Darwin Awards

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Even Wile E. Coyote wouldn't do that.

"A Chronicle of Enterprising Demises Honoring those who improve the species... by accidentally removing themselves from it!"

While I have common sense I rarely let it interfere with my actions, prefering to use it to analyse why I shouldn't have done what ever it is that I did to cause the most recent Darwin moment.

—James Nicoll

The Darwin Awards are a collection of stories of those that have given the best their DNA can offer to the gene pool. That is, they removed their DNA from the gene pool through actions (of their own devising) with such stupidity that the fact they can no longer breed is worth an award. It is worth noting that, although most of the winners remove themselves from the gene pool in a fatal manner, there are a precious few who manage to remove their ability to breed in a spectacularly stupid manner while still remaining alive (albeit... incomplete) afterwards.

Although internet-based, the Darwin Awards have released books detailing the "winners" of that year.

There are four categories:

  • Darwin Award winners: Those killed or unable to reproduce.[1] Further being classed as;
    • Confirmed by Darwin: In reliable news sources.
    • Unconfirmed by Darwin: Unable to find reliable sources however not proved to be false.
    • Debunked by Darwin: A story previously thought to be true is found to be false.
  • Honorable Mentions At Risk Survivors: Those that did their best to kill themselves yet somehow managed to survive.
  • Urban Legends: Those stories believed to be true yet have no basis in reality.
  • Personal Accounts: Members of the internet put forth their own personal stories with no other proof.

See also 1000 Ways to Die, which is based on a similar premise (the major difference is that 1000 Ways To Die doesn't really care about the death being due to stupidity if it's spectacular enough.)

Finally, there was actually a film (The Darwin Awards) based off of some of the stories from this site. A few of the stories were also tested by the MythBusters (who, incidentally enough, made cameo appearances in the movie).

NOTE: People who take out innocents in the process of removing themselves from the gene pool are expressly disqualified from Darwin Awards consideration by the website. The same goes for people with mental disorders. Youths under the age of 16 are generally disqualified unless a majority of the youth's peers agree the action taken by the nominee was incredibly stupid.


Tropes used in Darwin Awards include:
  1. Also occasionally includes people who are in jail for life or ridiculously long settings for similar reasons