Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tuesday Tropes: The Darwin Award


Flynn parked his bike by the coffee shop and proceeded down the street. A young woman catches his eye. He turns around and walks backwards, just so he can check her out, oblivious to the curb only feet away and the bus that's about to turn around the corner ...

*Warning: This post is loaded with dark humor*

Named after the famous Charles Darwin who coined the phrase Natural Selection, The Darwin Award is the "award" given to someone who meets their demise through complete carelessness, thoughtlessness, or good old fashioned stupidity. Most of these incidents are accidents, but they are often regarded by society as easily avoidable and general common sense. There's even a real award given each year of the same name for those unfortunate to die in various ways.

This tends to be a sight gag favorable to comedies in movies and television. They do make brief appearances in literature. Don't expected victims to be main/supporting characters, like in The Other Guys. What do you do when the bad guy zip-lines from the highrise you're on? Aim for the bushes! Makes sense ...



At other times, a character may have too much on their mind and forget things, like running with explosives is not a good idea ...



You can be a smart person, or even a famous person, and still fall victim to this infamous award. Word for the wise ... I wouldn't recommend acting like a zombie during a zombie apocalypse ...


There really are incalculable ways of going about this trope, but given the low percentage of actual occurrences, it would be wise to use this trope as equally rarely, or if it serves a purpose (humor and shock value, mostly). If tastefully done, it can make for an unexpected twist of fate. Whichever way you go, just be sure to be safe out there.

Ever given The Darwin Award to one of your characters? How did the poor soul meet their demise? This is a dark post, isn't it?

I'm David, and there are SOOOO many dumb ways to die ...


13 comments:

  1. Our newspaper used to feature a daily Darwin Award recipient. Sometimes those people are so dumb you wonder how they made it this far.

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  2. I almost won myself a Darwin award this year. At some point I'm sure I'll follow through and actually win it.

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  3. Wile E Coyote made it look natural though, didn't he?

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  4. Haha! Now you've got that "dumb ways to die" tune stuck in my head! :D

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  5. You should have included a clip of "Zoolander" where the guys at the end are playing with the gasoline at the gas station and laughing while spraying each other down and boom!

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  6. Never used this one. Although like Michael, I totally thought of Zoolander. Haha.

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  7. Reader's Digest had an article on this a few months ago, and I was simply floored by the way some of the folks died. Funny videos, by the way.

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  8. Where I live, you can always tell a potential Darwin winner by his last words - "Hey, ya'll, watch this!"

    And is it wrong I laughed when the guy exploded?

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  9. The Other Guys clip had me scratching my head. I had to google the movie to figure out what was going on! (And I'm still not sure I get it.)

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  10. The Darwin Award is certainly one I wouldn't want to reach for in life lol! I don't think I've used this in my writing. My writing tends to be a little dark so I suppose a bit of dark humor could be added with something like this.

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  11. OH MY GOSH!!! You cracketh me upeth. I have never used this troupe but it sounds like a prime way to bring a crazy twist into a one of my stories.

    Ok, I loved loved loved the running with explosives one. Totally unexpected. I had to watch it about five times but I was still LOL!

    Thanks for the great post, David.

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  12. I've heard of the Darwin awards. Sometimes I'm amazed the human race has continued.

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  13. writers are die hards...
    only the strong survive!

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