Rating: 
Summary: Possibly funny, but childish
Review: The concept for the Darwin Awards is flawless. Think about it: the colected stories of people whose utter lack of common sense brought about their own demise. One cannot imagine these "sublimely idiotic" people as having much of a positive contribution to society. This book is proof that God has a sense of humor.
I wish Wendy Northcutt had. Her writing is childish and silly, making light of events that could be funny in the right context. She writes as though she is explaining the whole thing to small children, and trying to impress them with big words. I will make no corny puns about the author having not evolved (that sounds like something Northcutt would write), but I quiver at the thought of meeting the loyal fans of her website and book.
Pick the book up at your bookstore. Flip through, read some of the stories (I recommend "JATO," "One, Two, Three, Heave," and "Living on Zionist Time."). However, if you find yourself laughing at every single one, please stay away from my house.
Rating: 
Summary: The Darwin Awards
Review: The Darwin Awards Plume Books, 2000, 308 pp., $6.99
Wendy Northcutt ISBN: 0-452-28344-2
"Only two things in this world are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein. Einstein said it all; humans can be stupid. Do you know about the darwin awards? These awards are handed out to idiots who do really stupid things. This book has a ton of short stories about idiots who either something really dumb or die trying. It's full of awards, honorable mentions, personal accounts, and urban legends. If you want to read something funny then read The Darwin Awards.
I think that anyone that would want a good laugh between the ages of nine and up would like this book. This book is only good for laughs, though there are some parts where there is an explanation or two on how something happened in the passage. On a scale of one to ten I rate it an eight. I rated it an eight, because it's one of the funniest books I've read, but that's all it is.-Ryan Scott
Rating:
Summary: dark humor but gives you stories to talk about at parties
Review: At first I thought this book was going to be very funny. Or at least give me stories to share with my friends. The book even warns in the beginning not to read it like a regular book but rather to read a story here and there. So at first it was interesting to see how people do stupid things but after a while it got dark and depressing because everyone in the book must die of their stupidity to be eligiable for the book. The book was good in the way that it verified all stories so you know they are true. But this book is not for the faint at heart. This book would be great for that family member that we all have who has that dark cynical quirky sense of humor. Well I hope we all have one and I am not the only one who has one lol. It did give me some stories to tell at parties and social occasions.
Rating:
Summary: Documented Gallows Humor
Review: Before describing this book, let me just say that if you do not find death and mutilation humorous, avoid this book. If you find fatal mishaps funny, you will enjoy the book greatly. In fact, this has to be the best book ever written about stupid ways to die and lose fertility. Anyone will feel smarter and better about themselves after reading these stories! This book is about "celebrating self-removal of incompetent genetic material for the human race." In essence, the book proves that "common sense is not so common." The book's premise is very well framed to put you in a humorous mood. The idea is that when people do stupid things that get them killed or keep them from having children, they thus perform a service by improving the gene pool for the remaining humans. Ms. Northcutt uses many witty quotes to emphasize this point, and establishes the mood well. She has rules for these awards. To win the Darwin Award, you must (1) die or be unable to procreate, (2) show really bad judgment, (3) cause your own downfall, (4) have the ability to use sound judgment (are not permanently mentally impaired) and (5) have the incident verified by someone else. If you don't meet all these tests, you can still get an honorable mention, or be described as an urban legend or a personal account. I thought these distinctions made good sense, because the story's focus and credibility weighs heavily on the interest it creates for the reader drawn to this subject. The stories are grouped around themes: comeuppances with animals, problems with relatives, criminal misadventures, problems with fire and explosives, fatal falls, military goofs, macho errors, unsafe