History Main / JustSoStory

* [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0110.html It's... innacurate.]]

** Another one from, IIRC, one of the cultures that occupied the four corners states, tells the story of why the vulture/condor has no feathers on its head. Besides the obvious lesson (this trope), a secondary heading for the tale might be something like "why you should never go spelunking in the rear end of Mr. Bear". Thank the missionaries for ending these kinds of stories.

Named for a collection of children's stories by RudyardKipling, ''Literature/JustSoStories'', which included tales like "How the Whale Got Its Throat" and "How the Camel Got Its Hump". See the sister trope, IDyeGrass.

* Maori history, derived from the Hawaiian example above has the demi-god Maui to explain almost everything. He raised the north island of New Zealand when he caught it while fishing. (It was a stingray. The Sounth island is his canoe.) His greedy brothers chopped it up, creating all the mountains. He stole fire from his grandmother and hid it in a tea tree for later use (Tea tree is very flammable.) When the sun went around too fast, making the days short, he [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome trapped it and beat it half to death with his grandmother's jawbone.]]

[[AC:MythAndReligion]]

* According to Disney's ''Disney/ThePrincessandtheFrog'', stars are actually created from the ghosts of dead fireflies, therefore confirming an age-old myth that first appeared in the earlier animated Disney movie ''TheLionKing''.

[[AC:Comics]]
* PennyArcade makes one up: [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/3/ The tooth fairy turns teeth into clouds.]] This ''is'' a story about the creation of clouds, but also explains why the tooth fairy takes teeth. Which may make this a culturally-extended DiggingYourselfDeeper.
* ''{{Achewood}}'' has a number of strips involving made-up mythological origins for the characters, sometimes written by themselves. For instance, in Lyle's story, he came into being as a three-year-old, from the wreckage of an exploding pickup truck being worked on in the driveway by God and the Devil. They asked his name, and he defiantly chanted "Ace of spades! Ace of spades!"
** That's nothing compared to "The Todd Creation Myth". A stork drops a burrito into a volcano, and Todd crawls out of it 100 minutes later muttering "frick". After the stork calls him an asshole for eating his burrito, Todd strangles it to death and it morphs into a squirrel-sized van. It's... it's something.

* One ''{{Popeye}}'' short has him spinning a fanciful tale on why the sea is salty (involving a magic device which punishes its owner for being greedy by creating endless salt instead of gold). After the story is told, Swee'Pea lampshades it by given the actual explanation, including detailed scientific terms; Olive Oyl chimes in with, "''Everbody'' knows that."

[[AC:Comics]]
* PennyArcade makes one up: [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/3/ The tooth fairy turns teeth into clouds.]] This ''is'' a story about the creation of clouds, but also explains why the tooth fairy takes teeth. Which may make this a culturally-extended DiggingYourselfDeeper.
* ''{{Achewood}}'' has a number of strips involving made-up mythological origins for the characters, sometimes written by themselves. For instance, in Lyle's story, he came into being as a three-year-old, from the wreckage of an exploding pickup truck being worked on in the driveway by God and the Devil. They asked his name, and he defiantly chanted "Ace of spades! Ace of spades!"
** That's nothing compared to "The Todd Creation Myth". A stork drops a burrito into a volcano, and Todd crawls out of it 100 minutes later muttering "frick". After the stork calls him an asshole for eating his burrito, Todd strangles it to death and it morphs into a squirrel-sized van. It's... it's something.

Named for a collection of children's stories by RudyardKipling, ''Just So Stories'', which included tales like "How the Whale Got Its Throat" and "How the Camel Got Its Hump". See the sister trope, IDyeGrass.

* The somewhat racist PeterPan song "What Made The Red Man Red". Red man are red because one of them blushed when he was kissed, and they all have been red sense then.

* According to [[TheBible Genesis]], snakes lost their legs as punishment from God for tempting Eve. Women endure painful childbirth, humanity in general works for a living, and everybody eventually dies because Adam and Eve ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but God evicted them from the Garden of Eden before they could eat fruit from the Tree of Life.
** Also, why are there multiple nations in the world with different languages? Because of the Tower of Babel...

