Movie urban legends everyone believed

There are probably just as many conspiracy theories about The Wizard of Oz as there are bricks in the Yellow Brick Road, according to ABC News. While the way that Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" syncs up to the film will never stop being eerie (but coincidental), one urban legend that really needs to be retired is the sad tale of the suicidal munchkin actor who supposedly felt such an intense unrequited crush on Judy Garland that he hanged himself on the movie's set. Generations of viewers have pointed out the swinging shadow of his corpse as proof of this story.

The problem? That shadow is actually a bird, not a munchkin. As Snopes explains, the Oz production was mostly filmed on sound stages. To make the forest seem more outdoorsy, the studio borrowed some avian actors from the zoo, and one of these—either an emu, or a crane—spread its wings during the infamous shot, forever cementing its Academy Award-worthy performance as a dead munchkin silhouette. Don't believe it? Watch some of the more recent, high-def versions of the film, and the proof is right there. In all honesty, though, the notion that the editors would've left a dead actor in the frame was always fairly implausible.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Hey, '90s kids! Do you remember Shazam? No, not the DC Comics superhero, but rather, the family-friendly comedy film starring Sinbad as a magical genie who is reawakened from his slumber just in time to help out some contemporary kids? The answer should be "no" because no such movie ever existed. Nonetheless, a loyal contingent of people will tell you otherwise, swearing up and down that they used to love this (imaginary) film when they were in elementary school. In all honesty, they're probably just misremembering Kazaam, a Shaquille O'Neal flick with an identical storyline, but they're more likely to blame alternate universes or Hollywood cover-ups than the failings of human recollection. Sinbad has always maintained that the film never happened, while confessing to IndieWire that he'd totally flip out if a tape somehow ever got uncovered.

That's probably why on April Fools Day 2017, he and College Humor teamed up to make a "real" version, nearly cracking the internet in half.

Superman can bounce death rays off his chest, but the men who've played him are as vulnerable as anyone else. For example, there's George Reeves, who portrayed the hero in the 1950s but was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Following that was the equally beloved Christopher Reeve, who in 1995 was left paralyzed by a horseback riding incident. According to Biography, the tragic events that befell these men led some to declare it the "Superman Curse," wherein all who become intimately connected to the character later face some form of personal kryptonite in their real lives. Often, curse believers will also include the misfortunes that occurred in the lives of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as well as the various hardships that impacted supporting actors like Margot Kidder and Marlon Brando.

Well, lots of bad things happen to lots of people, but that doesn't mean it's all magically connected. Frankly, the Superman Curse pretty conveniently ignores all the Superman actors (and writers, artists, and costars) who haven't faced such immense tragedy in their lives, like Henry Cavill, Brandon Routh, Dean Cain, and Tom Welling, probably because these guys don't fit into the tidy narrative. So yeah, it's time to put this fable to bed.

If you think Eraserhead is nightmare fuel, try watching the many recreations of "SuicideMouse.avi." According to urban legend, this video is a long-lost Mickey Mouse short from Disney's early days which was allegedly first uncovered when Disney was putting together a new DVD release of old cartoons. Descriptions of the video say it features a weirdly drawn version of the character pensively walking through city streets as freaky piano music jangles in the background. At some point the clip goes black, and when it comes back on the city has transformed into a hellish landscape, Mickey's face distorts into a horrific grimace, and violent screams rage from the speakers, until the clip terminates with a Cyrillic caption that translates to "The sights of Hell bring its viewers back in." The legend says when this video was first discovered, the assistant watching it was so overcome with this glimpse into "Hell" that he killed himself.

A few different recreations of the Suicide Mouse description have popped up online, each claiming to be the original. Creepy as these videos are, though, Bustle explains that none of them hold up to intense scrutiny, as they don't match with the animation and/or drawing styles of Mickey cartoons at that time. While Disney certainly created some bizarre and off-kilter cartoons back then, "Suicide Mouse" wasn't one of them.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Most '90s kids remember that strange time in their adolescence when they first rewatched the Disney cartoons of their youth and were shocked to discover hidden sexual references peppered within them. Seriously, in The Lion King, why does dust swirling through the stars spell out "SEX," and why does Aladdin whisper something so creepy as "Good teenagers, take off your clothes"? And hey, what about the bishop in The Little Mermaid? C'mon, Disney!

While animators certainly love to sneak in their little inside jokes, these common theories are demonstrably false, according to Bustle. For example, read the script for Aladdin, and you'll see that he actually whispers, "Good kitty, take off and go." SEX in the sky? Nah. Though you weren't totally imagining those letters, they actually say SFX (as in, special effects). As for the Bishop's infamous popped tent in The Little Mermaid, it's just his knee. Look again, and you'll see it. Or don't because years of jokes have led to Disney digitally removing the knee from later DVD editions.

In fact, the Disney cartoon that actually has R-rated material is The Rescuers, where two frames of the film contain nudity.

While the original 1954 Godzilla was a dark allegory for the atomic bomb, the giant radioactive lizard had become pure cheese by the time he faced off with King Kong in 1962. By all rights, Godzilla should've stomped Kong flat, but the original film ends with Kong walking into the water alone and being declared victorious … an announcement that ignores the fact that Godzilla lives in the water. Honestly, the big reptile probably just figured, "Screw it, I'll take a nap and wait 'til this fool goes back to Skull Island."

Anyhow, since the movie came out, there have long been rumors that Kong's victory was added to the American version, while the original Japanese film has local hero/villain Godzilla winning instead. Not so, says Snopes. While the American edition of the movie did splice in lots of dumb new sequences featuring American actors, the ending was the same in both versions. The Japanese release does include an additional Godzilla roar, which is about all this urban legend has to support it.

Conspiracy theories about the Moon landing being a big ol' hoax go back to … well, the Moon landing. If you honestly believe NASA filmed the whole thing on a sound stage, that's your business, but probably the wackiest theory ever is this notion that the guy who directed the whole shebang was 2001 mastermind Stanley Kubrick, according to Business Insider. Silly as the concept of Kubrick bossing around Neil and Buzz might be, probably the most intricate fantasy ever developed is the story of how his 1980 film The Shining is supposedly a veiled apology from Kubrick featuring lots of clues. For example, some say Jack Torrance's mental breakdown symbolizes Kubrick's own guilt about faking the Moon landing. Other hints include Danny's Apollo sweater, or that Room 237 is supposed to be the number of the sound stage where Kubrick did the government's dirty work.

Clever as this all is, it's clearly false. Nonetheless, countless people have harassed Kubrick's daughter Vivian about it, to the point where she finally went on Twitter to not only debunk the theory, but to also point out that the whole thing is rather disrespectful to her father's memory.