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Pre-internet social contagions

Started by touchingcloth, August 07, 2019, 11:08:29 PM

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Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Darles Chickens on August 08, 2019, 02:56:26 PM
There was one which went round a few times when I was a kid in the 80s.  It said that 'microdots' containing LSD were being given to kids in the neighbourhood, warning that now they were using rub-on tattoos of cartoon characters to appeal to young children.  This was an actual photocopied bit of paper distributed by the local police, not just a word-of-mouth thing.  Great bit of scaremongering, but of course no one had ever witnessed these said kids tripping their nuts off to Disney LSD, nor was it ever really explained what motivation these people would ever have for doing it in the first place.

That was a Grange Hill plot. A kid found some fake tattoo stuff that turned out to be acid and started going tonto, they were about to jump out the top of the school thinking they could fly then Francesca Martinez talks him down.

Sherringford Hovis

Quote from: nw83 on August 08, 2019, 01:42:59 PM
In high school, I remember regularly hearing the one about a crazy rock-n-roll kid from the nearby school stealing a penguin from Flamingo Land (our nearest theme park) and taking it home.

Must be a living trope - it definitely happened at Paulton's Park in the early Nineties. My friend was initially worried about losing her job over it: deeply disturbed kid-in-care successfully liberated penguin from its enclosure, which promptly pecked three of the other neglecterinos badly when they tried smuggling it onto the minibus. Penguin had to be put down due to its injuries, penguin-napper permanently segregated from other kids as he hospitalised two of the peckees blaming them for the passing-on of his pescatarian pal. In rueful reminiscence, my friend opines that unless you bugger-murdered the kids outside Sainsbury's on a busy Saturday afternoon, it was practically impossible to get sacked from child social care at the time and the whole thing was swept under the nearest rug.

Sebastian Cobb

There's that other urban myth about someone taking a load of acid and having a bad trip, claiming they'd caught a gobiln in their wardrobe and their friends opening it to find a scared and confused kid with Downs.

I remember the LSD transfers being the subject of a school assembly and letters going home.

Mind, schools still fall for shit now. My son's school put out a newsletter about the Momo Challenge, long after it had been debunked as a hoax.

Jockice

#94
Almost everybody at school in the 80s knew a friend of the kids who called Matt Bianco 'a bunch of wankers' and Five Star 'fucking shit' on Saturday morning BBC kids' TV. They always went to another school though.

Cuellar

I actually did perform a tribute act to that once as a teenager, phoning one of those mid morning kids' shows and answering some question about the Spice Girls live on air, after which the host asked me if I like the Spice Girls and I said "no, I think they're rubbish". So not bad, really, when you think about it. Not bad at all.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on August 08, 2019, 03:42:29 PM
I remember the LSD transfers being the subject of a school assembly and letters going home.

Mind, schools still fall for shit now. My son's school put out a newsletter about the Momo Challenge, long after it had been debunked as a hoax.

Ours had us collecting walkers crisp bags 'for charity' for months before our head came on stage to solemnly, then angrily explain it was a hoax. I thought it was amazing.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on August 08, 2019, 03:50:04 PM
Ours had us collecting walkers crisp bags 'for charity' for months before our head came on stage to solemnly, then angrily explain it was a hoax. I thought it was amazing.

That's brilliant.

thenoise

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on August 08, 2019, 03:42:29 PM
I remember the LSD transfers being the subject of a school assembly and letters going home.

Mind, schools still fall for shit now. My son's school put out a newsletter about the Momo Challenge, long after it had been debunked as a hoax.

Oh God we had a policeman coming round giving us a lecture about drugs which lasted what seemed like hours. Had the LSD transfers thing as well, with a stern warning that it was so potent we would get a hefty dose just touching the paper. At which point we would immediately jump off the nearest building and die.
He also told us that there was a prostitute in Torquay who was deliberately infecting people with aids cos she was bitter, and the police couldn't touch her.


gilbertharding

Oh, happy days when Fake News was basically Jasper Carrott's 'genuine insurance claim forms' and Snopes.com was all about debunking hysterically untrue but basically harmless 'myths'. Now it's all 'well, I know it's not true, but I believe it anyway because it sounds as if it could be true' and half the population of the world being duped into voting for actual fascists.

buttgammon

Most households in inner city Dublin have a white ornament of a reclining woman in the window; some houses and flats have one in every window. I was confused by this at one point and wondered if they were handed out by the council or something. I did a bit of digging and found out there was a persistent urban myth that they signified a place was a brothel. A bit more digging and I managed to find the exact shop that sold them and the company that made them. It turns out a load of them were sold cheap and they spread like wildfire through the surrounding area as a result.

