# What has happened to the Darwin Awards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** magazines-newspapers\ **Created:** [March 3, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040 "2025-03-03T00:00:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/1 "2025-03-03T00:00:45Z")
_The Darwin Awards_ were a big part of social media in The Aughts and as recently as 2020. Many News publications published odd news and suggested a Darwin Award. [The web site hasn’t been updated since 2022.](https://darwinawards.com/darwin/) I know the web site came after the early mentions in the 1990’s. I’m not sure which social media platform first coined the term. It was used at the SDMB a lot in the early days. Did the SDMB ever have a continuous Darwin Award thread? There were many worthy nominations in the past couple years. What has happened? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/2 "2025-03-03T06:16:21Z")
Perhaps the pandemic did a better job than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/3 "2025-03-03T07:23:08Z")
I feel like it’s largely been supplanted by the Herman Cain Award. > **[Herman Cain Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain_Award)** > > The Herman Cain Award is an ironic award given to people who expressed hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines or face masks, who later died from COVID-19 or its complications. The award is named after American businessman and political figure Herman Cain, a Republican politician who died of COVID-19 complications after attending a 2020 Trump Tulsa rally in support of then-President Donald Trump without wearing a face mask. Cain had publicly tweeted the disease was not deadly and discou The concept ... ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/4 "2025-03-03T08:52:58Z")
I do not know what has happened, but the books and web site were primarily produced by Wendy Northcutt [“I AM the Darwin Awards”, in her own words…]. She also has [this site](https://darwinawards.substack.com/) which is slightly more up to date (she posted there in June at least). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/5 "2025-03-03T09:56:16Z")
By this point, I think it’s obvious that we’re all winners. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/6 "2025-03-03T12:20:24Z")
That site was Early WWW personified. Much like Snopes. A place where an eager volunteer gathered interesting stuff on a particular topic and displayed it for all to see. _Gratis._ The world has moved on and that’s not a practical hobby to sustain for decades, nor is it a viable business model. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Did the SDMB ever have a continuous Darwin Award thread? A quick search turns up many threads involving individual nominees which then led to other suggestions by other posters. The last real attempt at an omnibus thread was in 2018 and fell flat, attracting only 3 posts. For those who are curious, here’s the **[Search results for ‘in:title darwin award’ - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/search?q=in%3Atitle%20darwin%20award%20order%3Alatest_topic)** which gives us 48 fine vintage threads to enjoy. Bottom line IMO … Compared to the rest of the screaming idiocy on display all over our fair country, merely killing oneself inadvertently seems … quaint. Kinda like reading the Onion from 2010 seems so very sane and ordinary by current standards. Humor has a sell-by date, and the humor inherent in Darwin Awards seems to have passed its date. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/7 "2025-03-03T12:28:52Z")
I seen to recall the most popular stories turned out to be bull shit. Like the guy who strapped helium balloons to his lawn chair. Or the other guy that mounted a rocket on to his car so he could jump a canyon or something like that. All the funniest ones were lies. That probably factored in somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/8 "2025-03-03T12:57:07Z")
The website and the books did bring those up, but then they immediately showed them to be the urban legends they were. They had no part in spreading those stories. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/9 "2025-03-03T13:14:39Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I seem to recall the most popular stories turned out to be bull shit. > Like the guy who strapped helium balloons to his lawn chair. That’ll be this guy; he didn’t die. > **[Lawnchair Larry flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight)** > > On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters (April 19, 1949 – October 6, 1993) made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary lawn chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the final descent, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely. The flight attract > [@](#): > > Or the other guy that mounted a rocket on to his car so he could jump a canyon or something like that. There have been several rocket enthusiasts who have died in the attempt; this one in particular is ironic. > **['Mad' Mike Hughes dies after crash-landing homemade rocket](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51602655)** > > "Mad" Mike Hughes, 64, wanted to launch himself into space to prove that the Earth was flat. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/10 "2025-03-03T13:55:31Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > That’ll be this guy; he didn’t die. But there’s one that did: > **[Brazilian priest died after tying himself to 1,000 balloons and being found...](https://www.unilad.com/community/brazilian-priest-1000-balloons-father-adelir-antonio-de-carli-321018-20230414)** > > His body was found near the city of Macae, Brazil. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/11 "2025-03-03T14:04:31Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > There have been several rocket enthusiasts who have died in the attempt; this one in particular is ironic. He means this one: > **[JATO Car Embedded in Cliff?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/carmageddon/)** > > Did a man who attached a JATO unit to his car end up smashing it into the side of a cliff? The flat flat-earther has a long thread here. > [@Flat-Earther builds a rocket](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earther-builds-a-rocket/802427): > > [Self-taught rocket scientist plans launch to test flat Earth theory](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/22/self-taught-rocket-scientist-plans-launch-to-test-flat-earth-theory) ‘Mad’ Mike Hughes has built a steam-powered rocket so as to eventually prove Earth is flat. He plans to reach an altitude of 1,800 feet. This guy’s no Bob Truax! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/12 "2025-03-03T14:58:08Z")
