Customer Reviews

The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I loved the first edition of the Darwin Awards, but was a little disappointed by the second edition. The third edition continues the trend. I realize it may be tough to find enough stupid dead people that can be funny, but some of the stories should have never made the cut.

There are a set of rules for being awarded a Darwin Award. I have difficulty understanding how one particular entry made the book as a winner based on the standard. Did somebody forget to proofread?

While I liked the "not a Darwin Award" Chapter in the second edition, none of the stories were as entertaining this time.

It is my hope that this is the last edition of the Darwin will be the last or a long time passes between the third and fourth books. This way some really funny material can be collected.

I had heard so much about the Darwin Awards that I rushed out to buy this book as soon as I could. I hate to say that I was disappointed at what I read. There were too many personal, undocumented stories, and some stories I knew I had read before. I read the reviews listed here and noticed so many people had recommended Leland Gregory's book, "Hey, Idiot!" so I bought that, too. It is a much better book and I can see why it's so highly recommended. I already had some of Mr. Gregory's other books and I pulled them down - that's when I discovered where I had read some of the stories reprinted in The Darwin Awards. The story about the failed suicide attempt by using nitroglycerin pills and slamming himself against the wall was in "What's the Number for 911?" that came out in 2000!! I ran across other examples of the Darwin Awards using stories previously published by Mr. Gregory but I won't fill up the page with them. Like the other people who made recommendations I too would recommend Mr. Gregory's books like "The Stupid Crook Book," "Hey, Idiot!" and all the rest instead of the Darwin Awards.

The latest book incarnation of the famed "Darwin Awards" by Wendy Northcutt covers the usual assortment of nitwits who offed themselves while doing things worthy of nitwits. An Internet phenomenon now on its third book, The Darwin Awards make for amusing reads for those who possess a little something dark in their humor.

The problem with this third edition is that it simply does not deliver the goods when compared with previous editions. Has the joke worn off or are these examples not all that great? Is Northcutt running low on new material? Perhaps. Maybe a few more years between editions might make for better stories. The filler material in the book is also weak and further illustrates that there is not much here.

Truth is, The Darwin Awards website is better than this book. And since the site costs nothing, skip the book.

I first encountered the Darwin Awards through e-mail. If by chance you haven't heard of them, these awards are bestowed on individuals who remove themselves, or their ability to reproduce, from the gene pool via the performance of an independently verified act that, in the words of Wendy Northcutt, "transcends stupidity." There are "honorable mentions" as well, usually bestowed on those who stop just short of unintentionally killing themselves. Northcutt, who invented the Darwin Awards and has a website dedicated to them, has been compiling the award-winning accounts in annual collections.

Northcutt does not lack for stories. I believe that everyone will be able to relate to at least a couple of these. I actually have two. A gentleman came into my office several years ago wishing to bring a product liability suit against General Motors. He had purchased a van with a new (at the time) feature called "cruise control." The new owner took possession of the vehicle, drove it to I-71 South, and after getting the speed up to 60 or so set the cruise control and, in his words, "laid down to take me a nap," which was soon interrupted when his new purchase met a state-owned guardrail. This unhappy GM customer would not win a Darwin Award because he did not remove himself or his ability to reproduce from the gene pool, but he would almost certainly be considered for an honorable mention. Another gent a few years ago, in an effort to impress upon me the degree and extent of his depression, advised that he had wished to commit suicide. His problem was that he had several .357 caliber bullets, but no corresponding firearm. He accordingly swallowed the bullets and proceeded to hit himself in the stomach with a hammer. It didn't work.

These stories are not in THE DARWIN AWARDS III, though they could have been. If you found those stories interesting, or even hilarious, you will absolutely love pouring through this book. The stories are divided into six classifications: "Law Enforcement: Crime Does Pay," "Men: Omega Male," "Explosions: Short Sharp Shock," "Women: Female Finale," "Technology: Deus Ex Machina," and "Disqualified: Glory Days Gone." The latter chapter consists of stories that were ultimately disqualified from consideration for a Darwin Award but are nonetheless amusing in their own right. As with any story, a great deal of the entertainment is in the telling, and Northcutt has the perfect literary voice for relating these tales of people who get run over by trains while listening for them or the jet ski bandits who are non-recidivists forevermore.