Quote from: thenoise on August 08, 2019, 04:14:01 PM
Oh God we had a policeman coming round giving us a lecture about drugs which lasted what seemed like hours. Had the LSD transfers thing as well, with a stern warning that it was so potent we would get a hefty dose just touching the paper. At which point we would immediately jump off the nearest building and die.
He also told us that there was a prostitute in Torquay who was deliberately infecting people with aids cos she was bitter, and the police couldn't touch her.

Nah, it was five minutes - it was just the LSD that made it feel like forever.

petril

the Guinness screensaver did the rounds in about 1996 or so. Everyone who had a PC seemed to have it, whether they used it or not. meant it got played once on every visit before being discarded for a proper thing that doesn't make a lot of noise or look shit.

Bonus points for folk who realised they could edit the source images for a laugh. With inevitable consequences, usually promoting terrorism(this was the west of Scotland, remember)

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on August 07, 2019, 11:45:39 PM
The usual kfc one is someone getting facial herpes 'cos some dirty bugger was wanking in them.

I remember one doing the rounds about a KFC that had a rat infestation.  Supposedly someone put glue down on the floor to try and trap the rats overnight, and this was a success, except that the rats apparently gnawed their own feet off and rolled away.  When they opened up the next morning, there were various pairs of severed rat's feet glued to the floor.

Quote from: touchingcloth on August 08, 2019, 12:15:00 AM
There was a documentary on when I was in school about a branch of Burger King where hidden cameras had revealed pattie tampering.

Nothing wrong with pattie tampering - taking your favourite potato to a five star holiday resort, treating it to a spa day and some champagne and chocs.

No...hang on, I'm thinking of tattie pampering, aren't I?

biggytitbo

'Pattie tampering' means something very different in Hull and can get you a 20 year sentence.

shiftwork2

Quote from: dr beat on August 08, 2019, 10:41:59 AM
A suspiciously high number of British universities seem to have one halls of residence which was based on the same design as a Swedish women's prison.  And were haunted.

Wow.  So it was bollocks?  Not the last bit, but word perfect otherwise.

unless you're also referring to oak house, Withington, Manchester


touchingcloth

Quote from: Endicott on August 08, 2019, 12:22:00 PM
Have we done Marc Almond's stomach of cum yet?

I once looked this up on Snopes and thoroughly depressed myself.

As I recall the origins of the story were in US high schools and were a way of policing girls by spreading rumours about their supposed promiscuity, the proof of which was that they were such a slut they once needed a stomach pump to remove the jizz.

The Almond story as a kid used to make me think "ew, what a grubby tainted love man", but some people couldn't resist bolting on the kind of details that would make even the dunciest of ten year olds question it.

"Marc Almond, right? He only needed to get his stomach pumped."

"Wow, nasty."

"Yeah. And it was cum that they pumped out."

"Ew! No way! Gross!"

"Yer. Ten different men's cum and a dog's."

"Ah. I think this story might be unreliable."

touchingcloth

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on August 08, 2019, 02:12:14 AM
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?

Reminds me of the time I was on holiday and didn't see the news all week and a few days after I got back someone said to me "Do you want to hear a joke about the Martianess" and I say "Ok" and I'd had some beers and had a silly grin on my face and they just said "You sick bastard" and walked away.  That left me confused.  I was expecting a joke about a female martian.  Weeks or even months later I learned of the Marchioness disaster.  I never did find out what the joke was, or even if there was a joke.

Funnily enough it was watching Derry Girls which inspired my OP, and this post:

Quote from: touchingcloth on August 07, 2019, 10:59:12 PM
The first group of people to ever sit on the floor and row during Oops Upside Your Head meet for a fortieth reunion.

