History Darwin Awards

wendy northcutt, author of darwin awards website , books

the origin of darwin awards can traced posts on usenet group discussions 1985. post, on august 7, 1985, describes awards being, given posthumously people have made supreme sacrifice keep genes out of our pool. style counts, not dies own stupidity can win. post cites example of person pulled vending machine on head , crushed death trying break it. distributed story mentioning darwin awards jato rocket car, describes man strapped jet-assisted take-off unit chevrolet impala in arizona desert , died gloriously on side of cliff car achieved speeds of 250 300 miles per hour (400 480 km/h). story later confirmed urban legend arizona department of public safety. official darwin awards website run northcutt best confirm stories submitted, listing them as, confirmed true darwin. many of viral emails circulating internet, however, hoaxes , urban legends.

the website , collection of books started in 1993 wendy northcutt, @ time graduate in molecular biology university of california, berkeley. went on study neurobiology @ stanford university, doing research on cancer , telomerase. in spare time, organized chain letters family members original darwin awards website hosted in personal account space @ stanford. left bench in 1998 , devoted herself full-time website , books in september 1999. 2002, website received 7 million page hits per month.

she encountered difficulty in publishing first book, since publishers offer deal if agreed remove stories internet. northcutt refused so, saying, community! not that. though might have cost me lot of money, kept saying no. found publisher agreed print book containing 10% of material gathered website. first book turned out success, , listed on new york times bestseller list 6 months.

not of feedback stories northcutt published positive, , received email people knew deceased. 1 such person wrote, horrible. has shocked our community core. should remove this. northcutt said can t. s stupid. northcutt kept stories on website , in books, citing them funny-but-true safety guide , , mentioning children read book going more careful around explosives.

the website recognizes, honorable mentions, individuals survive misadventures reproductive capacity intact. 1 example of lawnchair larry, attached helium-filled weather balloons lawn chair , floated far above long beach, california, in july 1982. reached altitude of 16,000 feet (4,900 m) survived, later fined crossing controlled airspace. notable honorable mention given 2 men attempted burgle home of footballer duncan ferguson (who had 4 convictions assault , had served 6 months in glasgow s barlinnie prison) in 2001, 1 burglar requiring 3 days hospitalization after being confronted player.

male , female darwin award winners. line h0 indicates expected percentages under null hypothesis males , females equally idiotic.

a 2014 study published in british medical journal found between 1995 , 2014 males represented 88.7% of darwin award winners (see figure).

a 2006 comedy film, darwin awards, written , directed finn taylor, based on website , many of darwin awards stories.