Urban legends and "Urban Legend" (1998) with Chelsey Weber-Smith
Added 2023-10-31 20:43:53 +0000 UTCHere's a full-sized treat for your candy bag: Halloween correspondent Chelsey Weber-Smith stopped by to talk about horror movie history, urban legends, Pop Rocks, and the most underrated slasher of the 90s. And along the way, we talk about why it can feel so good to be scared.
Comments
"People can lick too" has haunted me at night for two decades.
Gretchen Sprinkle
2024-06-14 19:38:50 +0000 UTCIs the show called “phrogging: hider in my house”?
Christina
2024-02-27 16:32:04 +0000 UTCI didnt know poprocks had been discontinued, they must have come back at some point because you could get them at the roller rink by where I live in the 2010s. Though that may have just been roller rink magic.
Elliott Ward
2023-12-07 22:47:58 +0000 UTCThe Netflix movie “Babysitter“ turns that story on it’s head. The babysitter is literally the villain killing people instead of being implied or murdered.
Shannon
2023-12-04 14:39:28 +0000 UTCLove the episode, as always. Thanks for giving me the courage to talk to strangers and bike home at night. Scary things are fascinating, but most people are good. I've had the most memorable conversations of my life with hobos at bus stops (I say hobo in the "riding the train" sense; my bus stop was near a train depot.) I wouldn't have had those experiences if I was interpreting every person who was "weird" as a threat. Sometimes people are just weird - and really deeply kind as well. And there is an invisible risk to being so cautious that we can't have those brief connections with strangers. For fear of being randomly murdered (which is not as likely as some podcasts would have you believe) -- we risk not really living. Also, side note, thank you for still allowing direct mp3 downloads of bonus episodes, a lot of podcasts have moved away from this and it makes things hard for me! I am one of those weirdos who still likes to listen to things on an MP3 player. I've downgraded (upgraded?) to a rugged flip phone that doesn't stream things... so I'm more focused when I go to work, but I need MP3s of my podcasts!
Ruby
2023-12-03 17:55:57 +0000 UTCMy freshman year of college, I took a seminar on urban legends. Our Text was The Vanishing Hitchhiker because my professor was cited in it talking about cannibalism in the dead grandmother myth.
Trisha Klein
2023-12-03 17:33:53 +0000 UTCNot me listening this then watching Totally Killer laughing my ass off at the Max Headroom maked killer.
Taryn Raen
2023-11-29 08:12:11 +0000 UTCWhat a great episode. I laughed a little too hard with the old Pop Rocks. Lol. My favorite local Urban Legend here in NM is La Ilorona. My cousins and I would totally psyche each other out during the twilights hours of summer, trying to summon her on close by ditch banks. When it comes to the Urban Legend movie I used to pretend it was Rebecca Gayheart also getting revenge on the world after what happened to her character Julie in Jawbreaker. It made total sense to me as an 11-12 year old.
Taryn Raen
2023-11-25 17:26:10 +0000 UTCLoved this episode so much! My theory is that the "someone can get into the house even though we've made it secure" is about intercontinental missiles and US borders being meaningfully vulnerable for the first time!
Kate McLoughlin
2023-11-20 09:15:44 +0000 UTCthis a million times
mary
2023-11-20 02:44:10 +0000 UTChttps://www.experiencetheatreproject.org
Katie Larson
2023-11-09 22:00:32 +0000 UTCI used to be very very scared of the urban legend of the teenager cooking the baby 🤣 I think my DARE program and reading Go Ask Alice *really* convinced me of the dangers of LSD! Also! As a Portlander and Stephen King fan, have you been to the immersive Misery performance in Beaverton?? We went this year and it was INCREDIBLE. Literally one of the best theatrical performances I have ever seen and it was so cool to be in Annie's cabin. If you haven't been, you have to go next year! See you in December at the live show!
Katie Larson
2023-11-09 21:51:12 +0000 UTCThe story about the dust of 300 million pop rocks exploded my BRAIN
Meghan Corcoran
2023-11-07 22:10:26 +0000 UTCI feel like creepypasta is the current version of urban legends. I just read the book on the slenderman stabbings and it honestly broke my heart.
Angelle Bonnecarrere
2023-11-07 10:38:01 +0000 UTCI’m so glad you mentioned my favorite urban legend! Humans Lick Too
Travis
2023-11-06 13:59:47 +0000 UTCYes please Saw! I could hear you talk about Saw all day.
Mads
2023-11-05 22:40:15 +0000 UTCFor those who don’t know, I love spreading the word that Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer were both written by the writer / creator of Dawson’s Creek 💞
Sarah Friedman
2023-11-04 19:49:56 +0000 UTCJust started listening but the skeleton flying over the audience in the movie theater reminded me of my mom - when she was a teen she worked in a really old movie theater in a small Michigan town and there were bats that lived in the rafters. Whenever something loud or exciting happened in a movie they would get disturbed and swoop around over the audience Made for great screenings of The Exorcist!!!
Jehan S
2023-11-03 23:45:52 +0000 UTCSarah, I just want to share how much joy it brought me to learn from this week's main episode that you were a fan of the show So Weird. I feel like the reaction I usually get from mentioning that show is a blank stare, so it was very exciting to hear that someone I admire watched it too. And it makes sense that you were a fan of it, because you're like a grown-up version of Fi - pursuing the truth at all costs and sharing your findings with us lucky folks on the world wide web. 🙂
Katie
2023-11-03 18:48:21 +0000 UTCThe "someone secretly living in your house" thing is so weird to me. Like... are houses that big? Or did people just have healthier childhoods and not grow up learning to track where everyone else was in the house by sound? I can tell where my cats are in the house, I can't imagine a human managing to live there secretly. Hide, maybe, but not live.
