I love everything about the Ig Nobel Prize Awards. Their motto is “Achievements that make people laugh, then think” – which is sort of the best thing ever, right?
So I’m going to give a run-down of all the past winners, broken up into completely arbitrary categories of my own sleep-deprived choosing.
I Would’ve Loved to be at That IRB Meeting
2006: ”Termination of Intractable Hiccups by Digital Rectal Massage” (A strangely popular concept.)
2005: The invention of Neuticles: Fake Testicles for Neutered Dogs.
2002: ”Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture“
2001: “Injuries Due To Falling Coconuts” (Published in The Journal of Trauma! Which is apparently a thing!)
1999: ”Collecting, cataloging, and contemplating” the different types of containers patients use for urine samples. (Out of 164 samples, the best is definitely the roll-on deodorant.)
1995: ”The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition“
I Would Totally Read That Study
2007: The side-effects of swallowing swords. (For example, the gag reflex is a problem.)
2004: The Effect of Country Music on Suicide. (Money quote: ”The greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate.”)
2000: “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal.” (What? And you wouldn’t? C’mon, it’s an MRI.)
Useful Info with Funny Titles
2010: Symptoms of asthma can be alleviated by riding on rollercoasters.
2008: Expensive placebos work better than inexpensive placebos
2003: The hippocampi of London taxi drivers are more highly developed. (I have been to London, and I am not surprised by this.)
1998: The Man who Pricked His Finger and Smelt Putrid for Five Years.
1997: Listening to Muzak stimulates your immune system
1993: ”Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis“
That’s Dedication
2009: Donald Unger, an allergist/immunologist, won the Medicine prize for personally investigating the claim that knuckle-cracking causes arthritis by cracking the knuckles of only one hand, daily, for six decades.
And finally:
Nice Try
1996: Presented to tobacco company scientists for “their unshakeable discovery, as revealed in sworn testimony to the U.S. Congress, that nicotine is not addictive.”
