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What is an Urban Legend?

Urban legends are a type of folklore, defined as the handed-down beliefs, stories, songs and customs of ordinary people ("the folk"). One way to differentiate urban legends from other narrative forms (e.g., popular fiction, TV dramas, or news stories) is to compare where they come from and how they're propagated.

Unlike fiction or drama, which are usually produced by individual authors, urban legends tend to emerge spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single source. Again unlike fiction or drama, urban legends are spread primarily via interpersonal communication, from individual to individual, and only in atypical cases via mass media or other institutional means. And lastly, urban legends change over time due to repetition and embellishment, hence no two versions are ever exactly alike; there can be as many variants as there are tellers of the tale.