23 Weird Awards - mental_floss on YouTube - List Show (246)

Hi, I'm Paige. Welcome to the salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube

And did you know that every year the state of Vermont hosts the odor eaters rotten sneaker contest

The competition is for kids between the ages of 5 and 15, and all you have to do to win is have the smelliest shoes

The judges take how worn the shoes are into consideration as well. And the winner receives $2500

And that's the first of many of the weird awards you can win that I'm going to tell you about today

You've probably heard of the Darwin Awards, which honor people who have removed themselves

from the human gene pool by either dying or self-sterilizing in a ridiculous way

Then of course, there are the Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, which honor the worst films

of the year. Typically, winners don't accept their awards in person, but a couple stars have, like Sandra

Bullock, who won Worst Actress for All About Steve, and Halle Berry for Catwoman

This role has Oscar written all over it. Every year, James Randi gives out the Pegasus Award

Randy has become a famous skeptic of the paranormal after retiring from his career in magic as

the Amazing Randy at the age of 60. The winner of the Pigasus Award is whoever Randy considers to be a parapsychological fraud

Similarly, the group Australian Skeptics has been giving out the Bent Spoon Award since 1982

According to the group the award is presented to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle If you love magic though don worry The Merlin Awards are given out by the International Magicians Society for achievements in the field

Past winners include David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, and Criss Angel. Then, of course, there are the Psychic of the Year Awards, given out by the Australian Psychics Association

They're voted on by the members of the association, which makes me wonder, why do they even vote if they can predict the winner

Every year, the website WeLoveThisBook gives a book the Diagram Prize for Oddest Title

Past winners have included How to Avoid Huge Ships, Goblin Proofing One's Chicken Coop

and Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers. The Bad Sex in Fiction Award is another self-explanatory one

It's given out every year by the Literary Review. In 2010, author Rowan Somerville won for a scene in his book The Shape of Her

He accepted his award, saying, There is nothing more English than bad sex

So on behalf of the nation, I thank you. The Golden Collar Awards are like the dog version of the Academy Awards

can win for being the best in one of five entertainment categories, theatrical film

foreign film, television series, reality television series, and direct to DVD films

Since 1903, the Tour de France has acknowledged the Lantern Rouge, the person who comes in

last place. The distinction is named for the red lantern that typically hangs on the caboose

of a train. Historically, this person has made so much money for doing appearances after

the race that people actually have competed for last place Speaking of trains the trade Journal Modern Railroad has been giving out a Railroader of the Year award since 1964 It given to an excellent worker in the industry

And the trade journal Railway Age gives out the Regional Railroad of the Year award for

railroads with particularly good customer service and innovation. Basically, if you feel like your profession doesn't have enough awards, look into the

railroad industry. Another very specific award, the Food Photographer of the Year award

They take applications and had over 5,500 of them in 2013. The cool part? The competition partners with charities like Action Against Hunger

In 2003, Cabinet Magazine held a contest for the most phallic building. Here are some of

the nominees. But the winner was the Ypsilanti Water Tower. The Bad Writing Competition is run by the Journal of Philosophy and Literature. People

nominate one or two sentences of bad writing from either a scholarly book or journal. Then

the heads of the publication choose winners. Similarly, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest asks people to write the worst opening sentence

for a novel they can think of. It's held by the English department at San Jose State

University. Bulwer-Lytton, by the way, wrote the novel Paul Clifford, which opens with

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. The Ig Nobel Prizes have been around since 1991. They honor scientific achievements that

make people laugh and then think. Past winners have included the inventor of the pink plastic

flamingo, a person who wrote a medical report titled Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts, and

a man who wrote his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut stores According to the website of the Big Brother Awards International they give their annual awards to government agencies private companies and individuals who have excelled in the violation

of our privacy. The website Mother Reader gives out the Weird Ass Picture Book Awards for the strangest stories

illustrations, and cover art in picture books. The Australian Ernie Awards are given to the most misogynistic speaker of the year

They're named after former Australian Workers' Union Secretary Ernie E. Cobb. According to Meredith Bergman, who founded the awards, E. Cobb, who was head of the Sheep

Shearers Union, has had his name permanently etched in the annals of Australian history

with his infamous comment that women only want to become shearers for the sex

Similarly, the Plain English Campaign gives an annual Foot in Mouth Award to the public

speaker who said the most embarrassing thing that year. In 2008, they gave George W. Bush a Lifetime Achievement Award

Finally, I return to the salon to tell you that the Stella Awards were given out between

2002 and 2007 for the most wild, outrageous or ridiculous lawsuits. The last winner before the award stopped was Roy L. Pearson, an administrative law judge

from Washington, D.C. who sued a small dry cleaner business for $65 million for losing

a pair of his pants