I've always believed that the people who laugh at the Darwin awards must be psychopathic i.e. without conscience. How could anyone with a conscience laugh at the death of another human being?
Apparently the general population contains about 2% psychopaths, so given the Internet is everywhere, I'd say that 2% is sustaining interest in the Darwin awards.
There's a fine line between macabre dark humor (which often involves recognizing one's own vulnerability) and the arrogance of laughing at someone else's misfortune out of the belief that it could never happen to you.
I think the Darwin Awards cross that line. Plenty of other people don't, I guess, but I also found it insufferably smug and emotionless to laugh at someone's death as if it's the punchline to a stand-up's joke. Like I said, there's a place for dark comedy revolving around death but I don't think the Darwin Awards find their place in that spectrum.
Someone who can find humor in death has just found another way of accepting it. Death can be a tragic thing, but it's a part of life and life is sometimes funny and dumb. I feel bad for the people who fear death so much that they can't laugh at it. Everyone dies, I know I'm going to.
I'd prefer to die of wounds sustained in a triumphant battle with a genetically engineered half-Coatimundi/half-Keanu Reeves demon that lives off the flesh of baby otters and strippers with hearts of gold. So when people asked how I died someone would say "It was that *beep* Coatimundi/Keanu Reeves monster!" Plus it my death would help to educate people, because not a lot of people know what a Coatimundi is.
That death is better than Cancer or AIDs (which I don't think should be made fun of).
What's the difference, Cancer and AIDS related deaths are also deaths by misadventure. Smoking lots or having unprotective sex with a stranger is no different to strapping a rocket to a car.
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Wait until someone makes fun of your death or someone close to you. The Darwin Awards was created by someone to stoned to know his genes are no better than anyone who dies from misadventure.
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Um, if you are dead, it doesn't matter if someone makes fun of your death. You're flippin dead. The only reason people refrain is because of their own fear of it. You can call it respect for the dead but it is simply superstition. Believe what you like, but that is the truth.
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Ok. So when You those of you without a sense of humor die because you droped your blowdryer in the tub, I promise that I won't laugh.
NOT!!!
I just looked at the Darwin awards web site and found there was a movie and then found myself here.
The deaths listed on the awards site are funny but also a lesson to others.
The top one from 2005 had a guy who stabbed himself in order to frame a neighbour for a perceived slight. Incredibly stupid and nasty. All the 2005 deaths involve immense stupidity from adults that should have known better. It's a pity they didn't value their own lives and used some common sense.
I can't believe that people are so stupid as to throw their lives away like that. Don't they realise life is precious? I hope people read the sight and get some safety tips as well as chuckles.
Yes it is, genius. See...smoking lots or having unprotected sex CAN lead to death. Slow deaths, but deaths. Attaching JATO bottles to your car is GUARENTEED death. Big difference.
hahahaha
love you.
You betcha!
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Wendy Northcutt here. Hey, when I first started doing the Darwin Awards over a decade ago, not many people "got it," but after the books were published... now, nine out of ten people think Darwin Awards are funny. But the tenth... thinks it's rude. So it's bi-polar phenomenon -- you love 'em or you hate 'em.
By the way, in the 90's flames were mostly, "You believe in this evolution crap?!! $#&&@!!" That always had me ROFLMAO. Oh yes, Evolution. Who doesn't?! Ha ha ha, stupid creationists.
Ms. Darwin
The Darwin Awards are so funny you sold ten billion copies and the movie is getting nothing but positive reviews.
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I would agree with many of you. Death sucks, but who the hell uses a lighter to determine if the fuel tanker they are working on is full? Who, in their right mind, would attempt a gymnastic rail maneuvre 3 or 4 stories above Earth, happily exclaiming, "Look what I can still do?" It's craziness, in my opinion, and hillarious as hell. I liked that comment one user made about the arrogance of one thinking it won't happen to them. I can't remember the last time I peered down the barrel of a shotgun and pulled the trigger to see if it was indeed loaded. Oh, the family picnics. We used to have so much fun filling balloons with gasoline and tossing them on the grill. I remember Uncle Jebehebezebediah inserting the end of a bicycle pump firmly into his anus, and giving himself a few good bursts to relieve his chronic constipation. Ahh, memories. And who would have thought? All this and not even an "Honorable Mention."
