The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest Review
Funny, Funny, Funny! And a no brainer. I purchased this for bathroom reading material. Suitable for all ages.
The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest Overview
Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves from it, The Darwin Awards III includes more than one hundred brand new, hilariously macabre mishaps and misadventures.
From a sheriff who inadvertently shot himself twice, to the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw; from a farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag to the man crushed by the branch he just trimmed, The Darwin Awards III proves again that when it comes to stupidity, no species does it like we do.
Featuring scientific and safety discussions and filled with illustrations depicting inspiring examples of evolution in action, The Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is.
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- The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design
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- The Darwin Awards: The Descent of Man
Customer Reviews
Still Improving the Pool - Bu-Chan - Aotearoa
Northcutt's foray into the epic stupidity of some people in their efforts to improve the human species continues with the third installment "The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest". The format basically remains the same as in The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection, (see my review there for a rundown), with discussions introducing each chapter and the same categorisation of stories. In this volume, the Urban Legends are dropped, (wisely so, I thought).
While not as funny as the previous volume overall, there are gems that reduce one to tears of choking laughter, whereas this impact was lacking for me in the previous volume. Generally, this volume is not as funny, but what is very funny is really, really funny indeed. A point in case is "Fuzzy Fights Back", where a guy tries to determine the sex of a bear. I won't say more about the story, but it reduced me to chokes and gasps for oxygen. There are some pearls such as Fuzzy, and they redeem the book from mediocrity.
Again, as I mentioned in my review for The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection, the humour is defintely not everyone's cup of tea, and should be treated with caution by those of more mainstream tastes. However, if laughing at the self-inflicted, unintentional demises of those who sacrifice themselves to the evolutionaary spirit is your thing, you will probably find a good giggle or two in this current installment of The Darwin Awards.
Not bad overall - Ash Ryan - Salt Lake City, Utah
Most of the tales are amusing, several are laugh-out-loud hilarious, but a few border on the tragic/tasteless. Overall, not bad. Worth a read if you're bored and want a good chuckle.
Not worth reading... - Chad Oberholtzer - Boalsburg, PA, USA
When I bought this book at a significant discount, I expected that I would find it moderately charming with lots of funny stories and witty insight about the demise of fools. Quite frankly, the stories were not funny and the insight was not witty.
I agree with other reviewers that the rules and regulations in the book was ridiculously cumbersome. This book just takes itself way too seriously. I don't care how the stories were selected, so much as I'd like to read stories that were interesting.
I haven't read any previous editions of "The Darwin Awards," so I cannot attest to the suggestion that the well is running dry. I will simply state that I found many of the anecdotes to be far from fascinating, many of them downright boring. And at the end of the day, I just have a hard time laughing at the death of humans, regardless of the stupid choices that they may have made to bring about their demise.
Ultimately, I chose not to give it one star because the book did provide what it promised. I probably should have known that this type of supposed humor just wouldn't resonate with me. Nonetheless, I found the book to be cold and stale, and I now have no interest in investigating anything further from this perspective.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 27, 2010 13:30:05
