard that the Magnum ice cream/lolly was invented my Roger Moore.  He was sick of his hands getting messy when eating a choc ice so asked an ice cream company if they'd make a choc ice on a stick and the Magnum was born!

[Icehaven]

Many years ago my Mum told me James Mason invented the cat flap, but I've no idea if it was just her who thought that or if it was a common belief.

[That_Boy_Marner]

It's like heads and volleys at school, everyone knows how to play it, you'll have some variation of rules. But effectively it is the same game. This was in the early 90s as 7 year olds, no internet. How did every kid in the local area, even country wide, know how to play it?

[Icehaven]

That mocking ''ner ner, ner NER ner'' that small kids do, must have been around for literally centuries now but how do they always know it? I've seen pre-school age children antagonising their pram-bound siblings with it, but how and where have they learnt 'the universal teasing jingle' when they can barely say their own names?  Is it one of the first things people teach their brats or does it turn up in lots of kids TV shows for some reason? It could have died within a single generation if they'd just stopped using it, but for some reason it's persisted, why?