Point taken, I assume?
in all honesty, i also laughed at the honorable mentions (the people that didn't die). I think if somebody gets drunk, stabs themself, and blames a neighbor that isn't even home, that person doesn't deserve to procriate. I don't believe we're laughing at the fact that the person is dead, we're laughing at the fact that it could have been so easily avoided if they just thought before they acted. I wasn't laughing when i saw Titanic, I didn't laugh when I saw Saving Private Ryan, but I can't help but laugh at someone who dresses up in a fish suit and drowns.
Dorothy: Ma, you're really hurting my feelings.
Sophia: Not as much as you hurt my oony.
Nicely put.
"Picture it. Sicily. 1924..."
anyone who says that they cannot laugh at another's death is not being honest with themselves
shareI find the idea of darwin awards simply disgusting. Are we so short on ideas that we need to resort to other's death for a laugh? How do you think their family and friends would feel?
It's not uncommon for fairly inteligent people to do incredibly stupid things. If someone losses their life in such an accident it's nothing but a tragedy. Only a completely heartless psychopathetic douche will laugh at something like this.
Whoever invented this should be hanged in public and awarded a darwin award himself.
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faizan2025:
"...Only a completely heartless psychopathetic douche will laugh at something like this."
"Whoever invented this should be hanged in public and awarded a darwin award himself."
I just thought that should be pointed out.
I actually would love to win an Darwin Award myself, though at the age of 80 or so. Death is going to happen, so one might as well go out and get some extra laughs in the world.
Oh get a grip! It's not that we're short on ideas to make us laugh, it's that these people give us reality that is actually funnier and more unbelievable then anything someone could imagine. I guess I am a completely heartless psychopathic douche because I think it's funny that someone actually, really believed that the "cruise control" in their Winnebago would act like an auto pilot. It's hilarious! And anyone that stupid deserves to die (even though that woman lived). It's not a tragedy, it's just stupidity.
shareanyone that stupid deserves to die
It's not that their lives have less value, it's the survival of the fittest, that is nature and that's just the way it is. Their life is just as valuable, but if they don't value their life enough to read the manual concerning cruise control and how to operate it before stepping into the back to make a sandwich, well, you pay the price. Common sense can help you survive to pass on your genes, that's the whole point. Do we want the stupid ones to pass on their genes? Have you seen Idiocracy?
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"So just because someone is stupid, their lives have less value?"
yes.
especially if they die doing something stupid. it's their own fault, and they deserve no pity. like people who cant swim drowning. why the hell would you go near water deep enough to drown in if you know you cant swim?
Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.
Two words: death happens.
Four words: Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.
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We come into the world naked, screaming and covered in blood. Why should the fun end there?
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if it was a double standard, then yea it would be offensive (like you wouldn't be laughing if it happened to you, instead you'd be making excuses). honestly, if i died the way some of these darwin awards winners died I would definitely be laughing at myself from the next life... die and learn i suppose
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thank you PHALPHALAK!! finally someone has made the point about the minds of a psychopath. it is very FALSE to assume that just because you laugh at the darwin awards, you are in any way living with a violent form of mental illness - well any form of mental illness at all.
some ppl who have been trying to insult those who laugh at the darwin awards by suggesting they are "psychopathic", you are wrong. aswell as what PHALPHALAK has said, a psychopathic person wouldnt laugh beacuse they would not be able to even ask themselves why such actions were stupid. They would not have any form of social acceptance and social norms. That is why it is obvious that those who laugh at Darwin awards aren’t psychopathic because we laugh because we can see how socially dumb and in some cases socially unacceptable such acts are. And Its not just laughing that Im talking about. Even if you don’t laugh but say wow that was really dumb, you are still giving the instinctive reaction to socially unacceptable but at the same time if we said that to a widow or sibling or friend of a Darwin award winner, the door would still probs be slammed on us lol!!
Im basically saying give everyone a break. Ppl laugh and ppl think the Darwin awards or dumb because of just a natural reaction to social behaviour. and in no way am I suggesting that those who have been killed by these acts are socially reatrds, coz we all do stupid things at times…so im not suggesting that at all.
…u hear that someone has watered a xmas tree with electronic lights on, and u laugh/say to urself “lol that’s really stupid”. But then u hear that the person actually died of electrocution. Just ask urself this…do u then think wow that’s awful how bad for the family etc etc BUT THEN THINK ITS STILL A FUNNY/DUMB THING TO HAVE DONE? If u say yes, then dw u are normal (despite many ppl here saying ur psychopathic). If u say no, and that’s it’s a bad thing for the family etc but then u change ur view, then that’s wats not normal.