Many urban legends are harmless fun. With a little analysis, it's easy to debunk them or, in some cases, to prove that they're true. Before you become a true believer, get the facts behind some of the most popular urban legends.
Mikey died from mixing Pop Rocks and soda.
This legend has been swirling since the late 1970s. Mikey, the famous boy who "hates everything" from a Life cereal commercial, had his stomach explode after he ate a bag of Pop Rocks candy and washed it down with a soda. From the beginning, General Mills had to defuse stories that their carbonated Pop Rocks candy caused kids to explode. The Mikey rumor only added to the controversy.
In reality, you can drink as much soda and eat as many Pop Rocks as you want, although your dentist won't appreciate it. You may need to burp up some gas afterward, but you won't explode. John Gilchrist, the actor who played Mikey, is alive and well and works behind the scenes on Hollywood movies, including popular films like The Notebook and The In Crowd.
Death in a Tanning Bed
Several variations of this story exist, with victims ranging from sorority sisters to debutantes to brides. In every version, the woman needs to get a tan fast, so she goes from tanning salon to tanning salon, roasting herself all day. Excessive exposure to the tanning beds cooks her internal organs and she dies a few days later.
Tanning beds can't cook your insides; UV rays don't penetrate that far into the skin. Using tanning beds is unhealthy, however; a 2009 study found that people who use tanning beds before the age of 35 increase their risk of skin cancer by 75%. One woman did die after using a tanning bed in Chicago in 1989, but her death was caused by a medication that lowered her resistance to UV rays.
Dead Body in the Funhouse
Several variations of this story exist as well. In each one, somebody riding through a funhouse grabs at a prop along the tracks. An arm or hand is pulled off, and the rider is horrified to discover human bones inside. It turns out the "prop" is an actual dead body!
This legend is actually true, but it was a film crew, not a rider, that made the discovery. During the 1960s and 1970s, a breed of fun house known as a dark ride became popular. These rides had gruesome themes that included animated figures being hanged, decapitated or electrocuted.
While filiming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man at an amusement park in Long Beach, California, a film crew knocked over a hanging figure and discovered that it was an embalmed corpse. Outlaw Elmer McCurdy had been making the rounds of carnivals across America before his body came to rest in the Long Beach dark ride. There have also been several cases of Halloween suicides where people thought bodies hanging from trees were dummies, only to find out they were the real thing.
The musical Jesus Christ, Superstar has also been plagued by accidental hangings. Two different European actors were killed when safety harnesses failed during the climactic scene where Judas hangs himself.
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