Darwin Awards

[Bryson]

What do you think about the type of humour the site provides? Basically it pays a tribute to dumb people that contribute to the genetic evolution of the human race by eliminating themselves from the gene poll.

Race To The Bottooommm

(5 September 2009, Oregon) Jake reached the summit of Saddle Mountain, and then and there he informed his friends that he planned to make a controlled slide down the cliff face. He would meet up with them in the parking lot or on the trail below.
Some folks are satisfied with the risks and rewards of dune sliding, and the chance of a 150-foot broken-limb tumble. Not Jake. The 18-year-old decided to 'git-r-dun' down a thousand-foot cliff, instead. He slid pell-mell down the escarpment--and what was intended to be a controlled rockslide ended abruptly 1000 feet below the summit, when his body came to rest in a steep ravine.

Friends were shocked. "We are shocked," they said, "because he is always doing stuff like this and coming out smiling."

Reader Comments:
"What a downer."
"Why daredevils don't live long."
"Rocky Mountain Low."

 

[420MuNkEy]

"The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." - Horace Walpole

 

[Bryson]

"The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." - Horace Walpole

Makes sense.

Seems INTPs can relate. I wonder what the Fs would think about that. Speak up, Fs.

 

[Causeless]

I love you Munkey.

 

[Jennywocky]

All tragedy contains humor, all humor contains tragedy.

I can't really separate the two; I just try to be sensitive who I really say stuff like this around since I know some people have issues with it. My laughing at the absurdity of the darkness is simply because the juxtaposition is deliciously ironic to me, not because I want to upset someone.

I've actually found a number of INFx's who laugh at dark humor too, although they seem even more sensitive about who they say things around most of the time.

 

[crippli]

Na. I try not to make fun of stupidity. There is a fine line between genius and retard. Worried I will bite my own hand.

And I'm not overly sure who is the dumb ones, the ones who eliminate themselves from the genepool, or those contributing to it. I'll have to figure out this first before I decide on the side that is funny.

But I can see the irony if one removes oneself from the gene pool in an attempt to contribute on it. Then I don't think I will give them credit(although it's still not clear what one should give credit for).

 

[Cosmic]

I find this KIND of humor funny, but not when it involves real people and actual incidents. TOO MUCH.

 

[Minuend]

I don't really find it humorous. I'm not offended by it tho.

 

[Zionoxis]

Is there an option stating you pondered why it was meant to be funny and ended up not laughing simply due to that? Afterwards, you realized that the joke was simply to laugh at a person acting like an idiot on a cliff. I was looking for some symbolic meaning which I was unable to find.

 

[GunsNDoses]

Any sort of death should not be a laughing matter, sorry about being strict and all. Ever thought about the victim's family and friends? People can do stupid things, but that can yield devastating consequences. These people were just unlucky. I'm not the nicest person you'll come across but I find this sort of humor sickening and immature. Would people still laugh when this sort of thing happens to someone they are close? I doubt it.

 

[dark]

@GunsNDoses, It is better to laugh than to become sad and live under negative emotions for a prolonged period of time.

I didn't "laugh out loud" but I found it slightly humorous when the friends were "shocked!" As if a rock slide would have a better outcome, has anyone ever watched "Man vs Wild," when Bear must do something similar but is freaking out because he knows the dangers and talks about how deadly it is and how many times he almost died coming down?

I do believe people should be given awards for opting out of the gene pool if they can only contribute stupidity like this .

"In honors of stupid victim no. 90219383 for opting out of the gene pool for the benefit of the human species, may we always be thankful for people so heroic as this, their contributions to progress will be gladly received."

 

[GunsNDoses]

"It is better to laugh than to become sad and live under negative emotions for a prolonged period of time."

Yes, but I sure don't think it's a good idea to tell the family members and friends to just "laugh it off". LOL

They never "opt-out", the choice was never presented in the premise. The people were being stupid, sure, but you cannot interpret this as "Okay, I'm opting-out of the gene pool".

Also, smart people can do stupid things too.

 

[dark]

Very true, all types of people opt out all the time .

 

[Hadoblado]

I like the concept of the Darwin awards, but I don't find them funny very often. There just aren't enough funny or unlikely deaths goin' round.

 

[EditorOne]

No one suggests telling the family to laugh it off. Proximity to the people involved would of course change the context for anyone.

What we who do not personally know the victims find amazing, if not humorous, is the utter inability of some people to connect cause with effect, especially on such a basic issue as the inexorable effects of gravity. We say "What was he THINKING?" and of course the answer is "Well, he wasn't really doing what we'd recognize as thinking, was he?"

One of the redneck comedians once had a spiel on "famous last words" by rednecks. My favorite was "Hey, watch this!" This cliff diver appears to drop right into that category.

The same act under other circumstances is horrifying. There's a mountain in North Carolina shaped like a loaf of bread, flat on top gradually curving to sheer drops. They've even got a yellow line painted on it to mark where the curve starts to be dangerous. People do slip, though, with lethal consequences, and their unintentional deaths definitely come through to me as horrific tragedies.

 

[GunsNDoses]

The point of the comment was that deriving utility of someone else's misfortune is distasteful. The context you speak of is irrelevant given the premise.

 

[Chimera]

I'm all for dark humor. Babies in blenders and all that.
I can't even say that it's the real death that bothers me, because I've laughed (unintentionally) at real death before. There's just something...off about this site, in my opinion. I mean, there's nothing more to it than just "here's a person who died from stupidity." The blanket Darwin joke is amusing though...just not the specific cases.
​

 

[Lostwitheal]

The point of the comment was that deriving utility of someone else's misfortune is distasteful. The context you speak of is irrelevant given the premise.

Isn't humour in its' entirety pretty much purely based on the misfortune of someone or something...?

Are you saying you don't have a sense of humour?

 

[EditorOne]

"The point of the comment was that deriving utility of someone else's misfortune is distasteful."

It is? I missed the memo on that. I did get the one on schadenfreude, though.

 

[jlive]

I think it's funny, and when it happens in real life I call it Population Control.