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 public in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. Brunvand used his collection of legends, "The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings" (1981) to make two points: first, that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban legends