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 (film) at least features a ghostly lead performance by "Cybill"s Alicia Witt and a final twist that's entertainingly stupid. But why do all the characters have to be such nasty little dorks? Oh, right, otherwise we'd care about them." Kim Newman of the British publication "Sight & Sound" wrote: ""Urban Legend" manages somehow to be rather endearing, from Natasha Gregson Wagner's opening bit (what must now, after "Scream", be called 'the Drew Barrymore position') to the hokey shaggy-dog punchline." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. "Urban Legend" was released