The Darwin Awards would be a welcome diversion from the serious news today. Oh well. I was curious because the web site doesn’t have a we’re retired message. It could be worse. Some closed sites lose their registration and it diverts to something sketchy. Maybe malware. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/13 "2025-03-03T15:08:40Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I was curious because the web site doesn’t have a we’re retired message. Sometimes that happens. People lose interest, or real life gets in the way. I’ve followed more than one podcast that updated regularly, until it suddenly didn’t. They just kind of stop, with no announcement or anything. A lot of websites, blogs, and podcasts are essentially hobbies, and sometimes people lose interest in their hobbies, or don’t have time to pursue them anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/14 "2025-03-03T15:19:34Z")
I would agree it’s more of an early-internet thing – before it was possible to quickly check details of incidents and there was not so much competition with, say, videos of sovereign citizens getting tasered. Also, for me personally I found the idea fun at first, but the more you think about it the more distasteful it became so I think it had an inherent sell-by date. It’s distasteful IMO because, well, firstly of course it somewhat makes fun of tragedies. But also because of what it’s trying to entail about evolution and human life. In the US, where so many people are still creationists, it’s not helpful to be painting this idea that people who believe in evolution think we should still be servants to evolution, and that we should point and laugh at death and suffering. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/15 "2025-03-03T15:20:42Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > That’ll be this guy; he didn’t die. It says right there in the article preview that he died in 1993! 🙂 (I know – he didn’t die in the attempt.) Was a version of this story circulated where he died? I remember hearing this story in the early-to-mid-90s, and in the versions I’ve heard, he always survived. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/16 "2025-03-03T15:28:24Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > In the US, where so many people are still creationists, it’s not helpful to be painting this idea that people who believe in evolution think we should still be servants to evolution, and that we should point and laugh at death and suffering. The Darwin Awards did not demonstrate anything about evolution, nor was it ever intended to. I thought it was funny, in a misandrist sort of way – nearly all the people who die doing butt fuck stupid stunts are men. The number of women who say, ‘hold my beer’ is miniscule in comparison. There are lots of reels of clips out there of men who videotape themselves cutting off limbs they are sitting on, attempt to boogie board on wet concrete, or gun their car over a gap in the road, or thousands of other tries at being famous for being an idiot. So maybe the era of the selfie video did in the awards. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/17 "2025-03-03T15:32:19Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > The Darwin Awards did not demonstrate anything about evolution, nor was it ever intended to. I would venture that much of its readership thought it did. There’s a decent argument that such humor can steer some weaker minds toward an advocacy of eugenics. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/18 "2025-03-03T15:52:04Z")
Yes this. I should have been clearer in that I don’t think the person / people behind the webpage were necessarily advocating anything, but in general discourse it often was described in those terms. The kind of person that would lament that we are “evolving” to become more stupid, and so it’s a good thing is some people removed themselves from the gene pool. I’d also note that while the DA themselves could be granted to people who had children, I remember people saying so-and-so wouldn’t be eligible for that reason. So it was ok to be a deadbeat dad and die in a stupid way, only dying childless was shameful. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/19 "2025-03-03T18:38:59Z")
They used to have a message board, too. I prefered the snopes message boards because they were… nicer. Alas, looks like both have gone the way of the dodo. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040/20 "2025-03-03T19:04:50Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Also, for me personally I found the idea fun at first, but the more you think about it the more distasteful it became so I think it had an inherent sell-by date. It’s distasteful IMO because, well, firstly of course it somewhat makes fun of tragedies. Yeah, I admit I found the Darwin Awards funny when I was young and immature, but now I find them pretty distasteful. An acquaintance of mine actually knew someone who “won” a Darwin Award – IIRC he died in an accident at the Boeing plant and my acquaintance is a retired Boeing employee. Everyone who actually knew they guy knows he wasn’t stupid and his death was a tragic _accident_. But some random person on the internet found a news article about the incident, spun it to make the guy look like an idiot, and nominated it for a Darwin Award. The whole DW thing was incredibly hurtful to the people who actually knew the guy and were mourning his death. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-happened-to-the-darwin-awards/1015040.md?page=2)