Some of our friends tell taller tales than others. But which one of their BS stories turned out to be 100 percent true?
That's the burning question Redditor KenzoDeBola asked the online community: "What's a story your friend told which you initially thought was bullshit, but turned out to be true?
Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gents.
"A bomb dropped by the Germans..."
My great-grandad was in the British Navy in WW2. A bomb dropped by the Germans landed on their ship but didn't detonate, so my grandad and his friend ran towards it and hurled it off the ship where it exploded under water. They figured that they were going to die anyway if it exploded so why not try and save as many as possible in the process. This story went on for years and years and nobody quite believed him, they would all laugh and thought it was just a war-hero's exaggerated tale, until one day he pulled out his war medals and a letter from his Captain stating what he had done for the men on that ship that day.
Nobody second-guessed his stories ever again.
"No one believed him until..."
In 9th grade, during the middle of our teenage angst, a friend in our clique was bragging about sleeping this pretty hot chick.
No one believed him until we all found out she had gotten pregnant.
"She's super nice and has a lot of stories like this..."
My best friend in college was a non-traditional (way older) student who said she used to be an on-stage go go dancer for Rob Zombie. She's super nice and has a lot of stories like this (working in a strip club in LA, working as Sasha Mitchell's nanny and talking to police during the domestic charges). I didn't believe most of the stories until we were hanging out one night and Rob Zombie walked in the side door without knocking holding a gift: an old Super Nintendo he found at a garage sale.
"When we first met in high school..."
When we first met in high school, my husband told me that he slept in a closet under the stairs in his basement. Thought he was just exaggerating until we went over and saw his "bedroom" complete with his name on the closet door.
"Went out on Halloween a couple years ago..."
Giphy
Went out on Halloween a couple years ago to a bar. My one friend came back from the washroom and nonchalantly mentions that there's an "Australian Orgy" going on in the washroom. I didn't believe him so I went in to look...This was in Toronto and not in a gay bar.
"I brushed it off..."
One of my friends always liked to "exaggerate" he once told me he just made like $10K from a penny stock. I brushed it off as bullsh*t until the next day he shows up with a used boat, we lived close to a few lakes so that was a fun summer.
"My mom swore up and down that..."
My mom swore up and down that she partied with Aerosmith regularly. For years and years she told me the stories about being a groupie and I just didn't buy it (don't know why because she lived in the valley and was a major partier)
One day we see Joe Perry at the Ritz in LA. He f*cking remembered her as soon as she said her name.
I'm still not over it...
"I didn't believe him until..."
My friend told me he was banging the new driver's ed teacher.
I didn't believe him until she was arrested.
"I thought they were both trolling me..."
Two of my friends shared a story about the times that both got drunk, and joined the Communist Party of Wales, and Communist Party of Croatia respectively.
I thought they were both trolling me until they showed me the proof. I both want to, and never want to go out drinking with them again.
"He's a tattooed metal head..."
He's a tattooed metal head who claimed that he grew up on a hippie commune in Northern Cali with Timothy Leary and Winona Rider.
I called BS.
One day at work I was called to the floor. Thought it was a potential interviewee but it was just Winona who called me out for calling BS on Mike.
It was one of the most embarrassing and amazing moments of my life.
"Met her parents later..."
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My friend in high school said she was on a Smashing Pumpkins album cover when she was little. I didn't believe her, but she was a dead ringer for the girl on the left, wearing wings, on the cover of Siamese Dream, so I figured she just said that to be cool/because things were infinitely harder to prove/disprove before we had google.
Met her parents later, they confirmed it.
"I worked with a guy..."
I worked with a guy who had insane stories about his super hot boyfriend, his rich uncle who lived in Texas, and his frequent trips to go see his favorite football team. I always kinda indulged the guy, I figured we worked at a sh!tty chain grocery store cashiering and he had nothing better to do at work than fantasize about a better life UNTIL he came in off shift with said super hot boyfriend and showed me selfies they took from the pro football game they'd gone to a week earlier. Dude was really living his best life
"A man I met..."
A man I met told me he works "with rockets". Thought he was just lying and trying to impress/catfish me.
Turns out, he's an aerospace engineer at NASA and is now my fiance.
"I was working at Starbucks..."
I was working at Starbucks in Los Angeles and was in the back room doing dishes. It was about 15 minutes before close. My friend and co-worker pokes her head around the corner and says, "Can you come ring up Han Solo, I closed my register already." I didn't know what she meant until I walk out front and see Harrison Ford standing in front of my register. I was a huge Star Wars nerd at the time.
"I was a missionary in Venezuela..."
I was a missionary in Venezuela for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As a missionary we didn't watch television, listen to the radio, browse the internet or even have cell phones, etc. Basically we lived in a media blackout for two years with the exception of weekly letters home.
Our first appointment of the morning was with a gentleman who we nice but liked to tell jokes that always kind of fell flat. When he opened the door he old us that our country was under attack - that planes were flying around blowing up buildings, etc.
We told him this wasn't a particularly funny joke so he pulled us inside and turned on the television.
That was the morning of September 11, 2001
"I don't know why I found it so hard to believe..."
My best friend lived in LA briefly and got a gig working security at Michael Jackson's birthday party.
I don't know why I found it so hard to believe, it was just some extra cash escorting celebrities through entrances and shit.
"A good friend of mine..."
A good friend of mine was a flight instructor at a couple local airports. Very solid pilot and instructor, I'd flown with him and his students sometimes, and knew him well enough to trust that he truly knew his shit. Then one day, he finally got his shot at the big time… co-pilot for a regional carrier that promised him he'd make Captain within a year. Everything seemed great, and I could not have been more happy for him.
Then just a few months later, he's back in town, unemployed, going on and on about how wrong they are doing things, how dangerous that airline is run, how they're falsifying logs left and right, he was filing reports with the FAA, etc. and so forth. He was my closest friend and I took him at his word, but that was not easy; it seemed for all the world as if he had washed out and come home blaming everyone but himself. The things he was saying, if even half true, would be national news.
Then a few weeks later that regional carrier dropped a plane on a neighborhood in the middle of the night, and the ensuing investigation brought to light every single thing he had been saying. He's one of the main interview subjects in the PBS Frontline episode about the tragedy.
"I had a roommate..."
I had a roommate who is sometimes astute, and sometime talks out of his ass. A real-life troll. He'll play devil's advocate without announcing he's doing so, just to hear the different arguments on things, but he makes it sound like he's seriously signed on to whatever platform he's advancing.
He came home one day talking about how he'd attended a Trump rally to see what it was all about and said that Trump was going to get the nomination and probably be elected the next president.
"Back when I was a young guitarist..."
Back when I was a young guitarist, met a friend of a friend who was supposedly the one of the guitarists for Julian Lennon and played on his first two albums. I've met people before who blew smoke up my ass about who they played with and yadda yadda, but later on I caught one of Julian's videos (back when MTV actually used to show them) and lo and behold, there he was prancing around onstage.
"My friend told me she had stopped a kidnapping."
My friend told me she stopped a kidnapping. Basically she rammed her car into a windowless van where a girl was fighting off some guys trying to put her in. The girl got in her car and they called the police. I didn't believe it even when she showed me her car (she is a bad driver so its no big thing when she has a dent on her car). I had to see it on the news to actually believe it.
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
Giphy
"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Giphy
"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
Giphy
"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
