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Darwin Awards
1994 Darwin Awards
Email a Friend Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Next Prev Random

A Breathtaking View
1994 Darwin Award Nominee
Unconfirmed by Darwin

Darwin is seeking confirmation of this story.

(1989, South Africa) Downtown Johannesburg is continuously growing with the construction of modern new buildings. One such building was designed with a steel framework, intended to be clad in glass as a final touch.

On the eighteenth floor, an engineer was inspecting the framework. He asked one of the workers to stand on a scaffold that was projecting through an open space where the glass panel would soon be mounted. With the worker acting as a counterweight, the engineer walked out onto the scaffold, checked the exterior, and came back in to continue his inspection.

After the engineer left, curiosity got the better of the worker. He walked out on the scaffold to see what the engineer was looking at...

Fortunately the falling worker did not take out any pedestrians!

The worker removed himself from the gene pool out of sheer stupidity. But one does wonder whether that engineer is blithely continuing to ask trusting people to act as counterweights without explaining his reason, and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake!

ORIGINAL SUBMISSION

Reader Comments:
"Curiosity killed the cat!"
"Uhhhh what was he looking at?"
"When engineers assume others are thinking the same thing."

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2008
Reference: Eyewitness account of person who was on lunch break when he saw the man fall.

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Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest

Hardback. 304 pages. Autographed.
$15
The human race's most popular humor series returns with a brand-new collection of macabre mishaps and misadventures. Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves from it, the Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is.

Salute the sheriff who inadvertently shot himself--twice! Witness the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw! Heed the story of the farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag! Cringe at the man crushed by a branch he'd just severed... directly over his head!

123 new stories, 18 full-page illustrations, plus discussions of transgenic animals, the origin of life, and more.

Autographed by Author!

 


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