sex, watery deaths, and genital-related stories. Some stories could have fit into four or more categories, so it must have been a challenge to fit everything into a group. Here are a few of my favorite stories: The couple who crashed their car driving at 80 miles an hour while having sex totally nude at the same time. The chicken that fell down a well and was saved after six people drowned in the process. The man who crushed out his cigarette in a pail of explosives, blowing them and him up. The ex-firefighter arsonist who died while starting the fire that was designed to make him a hero so he could get his old job back. The couple who left their car and went for a stroll amidst the tigers in an wild animal park, and served as tiger meat. The man who threw his wife out the window where she stuck in some wires. He then jumped after her, missed the wires, and died. She was saved. Three guys to stole a large pig, and strapped it in their truck. The pig's thrashing caused the truck to crash, and the three men died because they hadn't attached their own seat belts. The pig survived. The man found nude, dead of hypothermia, in a killer whale pool at an amusement park. The thief who had tilted a Coke machine to shake a free bottle out, and was crushed when the machine fell on him. The woman who died of hypothermia and dehydration in a tent after starting a 21 day spiritual cleansing diet intended to free her from needing to eat food or drink liquids. She would get all of her nutrition from the atmosphere instead. You start with no food or water for 7 days, then go 14 days with only sips of water, then take nothing. Hmmm. I rated the book down one star, though, because a lot of the seeming stupidity was probably related to partial accidents in stupid circumstances rather than complete intention. I found many of the stories possibly mischaracterized in this way. For example, one story has a man using electric current to kill fish. He then ends up in the pond (described as going in to get the fish) and dies from the current. Now, you can read that as not realizing that electric current could kill him, or you can read that as he accidentally fell overboard before turning the current off. Now, in either case, I don't recommend this as a way to fish, but the story doesn't ring true as the "funny" story it is portrayed to be. I also suspect that a lot of these stories have an unreported connection to alcohol or substance abuse. The verification in many cases is after the fact or is in a publication (which may have an incentive to "improve" the stories to make them better, and sell more issues), which probably adds to the tendency for "stupidity" bias in the interpretations. After you finish having a good laugh, I suggest that you consider how you may put yourself into a dangerous situation that could make you a candidate for this award. For example, do you ever drive or pilot a plane while under the influence? Do you ever go near open windows in high places when you are unsteady? I suspect that most of us have some foolishness that we need to eliminate if we want to avoid these awards. In my case, I think I need to be more careful when using equipment. I tend to go the fast route, rather than the safest one. I'm going to slow down and be safer in the future. May all of your "hang man" experiences be on paper!
Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed this book!
Review: Wendy Northcutt has done a great job of cutting the urban legends out and providing the reader with a nuts and bolts, "this really happened, so be afraid" kind of book! Please don't buy this book thinking it has anything to do with Darwinism. . . I hesitate to add that, but according to a friend at a book store, there have actually been people that held this belief. This book is about the odd, humorous and often bizarre ways that people, which should likely have been taken out of the gene pool anyway, have offed themselves (or come close to it). You will wonder if what you are reading is true, but Northcutt is careful to be VERY specific in the details, should you decide to check them out yourself! In the case of urban legends (stories of things that happened to your brother's girlfriend's Uncle's third cousin) Northcutt has included some that you've probably heard, and some that are regionally specific. (Yes, the man that tied balloons to a lawn chair and drifted thousands of feet in the air is true. . . The guy that strapped a rocket to his car-wheelchair-bike is not) Buy this book for humor value, if nothing else. I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Stupid deaths or stupid reading???
Review: Let me start by saying that I love black humor. If not, I would not had purchase this book. So it is not a matter of being "tenderheart" or "without sense of humor". The thing is that this book is simply not funny. I used to read the Darwin Awards e-mails until I noticed the abundance of urban legends and that once an award "honored" an eight years child that died in an accident. Browsing the book in a bookstore, I found that these two flaws were attended: 1) Urban legends were identified as such 2) Children are no longer elegible, as "stupidity" and "ignorance" are two complete different attributes. Well, I purchased the book, and now I am sorry. Here are some of the weak points: 1) Many of the stories does not qualify as "Darwin Awards", but just stories of plain stupidity (like a burglar that selected a team of olimpics runner as victim) 2) In some stories innocent people die, and still that is supposed to be funny. It will be like laughing of somebody who died while drunk-driving, even if he killed innocent people. 3) Too many stories are "urban legends", dubious "personnel accounts" and "honorable mentions" (just tales of stupidity and close calls with death). By example, of the first 60 stories, 26 fall into these categories. 4) The stories are funny when there is some poetic justice, as in the case of macho behaviors (like the guy who opposed to treat a cobra bite because he can take it "like a man") or people who think that they are smarter than the rest (the guy who electrocuted the fishes in the river, and then proceeded to collect the fishes without removing the electrical cables). These stories are the exception. Most of them are simply momentary bad judgement. However, I enjoyed the author's description of the evolution theory, the educative notes added to some of the stories, and information regarding the controversies arised by some of the stories. If you have read the other reviews, you will notice readers are strongly divided regarding this book. This is obviously a matter of tastes. I suggest you visit their official site before you make a decision.
Rating:
Summary: Mean-spirited
Review: This book pours salt on the wounds of bereaved families.-That's all I want to say. But Amazon says I have say what I want to say in several sentences rather than one sentence for this review to be posted. So here's some chatter. I don't think this book is a great book. I don't think there is kindness or humility in this book.-But you can decide on that yourself. What I want to say is that this book pours salt on the wounds of bereaved families.
Rating:
Summary: The Darwin Awards
Review: The Darwin Awards Plume Books, 2000, 308 pp., $6.99
Wendy Northcutt ISBN: 0-452-28344-2
"Only two things in this world are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein. Einstein said it all; humans can be stupid. Do you know about the darwin awards? These awards are handed out to idiots who do really stupid things. This book has a ton of short stories about idiots who either something really dumb or die trying. It's full of awards, honorable mentions, personal accounts, and urban legends. If you want to read something funny then read The Darwin Awards.
I think that anyone that would want a good laugh between the ages of nine and up would like this book. This book is only good for laughs, though there are some parts where there is an explanation or two on how something happened in the passage. On a scale of one to ten I rate it an eight. I rated it an eight, because it's one of the funniest books I've read, but that's all it is. -Ryan Scott
Rating: 
Summary: Some funny moments but I had hoped for better
Review: This book takes a look at human stupidity which either results in the stupid one's demise or at least sterilises them so that they can not reproduce. A lot of the tales in here are not confirmed and are written under urban legends. I have actually heard most of the urban legends before, some told a lot more funnier than in here. They are pretty funny though for example the scuba diver who was scooped up by a fire fighting plane and dumped on the middle of a fire. This book is divided up into eleven sections which group together deaths under specific headings. Unfortunately the writer seems to like to waffle on with boring introductions to each chapter. Obviously they have good research and collating skills but not such a good writing ability when it comes to being creative off thier own bat. You also have to get to page 32 before even getting to the first death tale which is a bit ridiculous. This is a good read but a bit of a let down. If you buy it expecting a few laughs you'll be satisfied but if you expect to be laughing your head off from cover to cover then maybe purchase something else. I've been told the sequels are a lot better, and this book was good enough to tempt me to read them and find out.
Rating:
Summary: Funny at times
Review: Charles Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest" implies, by extension, that idiots will die, thus the premise of this humorous volume. Wendy Northcutt has compiled a series of anecdotes of fatal stupidity, from the drunken pilot who took off with a gust lock in place to the prison guard falling through a skylight as he "supervised" conjugal visits. Many of these stories involve alcohol, which is not so much stupidity as it impairment. The story of a man awakened in the middle of the night by a phone and mistaking his bedside gun for a receiver speaks less of a lack of intelligence than it does nighttime confusion. Other anecdotes are truly hilarious in their lack of common sense. A person must die to be awarded a Darwin Award, so these stories aren't for the fainthearted. They have all been carefully documented to avoid inclusions of urban legends. Unfortunately, as a whole, the book is simply not as funny as the individual stories I used to receive in my inbox. Too many borderline anecdotes are included. Although this book makes a good gift for those who revel in the stupidity of others, don't expect laughs on every page.
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