* According to one Greek myth, winter happens when Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter, is forced to stay in the Underworld with her husband Hades for six months (due to [[FoodChains eating six seeds]]). Demeter gets so depressed that she refuses to let anything grow.
** In the original version, Persophone's presence in the underworld coincided with the scorching summer months, which were much deadlier than the mild Mediterranean winters. The story got flipped around as it was relayed to the north.
* Also, Phaeton, Helios' son, is responsible for deserts and cold places on the earth. Never let your teenager drive the sun-chariot around without a license. (This is also why Africans are black.)
* Norse Mythology credits earthquakes to the god Loki, who is chained to the earth for ridiculing the gods at a wake held for the god Balder, which considering all the much worse things Loki has done in the past (like being largely responsible for Balder's death, and Balder having to ''stay'' dead in some versions of the story), was apparently the last straw. A giant serpent lies above him, dripping caustic poison, but fortunately Loki's wife tirelessly sits between them, holding a cup to catch the poison. However, sometimes she has to empty the cup, and then...
* A collection of real-life examples would be all evolutionary accounts of any biological structures.
* In one Hawaiian myth, the volcano goddess Pele raised the archipelago out of the ocean one by one in an attempt to outrun her sister the sea-goddess, who kept flooding the islands. Pele's older brother helped her escape, so in gratitude she never lets volcanic steam touch his particular cliffs. Another legend says that Maui pulled the islands up from the ocean floor on a [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu very eventful fishing trip.]]

* Towards the beginning of Disney's ''SongOfTheSouth'' ([[CanonDiscontinuity it exists, dammit!]]), the protagonist comes upon a gathering of black sharecroppers in the shade, singing about Uncle Remus' tales, which tell how the [[http://www.songofthesouth.net/movie/lyrics/uncle-remus-said.html how the leopard got his spots, how the camel got those humps, and how the pig got a curly tail.]]

* ''{{Achewood}}'' has a number of strips involving made-up mythological origins for the characters, sometimes written by themselves. For instance, in Lyle's story, he came into being as a three-year-old, from the wreckage of an exploding pickup truck being worked on in the driveway by God and the Devil. They asked his name, and he defiantly chanted "Ace of spades! Ace of spades!"
** That's nothing compared to "The Todd Creation Myth". A stork drops a burrito into a volcano, and Todd crawls out of it 100 minutes later muttering "frick". After the stork calls him an asshole for eating his burrito, Todd strangles it to death and it morphs into a squirrel-sized van. It's... it's something.

* PaulBunyan has got a lot of these: Minnesota has 10,000 lakes because his giant footsteps filled up with water. The Mississippi River goes all the way down the country 'cause Paul dug it as a canal to float his logs down (incidentally, the piles of dirt he scooped out became the Rocky Mountains). Michigan looks like a mitten because Bunyan had lost his and subconsciously logged the peninsula in that shape. Lake Superior is so cold because Paul's icebox is at the bottom. The Grand Canyon is the result of Paul dragging his axe behind him. Kansas is flat because he flipped it upside down, so that all its mountains are buried underground. And the moon's so full of craters 'cause Paul kicked a hard-headed splinter cat right into it.
* [[FollowTheLeader Same goes]] for PecosBill. He dug the Rio Grande to irrigate his ranch and the Grand Canyon while prospecting for gold. He invented centipede and tarantula as practical jokes, taught the bronco how to buck, and made Death Valley the time he fell off a tornado and left a crater in the ground.

* According to MelodyTime, coyotes howl at the moon out of sympathy for a man who lost his love.
* The somewhat racist PeterPan song "What Made The Red Man Red". Red man are red because one of them blushed when he was kissed, and they all have been red sense then.

** In the original version, Demeter's presence in the underworld coincided with the scorching summer months, which were much deadlier than the mild Mediterranean winters. The story got flipped around as it was relayed to the north.

* PennyArcade makes one up: [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/3/ The tooth fairy turns teeth into clouds.]]

* PaulBunyan has got a lot of these: Minnesota has 10,000 lakes because his giant footsteps filled up with water. The Mississippi River goes all the way down the country 'cause Paul dug it as a canal to float his logs down (incidentally, the piles of dirt he scooped out became the Rocky Mountains). The Grand Canyon is the result of Paul dragging his axe behind him. Kansas is flat because he flipped it upside down, so that all its mountains are buried underground. And the moon's so full of craters 'cause Paul kicked a hard-headed splinter cat right into it.

* Also, Phaeton, Helios' son, is responsible for deserts and cold places on the earth. Never let your teenager drive the sun-chariot around without a license.
** And why Africans are black.

* According to [[TheBible Genesis]], snakes lost their legs as punishment from God for tempting Eve.

** Women endure painful childbirth, humanity in general works for a living, and everybody eventually dies because Adam and Eve ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but God evicted them from the Garden of Eden before they could eat fruit from the Tree of Life.