An article claiming that presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave a speech in which he condemned heavy metal music as "Satanic" and the "single most dangerous force in America today" has sparked an outbreak of viral indignation on Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that there's no public record of such a speech, and the article, credited to blogger Keith Spillet, is transparently satirical.

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Circulating via forwarded email for the past two years and now trending on Facebook:

FW: Clueless.....

Now is it just me, are both of them as dumb as they appear. I guess this could have been taken in a mirror which would screw it up, or maybe it is authentic. I would not doubt it being authentic!!!! Note both have rings on their ring finger and most likely on their left hand. I think they are truly clueless!!!!

I think we know who's truly clueless in this scenario.  Read more...

In an interview with the LA Times a few years back, renowned folklorist Alan Dundes ventured to explain why Super Bowl Sunday has become the focus of so many larger-than-life "urban beliefs" in the United States — for example the claim that every year during half-time the water systems of major cities verge on collapsing because so many people flush their toilets simultaneously.

Wrote Dundes: "Every culture's legends express that culture's values. Super Bowl legends usually involve numbers and a sense of enormity. The idea of big numbers, of being bigger than other people, is very American."

Or maybe we're just prone to exaggerate. Who isn't? Read more...

I'll keep this short and sweet.

Despite the fact that "RIP Eddie Murphy" is trending on Twitter, and Facebook jabberers are busily sharing the "news" that the comic actor died in a snowboard accident in Switzerland, Eddie Murphy is just fine.

The false report originated — as most premature death notices do these days — on the prank website Global Associated News. Murphy is only the latest of literally dozens of celebrity victims of similar hoaxes perpetrated via the site. Read More...