All About the Darwin Awards and Some Outrageously Funny Examples

If you know me, you’ll know that my humor can be dark, if not even morbid at times. However, I know that a lot of our readers are the same way. So, if there’s any platform where I feel safe about sharing my fascination with the Darwin Awards, then it’s definitely this one. Named after Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, these awards “honor” individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by removing themselves from the gene pool in the most absurdly idiotic ways possible. And even though these stories often end tragically, you still can’t deny that they are absolutely hilarious.

What Are the Darwin Awards?

Before we start sharing some unfortunate winners of The Darwin Award, let’s learn a bit more about its origins. It all started in the early 1990s as a way to commemorate individuals who met their untimely ends through extraordinarily foolish actions. The idea is straightforward: by exhibiting a startling lack of self-preservation and common sense, these people successfully improve the human gene pool by making sure their particular type of ignorance isn’t passed on to future generations. Though some “winners” survive their mishaps and “only” end up being unable to procreate, the awards are usually given posthumously.

Over the years, the awards have become more and more well-known, with books, blogs, and forums committed to spreading these amazing accounts of human stupidity. The criteria for winning a Darwin Award include:

Reproductive Responsibility: The nominee must be incapable of reproducing, either by dying or rendering themselves sterile.
Excellence: The event must be jaw-droppingly stupid.
Self-Selection: The nominee must be the cause of their own demise.
Maturity: The nominee must be capable of sound judgment.
Veracity: The event must be verifiable.

Some of the stories that have won Darwin Awards over the years are so absurd that they sound like they were pulled from a cartoon. Here are some of my personal favorites.

The Rocket Car

One of the most legendary Darwin Award stories involves a man in Arizona who decided to attach a jet-assisted take-off (JATO) unit to his Chevy Impala. JATO units are used to give heavy military planes an extra boost during takeoff. Predictably, the car shot forward at incredible speeds, reaching up to 300 mph. The ride ended tragically (and predictably) when the car became airborne and crashed into a cliff. I honestly don’t have any comments to add to this one. Other than there must have been a woman in this man’s life tryaing to convinve him that this wasn’t a smart idea, but he still did it.

The Chimney Sweep

Okay, the next one is a prime example that sometimes it really is reasonable to work “harder” and not “smarter”. Especially if the “smarter” includes dangerous weapons. In 1996, a man in Bulgaria attempted to clean his chimney using a hand grenade. The logic behind this dangerous idea is still a mystery, but the result was predictable. The grenade exploded, destroying both the chimney and the unfortunate man. This explosive attempt at home maintenance earned him a posthumous Darwin Award.

The Snake Charmer

In 2001, a Ukrainian man decided to impress his friends at a party by demonstrating his bravery. Sadly, a lot of people confuse bravery with stupidity, and this man was one of them. He brought out a viper and attempted to kiss it. Men and their need to show off, right? Just a fun fact on the side, most of the Darwin Awards “winners” are male, and honestly – I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Anyway, the snake, unimpressed by the man’s action, and probably a bit stressed too, bit him on the lip. Despite his friends’ attempts to get him medical help, the man succumbed to the venom. His risky party trick cost him his life and secured him a Darwin Award.