# Ironic? deaths for different careers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 8, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291 "2012-05-08T16:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/1 "2012-05-08T16:49:15Z")
As I was nearly knocked unconscious by a falling [CRC Handbook](http://amzn.com/1439855110), I thought this would be a very amusing way to die for a chemist. So I was trying to think of the most amusing/ironic/fated way for a chemist to die. I came up with the ultimate cross of simple safety procedures being ignored, years of silly warnings having fallen on deaf ears, and something not breaking that always breaks: slipping on spilled water and being stabbed through the heart by a Pasteur pipette. Similarly a Zamboni driver losing control of his car at high speeds on an icy highway. So do you have any better suggestions for amusing deaths? ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/2 "2012-05-08T16:53:05Z")
A physicist being slugged by a slug? Um… I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/3 "2012-05-09T02:27:24Z")
Marie Curie died as a result of long-term [exposure to radiation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie#Death). Or is that the opposite of ironic? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/4 "2012-05-09T04:12:58Z")
I was at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival on the weekend, and took in a presentation about inking by Jeff Smith. He was wearing a brace on his drawing hand. Apparently carpal tunnel syndrome is common among cartoonists. Okay, maybe that’s not as ironic as being killed by a falling bottle of ink, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/5 "2012-05-09T04:20:22Z")
Steve Irwin’s death from freak stab by a stingray barb was a pretty ironic way to go for a “Crocodile Hunter” who had made a career out of confronting far more lethal beasts. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/6 "2012-05-09T06:14:06Z")
Movie stuntman dying of a freak trombone accident. ---
**Author:** ![Sampsiceramos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Sampsiceramos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampsiceramos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironic-deaths-for-different-careers/621291/7 "2012-05-09T07:52:49Z")
For an engineer of any sorts, a death that results from failing to take into account some purely mathematical consideration would be delightfully ironic - say, getting fried because a certain conductor wasn’t smooth enough to satisfy Stoke’s Theorem. For a quantum physicist, being pulverized by an explosion while partaking in a mexican wave at a sports event: “Oh look! Now he’s a particle **and** a wave!” Best of all, naturally, would be a philosopher of metaphysics working himself to death… But come on, _what are the chances of **that** happening?_