NurseNugent

There was the one about the Cadbury's Flake Girl taking a  dodgy ecstasy tablet and going mad. Though I think that turned out to have an element of truth to it.

Neil Buchanan is still alive though despite being rumoured to have died by at least two generations of school children.


touchingcloth

Quote from: NurseNugent on August 08, 2019, 11:49:31 PM
There was the one about the Cadbury's Flake Girl taking a  dodgy ecstasy tablet and going mad. Though I think that turned out to have an element of truth to it.

Neil Buchanan is still alive though despite being rumoured to have died by at least two generations of school children.

You know Neil Buchanan's red Art Attack sweaters? They cost £7,000 cos they need to be made of special material to stop them strobing on camera.

non capisco

Where the fuck did the weirdly specific one that Lisa Stansfield froze her own turds and used them as dildos come from?  "You know why they're called Pet Shop Boys, don't you?" at least had the band name as an origin.

gib

My big sister told me that someone once got a takeaway from the local chinese right, and they started choking and when experts worked out what was going on then it was a bone ok and they said it was a piece of a rat's collar bone. She still bought us food from there and it was great, 28 years old etc.

non capisco

That one about a Spanish 'Noel's House Party' style TV show where there was a hidden camera segment and Ricky Martin was meant to surprise a fan in their own house by jumping out of a cupboard. Only it went wrong because the fan got home and immediately proceeded to smear dog food on their genitals to get the family dog to lick it off, which it proceeds to do, and this is all going out on live television. Then Ricky Martin jumps out of the cupboard and goes "Dahhh-DAHHHHHH!!!! oh fucking hell, what?!!'

I mean...where do you start? I'm embarrassed to say I took that one at face value hook, line and sinker when someone told me about it in my callow youth. Spanish Noel just let the tape run when she started smearing Pal on her fanny, did he? "Esta es una buena televisión! Larga vida Crinkley Bottom!" The bloke in Ricky Martin's earpiece that was meant to inform him of when to jump out neglected to say anything about what was going on, did he? "No saltes, Señor Martin! ¡Se ha puesto comida para perros en la vagina! DIOS MIO! ¡EL PERRO LA ESTÁ LAMANDO AHORA!" Nah, he was just sitting there watching all this inter-special cunnilingus transpire and then went "aaaaaaaaand...NOW!", did he?

A friend of a friend is actually Ricky Martin's husband so I suppose I could ask.

bgmnts

Quote from: non capisco on August 09, 2019, 12:07:36 AM
Where the fuck did the weirdly specific one that Lisa Stansfield froze her own turds and used them as dildos come from?

The gates of hell? That might be one of the most disgusting thing's i've heard.

non capisco

Quote from: bgmnts on August 09, 2019, 12:36:10 AM
The gates of hell? That might be one of the most disgusting thing's i've heard.

Well, she'd been around the world and aye aye aye aye.

JesusAndYourBush

I remember people at school telling the tale that the little guy from Diff'rent Strokes was really in his 50's and only looked like a kid because of some disease, and also that he'd committed suicide.  That was while the show was still being made, although pre-internet we had no clue about tv seasons etc so had no idea which were old episodes and which were new.

Quote from: non capisco on August 09, 2019, 12:07:36 AMWhere the fuck did the weirdly specific one that Lisa Stansfield froze her own turds and used them as dildos come from?

I remember someone asking her about it on twitter and she replied, denying it.  I found the thread recently to get the link of the tweet but sadly she's since deleted it.

touchingcloth

The one about Noel Edmonds causing the death of a reality TV guest through a lax attitude towards health and safety, and then treating a special needs kid to a helicopter ride but the chopper crashed and the kid died.

pigamus

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on August 09, 2019, 01:34:49 AM
I remember people at school telling the tale that the little guy from Diff'rent Strokes was really in his 50's and only looked like a kid because of some disease, and also that he'd committed suicide.

Well he had a kidney problem that restricted his growth, so that one's at least connected to reality.

touchingcloth

Quote from: pigamus on August 09, 2019, 08:24:54 AM
Well he had a kidney problem that restricted his growth, so that one's at least connected to reality.

And Dana Plato committed suicide, so the whole thing is more a gnat's cock from reality rather than a frozen turd's width from it.