Beth Zyglowicz
2023-11-03 16:06:39 +0000 UTCI feel like Pop Rocks made a comeback since I do remember having them as a kid in the 90s. But the urban legend was persistent enough that Mythbusters covered it in an episode. IIRC they found it could definitely make you uncomfortable if you had a lot, but not explode your stomach. (Their fake stomach stand in did swell alarmingly though.)
Beth Zyglowicz
2023-11-03 15:50:38 +0000 UTCHi STL friends!
Maggie Morris-Owens
2023-11-02 23:45:23 +0000 UTCi’m sorry, is chelsey CANADIAN?
kB
2023-11-02 22:36:53 +0000 UTCIf you love slashers, I am begging you to read My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones all the way to the end. It's such a loving meta take on the genre, has a million references to slasher movies, and slasher-loving main character Jade Daniels and her journey has my whole heart. She's your people in terms of her slasher love and need to deep-dive into her interests. Teared up at the ending because her journey is so powerful.
Amelia G.
2023-11-02 17:30:11 +0000 UTCI third. I love listening to your thoughts on Saw and there’s so much to unpack from this very heartfelt installment
Daniel
2023-11-02 07:27:07 +0000 UTCI second this 🙌🏻
Hannah Black
2023-11-02 05:01:31 +0000 UTCLike, you mention that urban legends tend to be something that happened to someone other than—but related to—the person telling the story. Guess what? This is a common feature in folktales.
Jessica Jernigan
2023-11-02 02:47:35 +0000 UTCI feel confident that actual folklorists would be delighted to talk to you. You don’t have to guess what they would say.
Jessica Jernigan
2023-11-02 00:54:10 +0000 UTCI always remember a version of the turkey in the oven from Vanishing Hitchhiker suggested that there was a language barrier and the babysitter heard “cook the baby” but the mother said “sit the baby up”. STILL though, don’t cook the baby.
Jaime Lee Ezell
2023-11-01 22:03:10 +0000 UTCSarah, whenever you finally watch Saw X, I'm going to need you to post an minimun-hour-long episode with all of your thoughts and reactions, please and thank you 🙏
Alice
2023-11-01 21:54:44 +0000 UTCIf this movie is R rated, it's definitely the first R rated movie I saw. Wish it had less pet exploding :( otherwise I recall a pretty goofy good time.
Amy C
2023-11-01 18:43:46 +0000 UTCI think one of the key differences between the big 90's slashers compared to the 80's was they were mostly whodunits. Scream really stuck to this formula while in the 80's we watched all of these sequels going in knowing who is going to be offing everybody. Instead it's a big mystery as to who is doing the killing, causing varying levels of amateur sleuthing needed to figure out who is behind it. It's definitely my favorite aspect of this era of the slasher because we would get some really fun, off the wall plot twists. Saw kind of combined both eras, even when Jigsaw is dead luckily he had boxes of grumbling audio tapes he kept in storage for a rainy day.
Slazenger Kincaid
2023-11-01 17:53:02 +0000 UTCScream really is perfection
Nikki Robison
2023-11-01 15:55:36 +0000 UTCThis is just a random fun fact, but the "humans can lick too" urban legend was somehow so ubiquitous that a Japanese anime/manga from the early 90's featured the tale as the cause of death of one of the side characters 💀
Grace Robisheaux
2023-11-01 15:48:25 +0000 UTCHey stl friend !!
Sarah Fentem
2023-11-01 15:43:33 +0000 UTCBack like 10 years ago I worked for Cinema St. Louis here in STL and we hosted a Vincentennial for Vincent Price’s 100th birthday and hosted screenings with the William Castle gimmicks, including The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill. Best week of work in my life!!!
katie adams
2023-11-01 13:05:12 +0000 UTCI’m so psyched about this episode, I LOVED this movie! I had a VHS copy from the discount bin at Blockbuster 👌🏻
Gabbie McFrane
2023-11-01 11:12:27 +0000 UTCI feel so lucky to have grown up in the 70s. It was a golden age for urban legends. I remember all of these looming large in my childhood consciousness, especially the Bubble Yum one since I lived on the stuff as a kid.
Dorothy B
2023-11-01 04:25:55 +0000 UTCI went to your live show this spring, and if you incorporate a 12 foot skeleton into upcoming live shows, I need you to be upfront about that. Please do not give me a panic attack in a public space.
ES
2023-11-01 02:19:48 +0000 UTCwhile y’all were discussing The Babysitter story, i could only think about THEN WHO WAS PHONE
Emma Fabian
2023-10-31 22:50:19 +0000 UTCListening while handing out candy- perfection!🖤🧡🖤
Shannon Guthrie
2023-10-31 22:42:46 +0000 UTCI watched Urban Legend in the best possible setting - a high school girls soccer team sleepover. Loved it and all slashers so this is a treat to listen to!
Erin Johnson
2023-10-31 22:01:32 +0000 UTCAlvin Schwartz was a genius - In a Dark Dark Room is legendary - no children's writer has written such a perfect intro to horror. Another one of my favorite folklorists is Howard Schwartz, who is of no relation 😂 his specialty is Jewish folktales.
Liz aka Cosbrarian
2023-10-31 21:48:31 +0000 UTCWhat a treat! I literally just finished the “You are Good” bonus ep and was wondering what to do next. Thanks for all y’all do. Happy Halloween!
belinda black
2023-10-31 21:07:34 +0000 UTCY'all are so good to us!
Liz aka Cosbrarian
2023-10-31 21:03:27 +0000 UTCSo excited!!! I have read Vanishing Hitchhiker sooo many times, too
Jaime Lee Ezell
2023-10-31 20:47:20 +0000 UTC
