爱华网网友Tintin说：网络上常有的各种危言耸听的多种版本的流言，这些故事就是Urban Legend，希望能发表文章讨论一下
所谓的都市传奇就是现代的民间传说，它们的来源已不可考，却在社会上广为流传，再加上人们以讹传讹，这些故事从荒谬怪诞到惊悚恐怖都有。美国新英格兰地区的普德顿大学也流传着一个都市传奇：三十年前，校内有一名异常心理学教授在史丹利大楼疯狂杀死六名学生后自杀。校内兄弟会的学生，每年都举办狂欢派对纪念这事件。
三十年后的今天，校园突然发生一连串的凶杀案，一位很有主见的学生娜塔莉认为凶手是根据都市传奇做案手法杀人，她的好友布兰黛、新闻系学生保罗和爱玩闹的戴蒙都说这纯属巧合。可是当事情发展下去，他们却不得不怀疑，而他们也都成为凶手的下一个目标。
别怕，这是电影《Urban Legend》（都市传奇）的情节。都市传奇既是一部电影，也是一个当代流行的民间传说，所谓“都市传奇”（或翻译为都市传说），是指过去的真实事件，经过不断地复述和转述，逐渐变成一个神秘的故事，这种故事带有一些对现实的不满或讽刺的味道，在网络上很容易被广泛传播。
以下是一篇关于Urban Legend的介绍：
Q. What is an urban legend?
问：什么是都市传奇？
FYI：
Urban legend: A story, which may at one time have been true, that has grown from constant retelling into a mythical yarn.
参考信息：
都市传奇：一个故事，过去发生过的真实事件，在事件的不断传播中逐渐成为一个神秘的传奇事件。
A.
Many people have heard the tale, occasionally alluded to in popular culture but more often imparted as a thing that “really happened to a friend of a friend,” of the dotty grandmother who tried to dry off her damp poodle by placing it in the microwave oven. The dog exploded, sad to say, and Grandma has never been quite the same since.
答：
很多人已对“传说”早有听闻，有时故事来自民间传说，但更多的时候会被说成是一件“我朋友的朋友身上发生的真实事件”，比如，神经质的祖母想给那浑身湿嗒嗒狮子狗弄干，就把它放在了微波炉里。最后狗被烤焦了，遗憾的是，祖母自那次后从来没有停止过这种做法。
（注：quite可能是quiet误）
That story isn’t true, of course; it’s an urban legend, circulating by word of mouth since the 1970s. It conveys a familiar moral message: new technologies can be a hazard, as well as a boon, to humankind (not to mention dogkind). Such an incident could have happened, but we have no real evidence that it did.
当然，这故事不是真的，这是一个都市传传说，从二十世纪七十年代口口相传至今。它传达了一个熟悉的道德信息：对于人类（不是狗类）而言，新技术是把双刃剑，在带来方便的同时也存在着危险。这样的事故可能曾发生过，但我们没有确凿的证据证明。
Urban legends, then, are apocryphal stories, told as true and plausible enough to be believed, about horrific, embarrassing, exasperating or ironic things that have supposedly happened to real people (see links to more examples below). They often deal with particularly vexing aspects of modern life.
都市传说，其实，只是些虚构的故事，这些故事会被作为真实的事件或似是而非地进行讲述，故事通常会被推测是发生在真实人物的身上，一些令人毛骨悚然，让人局促不安，让人愤怒或者是讽刺的事件，以让人们有足够的理由相信这是真的。这些故事通常在一定程度上涉及现代生活中一些让人烦恼的社会视点。
In lieu of evidence, the teller of an urban legend is apt to rely upon good storytelling and the naming of allegedly trustworthy sources (e.g., “a friend of a friend who swears it’s true”) to bolster its credibility. As a type of folklore — defined as the beliefs, stories and traditions of ordinary people (“folks”) — one way of differentiating between an urban legend and other kinds of narratives (popular fiction, for example) is by comparing where they come from and how they are disseminated.
一个都市传说的讲述者，倾向于用引人的故事情节和让人信赖的故事来源的名义（比如，“我一位朋友的朋友，曾发誓说这绝对是真的”），来支持其可信性，以此替代证据的不足。作为民间传说的一种形式——定义为普通老百姓的信仰，故事和传统——一种区分都市传说和其他类别的叙述（比如谣言，流行虚构小说）的方法是，比较它们的出处和散布方式。
Legends tend to arise spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single author or point of origin. They spread primarily from individual to individual through interpersonal communication, and only in atypical cases through mass media or other institutional means. Because they end up being repeated by many different people in many different places, the stories tend to change over time. Hence, no two versions of an urban legend are ever exactly alike; there can be as many variants as there are tellers of the tale.
都是传说是很自然地产生，并且很难追踪到某个作者或某个来源点。它们主要通过个体之间的交流来进行传播和扩散，只有在特殊情况下，才会通过大众媒体或公共机构流传。由于它们被不同的人在不同的地方讲述，随着时间的过去，故事就不断被改变。因此，没有任何两个版本的都市传说会完全的相似，他们就像故事的讲述者的不同而有所差别。
The phrase “urban legend” entered the popular vocabulary in the early 1980s with the publication of folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand’s earliest books on the subject, beginning with “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” (W.W. Norton: 1981). Although it has become all but synonymous in common parlance with “false belief,” the term actually denotes a more complex and subtle social phenomenon having to do with the production and transmission of folk narratives — narratives which are indeed usually false, but which can also, on rare occasions, prove to be true.
词组”urban legend” 早在二十世纪八十年代就通过民俗学者Jan Harold Brunvand以”The Vanishing Hitchhiker” (W.W. Norton: 1981)为题的早期出版书籍而成为热门词汇。尽管它已经变得仅仅和常用语”虚假信仰”同义，这个术语实际上是指一种复杂微妙的社会现象对民间传说的产生和传播的影响——民间传说，通常确实是虚构的，但也许在少数情况下，它能被证明是正确的。
In brief, an urban legend will typically exhibit most or all of the following aracteristics:
简要地说，一个都市传说通常会有以下所列的多个典型特征：
It is a narrative.
Its veracity is questionable.
It is alleged to be true.
It is plausible enough to be believed.
It is of spontaneous (or, at any rate, indeterminate) origin.
It varies in the telling.
It is attributed to a putatively trustworthy secondhand source (e.g., “a friend of a friend,” “my sister’s hairdresser’s husband,” etc.).
It is passed from individual to individual orally or in written form (e.g., via fax, photocopy or email).
It may take the form of a cautionary tale.
它是传说。
其真实性也令人怀疑。
据说是真的。
让人足以相信有可能。
有着自然产生或无法确定的源头。
在传播的时候变种。
据有假定二手信息源的特征（比如，“一位朋友的朋友”，“我姐姐的美容师的老公”等等）。
它通过个体与个体的口头或书面来传播。（比如通过传真，电话或者email）。
它可以采用寓言的形式。
