| 1 | Ball pit fears |
This terrifying legend has been ascribed to virtually every fast food outlet in America. The original 1998 version took the form of a viral email, and the setting was Burger King.
According to legend, a 3 year old child had finished his lunch early, and his mother allowed him to play in the playground for a while. The boy initially played in the tunnels and slide, before moving to the ball pit. After 10 minutes of vanishing and resurfacing in the colourful balls, the mother heard her son whimpering. He said “hurt, mommy”, and she assumed that he had banged himself while playing.
The two left Burger King and returned home, but 1.5 hours later, the boy’s body was covered in red, painful welts. Another hour later, he died. Investigations revealed that the outdoor ball pit was home to a family of baby rattlesnakes, lurking out of sight in the constantly shifting balls. Another ball pit death had occurred in South Carolina, and Burger King was now planning to build future ball pits indoors.
This story is a legend because there’s no proof that it ever happened, with no corresponding news reports from the time. Yet equally, there’s no proof that it didn’t happen. 1998 was before the era of mass internet media, and this could have been a locally reported event which never made it online.
One clue is that the snake species mysteriously varies with each telling – vipers, water moccasins and copperheads have all been mentioned. Like clowns, ball pits are simultaneously a symbol of fun and fear, as syringes and knives have also been rumoured to appear in them.
| 2 | Titanoboa on google maps |
Google Maps has turned up many strange things over the years. An Italian Mafioso was captured on street view in 2022, hiding in Spain, after 20 years on the run. In 2022, a Tiktok account posted a satellite view of a strange object off the west coast of France. It resembled an enormous snake skeleton, with its white vertebrae clearly visible, curling along a beach.
“Somewhere in France, we can see something giant you can only see with satellites, hidden on Google Earth,” they posted, “Users believe this to be a giant snake. It’s about 30 metres long and bigger than any snake caught before”. The object strongly resembled titanoboa, the longest snake species ever known to exist, which went extinct around 58 million ears ago. The fossil was just sitting there on the beach, in plain sight, a relic from a bygone prehistoric era.
Or was it? It turned out that this was indeed a snake – but actually a metal art installation known as “Le Serpent d’Océan”. It was created by Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping, and designed to become visible only when the tide came out.
When combined with the lapping waves, the sculpture produced a strange illusion of slithering. The rumour turned out to be false, but this doesn’t mean that a gigantic snake fossil won’t be found one day on Google Maps.
| 3 | The snow snake |
In 2021, rumours began spreading through blogs and social media of a new threat roaming the vast American wilds: the snow snake. Images showed a completely white snake resting on a patch of snow. Apparently, the snake only came out during sub-zero temperatures. Its bite was capable of freezing human blood solid, and causing a precipitous decline in body temperature.
The snow snake had already killed one person in Pennsylvania, and three people in Ohio. Scientists were “trying to find a cure“, but with no success yet. The email advised people to “forward this and try to save as many people as we can from this deadly snow snake“.
Scientists raced to debunk the “hoax”. They argued that all reptiles are cold-blooded, unable to generate their own internal warmth. The northernmost snake in the Americas is the common garter snake, which stretches well into British Columbia, yet this species doesn’t thrive on snow, it merely survives it.
The white snake pictured turned out to be made from rubber, possibly a children’s toy painted white. Despite the panic, most agreed that the snow snake was a mere legend, a figment of overactive imaginations. Then again, few would claim to understand all the mysteries of the American continent, yet alone the entire world.
| 4 | Snakes measuring their owners |
A respinning of a classic snake storyline: the besotted owner who has no idea that their pet is sizing them up as a future meal. This version revolves around the sister of the person relaying the legend, whose pet python had stopped eating. She took the python to the vet, who insisted that this was normal for large ambush constrictors, which can go months without eating.
She returned the next Tuesday and was told the same thing. The vet asked whether the python had been behaving oddly recently. She answered no, but casting her mind back, she remembered a night when her python had crawled onto her bed. She wondered whether the python was seeking warmth, but this made no sense, as the python stretched had itself out to its full length, while lying parallel to her.
The doctor’s expression was grave, and he responded: “I’m afraid he’s going to have to be put down”. He explained that the python was starving itself in preparation for one huge, show-stopping meal.
She asked how he knew. “That night, on the bed”, he replied, “He was measuring you!”. The python was duly killed.
This story is currently in the category of legend, as nobody has ever proven or disproven it. That said, no snake in the wild has ever been recorded to lie next to its meal in order to measure it.
| 5 | Blue bonnet rattlesnake |
The blue bonnet is the state flower of Texas, one which grows in abundance along roadsides. In April 2014 came the announcement of an all new rattlesnake species: Crotalus lupinus. It had blue scales, and was an example of a perfect organism engineered by nature: so blue that it blended into the clumps of flowers completely. Its disguise was so incredible that the species had gone unnoticed by mankind for centuries.
The snake was shot by a rancher, who kept it on ice until the highest bidder arrived, while preparing to charge 5 dollars for first hand views. Scientists flocked to the scene, in Bend, Texas, after local rangers were unable to identify the “unusual organism”.
What many readers didn’t notice was the date: April 1st. It was just an elaborate April Fools joke, but before long, the fascinating tale had taken flight and spread to every nature lover’s personal blog and social media feed.
Panic ensued, after blue bonnet flowers temporarily became yet another piece of the countryside which you had to avoid. Today, images of the Texas blue bonnet rattlesnake with serious descriptions continue to pop up, despite the whole story just being a bit of fun.
| 6 | Giga-python 2003 |
In 2003, whispers began circulating that the largest snake of all time had been discovered in the jungles of Indonesia. In December 2003, this hit major news outlets such as the BBC, NBC and The Guardian.
