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Good looking out Abhishek.
Not only are there corals where the rhymes will call a coral harmless (over a dozen examples that I know of and I am by no means an expert on the genus), there are corals which totally defy the colors and patterns indicated in the rhyme (aren't banded, have different colors, lack one of the three common colors), there are also a huge number of species (Non-elapids) with similar patterning and color to the typical coral banding... There are completely 100% harmless colubrids which will sometimes have banding which the rhymes indicate are dangerous (Literally, I have seen thayeri kings which hatched with a pattern that looked nothing like a coral, but the red/yellow/black ended up with red touching yellow, which the rhyme claims is a coral), there are dozens of rear fanged species of varying toxicity which fall one way or the other in the patterning and there are even north american corals which defy the rhymes... An abberrent coral snake could easily turn someone's day rather bad if they handled it after mumbling some rhyme and checking for a rattle. Heck, reptiles magazine (not exactly a definite authorotative publication or anything but popular and widespread) even published photos of melanistic north american corals that defied the rhymes.
I honestly don't mind much if someone makes the claim about the colors... it's an honest, innocent and very common mistake with some situational truth behind it (In north america (er... well, discounting southern mexico down), discounting phenotypical abberrations it kind of almost works. Once it's been corrected though (Micrurus surinamensis, there's your species and it only takes one to make the rhymes false, even though there are plenty of examples) someone who refuses to let it go... that's kind of irritating.
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