Darwin Award Winners, Ranked

Before selfies, there were people

Photo by Blake Wheeler on Unsplash

The Darwin Awards began in 1985 as an official commemoration for individuals who either died or sterilized themselves in idiotic ways, thus removing themselves from the human gene pool.

How did the father of evolution, Charles Darwin, come into play?

The award winners took themselves out of the evolutionary competition for reproduction.

It’s impossible to win if you happened to remove anyone else from the gene pool when you went to the other side, however.

In 1993, Wendy Northcutt began a website that eventually turned into multiple books. To win, nominees must:

1. Be documented by a valid media source. If proved untrue, the award is rescinded. Urban legends need not apply.
2. Either die or become sterilized.
3. Do something especially dumb and preferably original or sensational.
4. The person has to have killed himself or herself, or self-sterilized. Stupidly offing a friend or spectator does not meet the price of admission.
5. Preferably, the nominee or winner must be over 16.

Is it wrong to poke fun at horrible, stupid deaths? That’s up to you to decide. As a society, we’ve answered with a…