Pre-Internet Lies We All Believed

About this episode

The episode explores pre-internet urban legends and the myths we believed before the age of instant fact-checking.

Before Google, before smartphones, before you could fact-check anything in 2 seconds… we just believed stuff. In this episode, the guys dive into the wild world of pre-internet urban legends—the rumors, myths, and straight-up lies that somehow spread across the country with zero proof and 100% confidence. From Marilyn Manson being that kid from The Wonder Years, to Pop Rocks and Coke “killing you,” to every town having a Crybaby Bridge, we break down the stories we all heard growing up—and why we believed every single one of them. We also get into: The Satanic Panic and the stuff people thought was “evil” The rumor that Procter & Gamble was secretly sinister Small-town legends like hitman capital of the world And the weird ways these stories spread before the internet even existed If you grew up in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s, there’s a very good chance you believed at least one of these… and probably repeated it like it was fact. Subscribe for more episodes of Hoot’n & Holler’n every week.

People in this episode

Host: Matt Mitchell

Topics covered

• urban legends
• pre-internet myths
• Satanic Panic
• childhood rumors
• fact-checking
• 80s 90s culture

Keywords

• urban legends
• pre-internet
• Satanic Panic
• Marilyn Manson
• Procter & Gamble
• Crybaby Bridge
• myths
• rumors
• 80s
• 90s

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Crybaby Bridge, hitman capital of the world

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