Darwin Awards

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A Darwin Award is a tongue-in-cheek "honor" given to people who supposedly improve the human gene pool as part of the natural-selection process by killing or sterilizing themselves while making a foolish or careless mistake. Named after pioneering evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, some of the "awards" are in fact urban legends.<ref>http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/darwin04.asp</ref>

1 History
2 Requirements
3 Examples
4 Movie
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] History

Darwin Awards have circulated for many years as emails and entries in Usenet group discussions, but the exact origin of the award is unknown. The Google Usenet archive records two early mentions of Darwin Awards, one dated 7 August 1985 titled Vending Machine Tipover.<ref>Vending Machine Tipover</ref> It was not mentioned on Usenet again until referenced in the 7 December 1990 version of the JATO Rocket Car urban legend.<ref>JATO Rocket Car</ref> This second recorded use of the term "Darwin Award" was widely distributed via emails during 1995-97.

Several versions of anonymously authored email lists entitled (for example) 1999 Darwin Awards have appeared annually since at least 1991.<ref>Vending Machine Tipover</ref>

There are several websites which record "Darwin Awards"<ref name="snopes">snopes.com discussion of alternate "Darwin Awards" websites</ref> - a well-known one started in 1994 is "darwinawards.com" run by Wendy Northcutt, who has also written several books on Darwin Awards.

[edit] Requirements

Northcutt has established five requirements for a Darwin Award on her website:

Inability to reproduce - Nominee must be dead or sterile.
Sometimes this can be a matter of dispute. Potential awardees may be out of the gene pool due to age; others have already reproduced prior to their deaths. To avoid debates about the possibility of in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination or cloning, the original Darwin Awards book applied the following "deserted island" test to potential winners: If the person would be unable to reproduce when stranded on a desert island with a fertile member of the opposite sex, he or she would be considered sterile.

"Excellence" - Astounding misapplication of judgment.
The candidate's foolishness must be unique and sensational, perhaps because the award is meant to be funny. A number of common but foolish activities (smoking in bed, for example) are excluded from consideration.

"Self-selection" - Cause of one's own demise.
A bystander hit by an I-beam at a construction site is not eligible for nomination. But if someone is hit by an I-beam that he rigged above his own balcony to kill pigeons, then he would be eligible for a Darwin Award.
There is no award for killing someone else or causing someone else to be sterile.

"Maturity" - Capable of sound judgment.
The nominee must be at least past the middle-teen years, and free of mental defect.

"Veracity" - The event must be verified.
The story must be documented by reliable sources, i.e., reputable newspaper articles, confirmed television reports, or responsible eyewitnesses.
If a story is found to be untrue, it is disqualified, but particularly amusing ones are placed in a section of the archives entitled "urban legends."

[edit] Examples

Krystof Azninski staked a strong claim to being Europe's most macho man by cutting off his own head in 1995. Azninski, 30, had been drinking with friends when it was suggested they strip naked and play some "men's games." Initially they hit each other over the head with frozen turnips, but then one man upped the ante by seizing a chainsaw and cutting off the end of his foot. Not to be outdone, Azninski grabbed the saw and, shouting "Watch this then," he swung at his own head and chopped it off.<ref>Macho Man
Although Reuters and the Globe and Mail ran articles about this, a Polish reader of the darwinawards.com account said, "This story is not entirely true. I am Polish and I remember reading about this incident in newspapers. Two guys got drunk and started to make macho type bets. You overestimate the wealth of polish peasants if you believe they were using a chain saw. I remember the bet was resolved using an axe. One man laid his head down and bet the one with an axe that he was not be brave enough to make the cut."</ref>

Other examples of Darwin award winners would be: Juggling hand grenades (Croatia, 2001),<ref>Juggling hand grenades</ref> jumping out of a plane to film skydivers while forgetting to wear a parachute oneself (USA, 1987),<ref>Parachuting without a parachute</ref> trying to get enough light to look down a gun barrel using a cigarette lighter (USA, 1996),<ref>Looking down a gun barrel</ref> using a lighter to illuminate a fuel tank to make sure it contains nothing flammable (Brazil, 2003),<ref>Using a lighter to illuminate a fuel tank</ref> and the man who had sexual intercourse with a vacuum cleaner (USA, 2000).<ref>Sexual intercourse with a vacuum cleaner</ref>

Northcutt's Darwin Awards site gives out "honorable mentions" to people who manage to survive their misadventures with their lives and reproductive capacity intact. One notable example of an honorable mention is "Lawnchair Larry," who attached helium balloons to a lawn chair and floated above Long Beach, California (July 1982).

[edit] Movie

A film, The Darwin Awards, directed by Finn Taylor featuring Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2006.<ref>The Darwin Awards Movie</ref> The movie will be distributed internationally by Icon Entertainment, and does not currently have a US distributor. The movie is associated with darwinawards.com.