IgNobel Prize

parody of the Nobel Prize

originally for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced."

• winners the first year included Mike Milken, Dan Quayle, Edward Teller, and the inventor of Beano

now for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

• roughly half the winners actually attend the ceremony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners