Top 10 Most Absurdly Ridiculous Ig Nobel Prize Winners
You may have heard of Nobel Prizes - awards that are given to people who made significant contributions to society. But did you know that the Nobel Prize has an opposite side? You got it right, The Ig Nobel Prize. While it may be not the exact opposite, these prizes are awarded for unusual works that "first make people laugh, and then make them think". This list shows some of the most ridiculous works from people that were awarded by the Ig Nobel Prize.This guy was pretty concerned about luxury cars that were parked illegally. So in 2011, he decided to demonstrate a highly intelligent solution: those pesky luxury cars can be run over by tanks to eliminate that problem. Thanks for the life hack, Arturas.
I think the point of the prize is for ridiculousness, and this definitely achieves that.
Responsible for the study of Murphy's Law. If you're wondering why toast tends to fall butter-side down, there's scientific work that specifically explains the belief of the buttered toast phenomenon. Robert Matthews was one of the first people to put his emphasis into such a niche.
Normally, you would ignore some of the things you dislike or find as pet peeves, but this guy took it to the polar opposite, writing research papers on the things he finds annoying with intricate detail. John Trinkaus is known for publishing almost a hundred academic papers on things he dislikes. Research papers include:
- "How many people pay for the candles in churches"
- "What percentage of pedestrians wear sports shoes that are white rather than some other color"
- "How many people wear baseball caps with the bill facing backwards"
- "How often do drivers come to a complete stop at stop signs"
For trying to answer an extremely specific question on why discus throwers become dizzy and why hammer throwers don't. You may conclude that nobody would care about this topic, but look at the bright side! At least there's that one guy who has wondered about this question for years.
Other winners who participated in this research include Dominique Deviterne, Bruno Ragaru, Cyril Perrot, and Herman Kingma.
In 2007, the United States Air Force Wright Laboratory received the Ig Nobel Prize for proposing the idea of a "gay bomb" (composed of pheromones) which would make their opponents become sexually attracted to the same gender. However, there have been no proven studies regarding pheromones that change human behavior, so the actual bomb was not created.
Well, at least now I know that in World War IV, wars will be fought with balls and boners.
Responsible for the creation of an "electromechanical teenager repellant," or in short, "The Mosquito," in 2005. The device produces a sound that is only audible to teenagers and young adults. Originally, it was used for reducing loitering and vandalism, but it was criticized for violating the human rights of young people.
Otherwise, this seems like an ideal device for boomers to get rid of those pesky whippersnappers. Howard Stapleton received the Ig Nobel prize just a year after his invention.
Some people take very simple questions with pretty complex answers, and that question is "why do people sigh." Apparently, there's a multi-paragraph article written by Teigen in early 2008 that answers that question, but you're better off reading those sighs with intuition. This led him to win the Ig Nobel Prize in 2011.
Awarded for stating that plants and other organisms have dignity. Way to go on solving the root problem of plant abuse! Might as well ban soaps and other detergents because they kill organisms and bacteria that deserve to be respected.
Be grateful that at least your overly religious parents don't make mathematical calculations to determine if you're going to hell or not. This church takes it to the next level. Inspecting county by county, the church concluded that 46% of Alabamians will go to hell if they don't repent to Christ.
Responsible for conducting research on the best way to dunk a biscuit in tea. Well, at least we found the most British research paper on this list.
In my opinion, not at all is the best option. Biscuits are better by themselves.
Won an Ig Nobel Prize for levitating a frog with magnets. Interestingly, unlike most Ig Nobel Prize winners, he won a Nobel Prize for his major work on graphene.