The book is also lovingly and irreverently illustrated, in part by Malcolm McGookin. McGookin drew the devastatingly brilliant cartoon Danger Mouse, among others, and has had his cartoons featured in everything from children's publications to Penthouse. If memory serves, he drew my favorite Penthouse cartoon of all time, which was captioned "She types like a secretary." I'll let you figure it out.

THE DARWIN AWARDS III can be read from cover to cover or picked up and opened at random. Either way, prepare to spend an hour or so with the book each time you open it. It is entertaining, informative and at once inspiring and depressing. Who could ask for more?

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The Darwin Awards create a reason to live for myself. Knowing that there are people out there to lessen competition in life just pleases me. The human race is made up of individuals who are below average (Darwin Awards), average (Honorable Mentions), and above average (those who can write books about these kind of things). For all of those who think that these stories are boring to read by oneself, you should do the following when you are with friends, on a long flight or ride in the car with family, etc.: Take turns passing the book around and reading stories. Merely open the book to random pages and read the passages. This provides several hours of entertainment (On a band trip in Orlando, we did this on the charter bus for the entire week).

The problem this go round is that people are running out of stupid things to do that still make us laugh. I mean the funny parts of this book are still funny but really how many gun explosions, animal attacks, and just plian stupidity can we take? The problem with this idea is that its just not novel anymore(doesn't mean they aren't funny)

Good Idea in this book-I don't know about any of the other guys out there but I got fend up reading Darwin awards and discovering that appently only men do stupid things to get themselves eliminated from the gene pool.

Here for the first time there was a section devoted to the stupid things women had done(however I must admiit that nothing in that section could hold a candle to some of the stupid things men have done)

My own personal favorite in this installment also happens to be the first entry from way back in the 1870s when a trial lawyer(presumably intellegant) who was attempting to prove his client's innocence demonstrated how the murder victim was holding his gun in such a way that the discharge struck him in the face and killed him. He successfully demonstrated this to the jury. However he forgot to unload the evidence(the gun).

Either way he was right.

While the first two editions may have cleared the backlog of some of humanity's more improbable fatal antics, this third in the series still has plenty of delightful, dismaying and depressing stories of human stupidity. Still a good read.

I've never laughed so hard -- I mean, who can't see an accident waiting to happen when you set up 19 deadly booby-traps in your home? What criminal "mastermind" thinks she'll get away with robbing the local bank in her 300-resident community? And the guy who tried to commit suicide by swallowing those little nitroglycerine heart pills, then slamming himself against a wall to make them explode... Do people this stupid really exist? Of course they do, you see them every day, weaving on the road and talking on a cell phone, slowly trying to count out change for their purchase, etc. The Darwin Awards are sweet revenge for all those little annoyances inflicted on us by idiots. Great book, I highly recommend it.

Continuously exibiting "Smart as a box of rocks" can be very entertaining.

5/17/05

The Darwin Awards, Wendy Northcutt, publisher Dutton books

In The Darwin Awards, there are stories about people who either injure themselves very badly or kill themselves in a stupid manner. The genre is nonfiction because this stuff really happened. The Darwin Awards explains the stupidity of some people and has a moral to it- don't remove yourself from the gene pool by doing anything stupid or hurtfull.

This book is a page turner. From stealing tips in a burning resturaunt to wrestling a mature male deer, it's a real funny book. One story mentioned is about a drunk man chasing his half empty beer can out in the middle of a busy freeway and getting hit. Another story told is about a man who throws a grenade at some one and his dog goes and fetches the grenade and brings it back to the man who threw it. Of course, it exploded. Most of the stories consist of a big lack of inteligence, common sense and alot of alcohol.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a very funny story. I would recomend this book because of the funny things people do in real life. This book is great because it's something funny and you can read the Darwin Awards out loud to your family or friends. Have a good laugh and just realize you should be thankfull that you haven't done anthing stupid like some of these people.