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October 31

Urban myth or true: kid imitates flying superhero and dies.

Not in List of urban legends, nor on tv tropes website's Superhero Tropes nor Not the Fall That Kills You…, but you know the story: kid reads superhero comic. Kid see kid do. Kid jumps window/roof with bed sheet/towel as cape. Kid dies. It can be seen in the movie Kick-ass (in modified form) and in the movie de:ABCs of Superheroes. My question: more info about this, in particular is this just a myth or did it happen at least once? 212.178.135.35 (talk) 14:23, 31 October 2022 (UTC) Martin.[reply]

Yes. --Jayron 32 14:31, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) This is very, very sad [1]. Never leave a child alone in a room with an open window. 79.76.33.181 (talk) 14:34, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why did you post that link? Clapton's son was not imitating a superhero. --Viennese Waltz 17:00, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

When I was about three years old, well before I enjoyed comics (and I never cared about superhero comics anyway), I knew how to open a window. It isn't that hard. But, like most (but unfortunately not all) three-year-olds, I knew I couldn't fly. Maybe it would be good to teach people what isn't possible, instead of telling that anything is possible if you believe in it. That's a misconception that not only exists amongst some small children, but also amongst business managers and politicians. PiusImpavidus (talk) 16:03, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is not the forum for editorializing. The place for that is the rest of the internet. Please respect the norms of this page. They are written at the top. --Jayron 32 18:06, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The earliest report I could find is Boy Who Tried to Fly ‘Like Superman’ Dies from 1979, but this 2008 report about a 10 year-old killed imitating Naruto Uzumaki, says that this sort of accident goes back to the 1950s. As a boy in the 1960s, I can recall watching the Batman TV series, which had a post-script appearance by Batman and Robin appealing to chidren not to try and imitate them, presumeably after a bad accident somwhere (a Google search has proved fruitless). Alansplodge (talk) 12:41, 4 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

WP:WHAAOE - see Batman (TV_series)#Public service announcements:

Safety caution – in 1966, due to multiple instances of UK children jumping from elevated locations attempting to emulate Batman, Adam West and Burt Ward recorded a short PIF to be shown prior to the airing of all episodes of Batman in the UK to explain to children that Batman could not fly. Ward exclaimed in one line, "Holy broken bones!" during this filming.

BTW, Superman et al were largely unknown to British children in the 1960s, if memory serves. Alansplodge (talk) 12:43, 4 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As a child around 1965 I got a Superman costume as a Christmas gift. A warning was printed on the costume itself that said "This costume will not make you fly. Only Superman can fly." I don't know if this was the result of a specific incident or the company just trying to prevent one. I certainly remember hearing stories back then about kids injuring themselves imitating superheroes but they may have been apocryphal. CodeTalker (talk) 02:33, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Disclaimers, playing it safe. There was one rumor about the death of George Reeves that he thought he could fly and jumped out a window. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:27, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]