According to early reports, the snake was a reticulated python with a diameter of 85cm. It measured 49 feet or 14.85 metres, while its weight was 983 pounds (447kg). It was found by the Kubu tribe on the island of Sumatra, who “revered the creature as a ruler”. According to the Indonesian newspaper Republika, the python ate three or four dogs per month.
This jumbo size would have blasted through the official Guinness world record: a 10 metre reticulated python shot in Celebes, Indonesia in 1912. It would have more than doubled the heaviest snake ever recorded, at 403 pounds.
The super python was brought to an animal exhibition in Curugsewu park on the island of Java, where locals had to wait several months if they desired an audience. The Guardian dispatched a reporter, who journeyed from their London offices all the way to the humid stickiness of Indonesia.
By now, the giga-python was known as “Fragrant flower”, and was sitting lazily on its throne under the attention of several keepers. After official measurements, the reality was slightly different: 6-7 metres, a brute of a python, but far from the 14 metres reported around the world. Its keepers said they had no idea why the snake had shrunk.
| 7 | Colossal snake squeezes van |
This viral horror story was sparked by a video originally posted on Tiktok in February 2022. The clip showed a person with a video camera edging slowly closer to a white van. Coiled around this is a colossal serpent, squeezing the van as a boa might squeeze a mouse.
Behind the cameraman, you can hear a panicking, shouting crowd. The cameraman points to the snake in shock and disbelief. Supposedly, the enormous snake emerged from the forest after torrential downpours, alongside giant bugs. Everyone’s worst fears about what was lurking in southeast Asia’s jungles had finally been confirmed.
With everyone’s love of a giant snake story, the video spread like wildfire over the internet. But the reality was very different. The snake turned out to be an art installation in China’s Zhongnan Baicao Garden. It’s obvious that the crowd sounds in the video have been edited in afterwards. An obvious clue was a separate video of the snake, where smiling tourists were standing by the van with no fear whatsoever.
Depending on who you listened to, this colossal snake posed either no threat to anyone, or an existential threat to the entirety of civilisation. The original video was deleted, but lives on forever on the internet.
| 8 | Man carries bitten horse |
2018 saw a heartwarming story from the green, grassy countryside. A man’s horse had been bitten by a snake, and was slowly succumbing to its deadly toxin cocktail. So the man hauled the horse onto his back and walked 3 miles to the nearest hospital, where the horse was able to be saved.
It was a story of true love and loyalty, but while the video was real, it had nothing to do with a snake. It was a video of Ukrainian strongman Dmytro Vasilievich Khaladzhi, who had once worked for the Ringling Brothers circus and visited 41 US states. On Ukraine’s Got Talent, Khaladzhi successfully hammered nails into wood using just his fists. He’d previously had timber broken across his back, lifted cars with his legs, and been run over by a truck, with barely a dent.
Carrying horses was another of his pastimes, but there was no connection to venomous snakes, which would likely be an adder (Vipera berus) if it was in Ukraine. Khaladzhi himself is the subject of several internet legends, such as holding 63 Guinness world records. While false, he was the holder of several Ukrainian powerlifting records as of 2018.
| 9 | Man gets bitten, bites wife |
An internet legend which sounds obviously fake, but raises just enough doubts to possibly be true. The story goes like this. An Indian man in Samistipur District, 90km north of Patna, was asleep in bed. A snake invaded his house, most likely a cobra, and bit him while he dozed in a dream state.
In the morning, the man realised that he was heading for certain doom. He rushed to find his wife, gripped her hands tenderly, and told her that he loved her very much. He then bit her wrists, so that they could die together, and both soon fell into oblivion. The pair were rushed to a local government hospital, where the man died, but the woman recovered. “The woman could be saved as her treatment began on time. She is safe now,” said local doctor Jaykant.
This story was posted to gulfnews.com, but soon found its way to US outlets. Journalists reached out to local Indian authorities, but found out nothing.
Jaykant is a first name in India, and no surname of the doctor was given. It all seemed suspicious, and the final nail in the coffin came when American herpetologists confirmed that it is impossible to transfer venom flowing through your bloodstream by biting someone else. Being bitten by a snake doesn’t give you snake powers.
The original article also mentioned another unverified story: a snake bursting out of a schoolchild’s handbag in Begusarai district, causing a chaotic stampede.
| 10 | Copperheads hiding in fish mouths |
The copperhead is a venomous snake living in woodlands of the eastern USA, blending into leaves with its orange hourglass patterns. They’re eager to bite, and can cause serious necrosis and swelling. These facts became all the more horrifying when internet articles began warning of baby copperheads living in fish’s mouths, even displaying an image as proof.
Supposedly, these crafty copperheads were leaping out and attacking fishermen, and were already responsible for several bites. Specifically, they were hiding in the mouths of largemouth bass, a favourite prize of anglers.
Nothing was now sacred. Copperheads weren’t content with turning local woods into places of fear. They now wanted to leap out of fish’s mouths, as people relaxed on their boats at the weekend.
But it turned out that while the image was real, it was actually a garter snake that was half-swallowed, a completely harmless species. The origin was a post on outdoorlife.com, and the angler was identified as Ricky Stevens, who was clearly still alive afterwards.
Largemouth bass are one of the snake-hungrier fish, with cottonmouths being confirmed as prey. The copperhead is the cottonmouth’s closest relative, but is far less aquatic, sticking to dry woodlands. Nevertheless, there’s still a slight chance of this legend actually coming true.