| PRODUCT DETAILS | | The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection |  | |
The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection
Welcome to the next evolution in humor. In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection brings together a fresh collection of magnificent misadventures, honoring those who continue to improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in a sublimely idiotic fashion. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Heed the story of the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own "strange and unusual passion for jumping into rivers." And watch Darwin Award winners selflessly join the ongoing fight against the seven deadly sins as lust, vanity, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy and wrath all exact their evolutionary toll on the overindulgent. Featuring science and safety discussions designed to aid those vigilant enough to avoid the scythe of natural selection, and including the most inspiring dozen Darwin Awards from the last century, this new compendium of serious humor and cautionary tales -- verified by the author and endorsed by website readers -- shows us anew how uncommon sense can be.
Manufacturer: Listen & Live Audio
Price: $5.95
 The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection
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| User Reviews |  | Gallows Humor
rating: 4
What a funny book! It was fun reading this aloud to my husband and my coworkers. I know we've all done stupid things in our lives but some of these people, my Lord! A question I kept asking was, "what happened to these people's survival instinct?" "Didn't they want to live?"
This book is full of stupid actions forever immortalized on paper and now in my mind. While a couple of stories made me wince, in sympathy for the family and friends these people left behind, most of them are laugh out funny.
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Darwin Works Overtime
rating: 4
The Darwin Awards are not everyone's idea of a good laugh, especially if you happen, by some chance, to have some personal connection with the heroes who have sacrificed themselves and their genes to the betterment of the human species. However, if your humour leans to the macabre and darker side of things, this might just be what you need.
To qualify for a Darwin, one basically needs to remove oneself from the human gene pool. This is possible in two ways: death or the removal of all possibility to reproduce, (thereby taking your own genes out of contention). There are other criteria, such as accidents, the monumental failure of judgement and the more vague "excellence". Basically, suicides, freak accidents and trusting so-called "qualified" advice, would not be chosen for a Darwin.
The book itself has three main categories of stories that run throughout the chapters: the Darwin Awards themselves, Honourable Mentions, (where the person has not been removed from the gene pool, but deserves a mention for meeting other criteria), and Personal Accounts. There are also some Urban Legends included, which I thought were a bit superfluous. The chapters are divided into methods and are each introduced with some discussion on a related topic, (in itself interesting for the most part, but unnecessary to the overall enjoyment of the book). For example, in "Men", there is a discussion called "Online Safety".
The stories themselves vary in the humour factor, some being uproarously funny and others being faintly amusing. A favourite was "Envy Flames of Passion", where a revenge fire went horribly wrong: the perpetrator forgot to plan an escape from the flames. Such stories are written by the author and some do seem to lack that certain something that would make them truly hilarious. Others are better written and hit the mark very well. It can be a bit "hit and miss" through this book.
I have to confess that the book appealed to my somewhat basic sense of humour and I had a good laugh at some of the really stupid things people have done in the mistakenly sincere belief that they have a remote chance of survival. With some cautions about the nature of the humour itself, I would recommend it to those with darker tastes.
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overhyped a bit?
rating: 3
The Darwin Awards is a creative concept, but I'm not sure this book is written all that well or in that funny of a manner. I haven't read the other books in this series, so I can't compare it with them, but I didn't get that many laughs out of this one. And heck, maybe there's something wrong with you if you are getting laughs out of other people dying, whether they're dangling from a hanglider with a chainsaw in hand or what have you. I will say that some of the anecdotes are pretty funny, but the humor seemed a bit hit or miss. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.
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SOOOO FUNNY
rating: 5
This book was funnier than the first one. It just made me laugh and laugh. I could never put it down. I took it with me everywhere I went just so that I could read another story of what someone did that was stupid. It is so funny to me of how dumb some people can be. They dont even think about what they are doing before they do it. Like one lady who was mad at her ex-lover so she pulled out a knife and stabbed him. The worst part was that he was piloting the plane they were in. She did not think that one through. That is not even the funniest of stories that they have in the book. This will be the best book that you ever buy.
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Unintelligent Designs
rating: 5
In a media atmosphere that values balance - that is the unfiltered broadcast of diametrically opposing views - there is a need for a voice that seprates the truth from the chaff. Wendy Northcutt and her Darwin Awards team is one of those voices.
Northcutt presents confirmed incidents, known urban legends and personal accounts (all carefully dated, labeled and annotated) to form a highly readable and very entertaining gumbo of the lunacy of human beings. The Darwin Awards, of course, are given to those who have improved the human gene pool by removing themselves from it. The stupider, more unlikely and bizarre the manner, the better.
From the guy who played Russian Roulette (with deadly results) to impress girls, to the guy who literally lost his head looked down a malfunctioning fireworks tube, to the Egyptian shepherd shot by one of his own flock, the examples of human carelessness, arrogance and stupidity just keep coming.
Northcutt is doing a real public service; not only helping the rest of us separate fact from fancy, but (hopefully) teaching her readers that being careful is not just prudent but can help them keep their heads.
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The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection
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