Urban Legend:
- A modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror (40).
- A story about an unusual event or occurrence that many people believe is true but that is not true (41).
- An often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true (41).
Urban Legends use rhetoric within its stories and legends, too. In urban legends, the purpose of the story has a major impact on the rhetoric used to teach the audience the intended lesson or moral of the story. Based on the definitions of 'urban legend,' these stories are often thought to be true and disseminated all across the internet (41). There are probably more categories into which these legends can be divided, but I chose to break them down into Cautionary Tales, Campfire Legends, and Internet Legends. Cautionary tales, much like Greek myths, have creepy yet didactic tones, often teaching the moral of the story through the use of an ominous and disturbing legend, warning the reader that "this will happen to them" unless they follow the rules. The campfire legends are more of the scary-story type tales, with the most obvious purpose being to scare their intended audience. This is achieved through the often suspenseful or frightening tone, as well as the story often ending in death. Internet legends are a mixture of the two, with the only difference being they originate online instead of in a folktale or passed down through generations. They can be cautionary or scary, but constantly have and eerie tone no matter what the intended purpose is.