Captain Pugwash is a persistent urban legend, repeated by the now defunct UK newspaper the "Sunday Correspondent", that ascribes sexually suggestive names – such as Master Bates, Seaman Staines, and Roger (meaning "have sex with") the Cabin Boy – to "Captain Pugwash"'s characters, and indicating that the captain's name was a slang Australian term for oral sex. The origin of this myth is likely due to student rag mags from the 1970s. John Ryan successfully sued both the "Sunday Correspondent" and "The Guardian" newspapers in 1991 for printing this legend as fact. In May 2017, a live-action film adaptation was announced, directed
Urban legend TV show "MythBusters" (2003–2016) tried to prove or disprove urban legends by attempting to reproduce them using the scientific method. The 1998 film "Urban Legend" featured students discussing popular urban legends while at the same time falling victim to them. Between 1992 and 1998, "The Guardian" newspaper "Weekend" section published the illustrated "Urban Myths" column by Phil Healey and Rick Glanvill, with content taken from a series of four books: "Urban Myths", "The Return Of Urban Myths", "Urban Myths Unplugged", and "Now! That's What I Call Urban Myths". The 1994 comics anthology the "Big Book of Urban Legends", written by