Book

Grim reading

Book shows the darker side of comedy

By Suwitcha Chaiyong

Did you Know: In 1977, Elvis Presley died while he was sitting on the toilet after an accidental drug overdose.

Title: The Darwin Awards 3
Author: Various
Distributor: Asia Books
Price: 395 baht

For those not in the know, the Internet-based Darwin Awards are named after Charles Darwin, who proposed that only the strongest and smartest members of a species survive, which strengthens the species as a whole. Therefore, human beings who kill or injure themselves out of stupidity are actually helping the rest of the human race evolve.

This brings us to The Darwin Awards 3, which is essentially a collection of short stories about people who died or got seriously hurt because of their own stupidity. The line on page 38 � �Death comes to all men, but some just can�t wait� � pretty much describes the overall tone of the book.

STRANGE BUT (USUALLY) TRUE

The book describes incidents ranging from a man who cut off his own leg with a chainsaw to collect insurance money through to someone who was crushed by a vending machine. Sent from readers across the world, some stories have factual references and are labelled �confirmed,� while others that have no factual back-up are labelled �bogus.�

Most certainly, some of the stories show how silly people can be, but the comedy is grim. Is it really funny that a guy shot himself twice just to see what it felt like? No, it�s madness and quite scary. However, the thirst for gruesome stories and the urge to laugh at the less-fortunate has resulted in this, the third volume of the series, so many readers out there clearly enjoy real black comedy.

Vocabulary

evolve (v): to develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complicated form
chainsaw (n): a tool made of a chain with sharp teeth set in it, that is driven by a motor and used for cutting wood
vending machine (n): a machine from which you can buy cigarettes, drinks, etc. by putting coins into it
bogus (adj): pretending to be real or genuine
grim (adj): unpleasant and depressing
gruesome (adj): very unpleasant and filling you with horror, usually because it is connected with death or injury
black comedy (n): dealing with unpleasant or terrible things, such as murder, in a humorous way