It appears that for every genuine award given out, there is often a spoof version.
So for The Oscars, there's the The Golden Raspberry Awards, which mock the Oscars. For the Nobel Science prizes for scientific excellence, there is the Ig Nobel Prize for useless scientific achievements, or lastly The Turnip Prize, which parodies the Turner Awards for modern art.
There are in fact a multitude of these other awards, that chose to 'honour' those whose achievements are questionable, but which are not exact opposites of a conventional award - from the Bent Spoon Award for paranormal or pseudo-scientific fraud, and the Pigasus Award for paranormal fraud, to the ridiculous recipients of the Darwin Awards, given for removing oneself from the gene pool (i.e. killing oneself), in an unusual fashion.
My personal favourite is the Wet Gunpowder Award, an Iranian 'humorous' award given to "someone who is against the Islamic Revolution," and who "against their own wishes, performs a service to the revolution." ... those "ridiculous people, whose chaffy character is evident to everyone, and when this nature of theirs is accompanied with self-belief, turns into an indefinite foolishness for them" ..... as this is awarded by the Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force, Brigadier General, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, its an ward that no one would ever want to pick up in person.
Its only previous recipients are:
Whether you think these people a 'chaffy characters', who have 'performed a service to the [Iranian] revolution' and thus an 'indefinite foolishness for them,' is up to you. Certainly the judges of the Wet Gunpowder Award, felt they did, so who am I to argue? But ironically, what it lacks in publicity, it most definitely makes up for with by its complete lack of any humour ... but then they don't do irony, or even much fun.
Which brings me back to the Turnip Prize, which has run for 19 years from the New Inn public house in Wedmore, Somerset, England, and is for whomever creates rubbish modern art "using the least amount of effort possible" to do so. The 2016 winner was 'Pole Dark' ( a pole painted black). In 2017 the six finalists included 'Pulled Pork' (a toy pig being pulled by a tractor), and 'Minnie Driver' (a small golf club) .... the winner was 'Pulled Pork'.
Other notable winners were:
 |
| The 'Razzie' Is A Well Established Award. |
So for The Oscars, there's the The Golden Raspberry Awards, which mock the Oscars. For the Nobel Science prizes for scientific excellence, there is the Ig Nobel Prize for useless scientific achievements, or lastly The Turnip Prize, which parodies the Turner Awards for modern art.
There are in fact a multitude of these other awards, that chose to 'honour' those whose achievements are questionable, but which are not exact opposites of a conventional award - from the Bent Spoon Award for paranormal or pseudo-scientific fraud, and the Pigasus Award for paranormal fraud, to the ridiculous recipients of the Darwin Awards, given for removing oneself from the gene pool (i.e. killing oneself), in an unusual fashion.
 |
| Iranian Irony Award - The Wet Gunpowder Prize |
My personal favourite is the Wet Gunpowder Award, an Iranian 'humorous' award given to "someone who is against the Islamic Revolution," and who "against their own wishes, performs a service to the revolution." ... those "ridiculous people, whose chaffy character is evident to everyone, and when this nature of theirs is accompanied with self-belief, turns into an indefinite foolishness for them" ..... as this is awarded by the Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force, Brigadier General, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, its an ward that no one would ever want to pick up in person.
Its only previous recipients are:
- Michelle Obama, who received the Iranian ‘Wet Gunpowder’ Award in April 2013. ~ For "showing the truth about the Academy awards (Oscars) to the world." As I suspect your guess is as good as mine, I looked it up. Michelle Obama awarded the Oscar for Best Picture to the "anti-Iranian" film "Argo" and the the award ceremony was the "funeral" of the Oscars. "If we had spent billions of dollars, we could not show a link and allegiance between Hollywood and the U.S. government and the White House", so Mrs Obama got the award for showing "the truth about the Oscar awards to the world."
- EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Head of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iran, Tarja Cronberg were joint winners in 2014. ~ For meeting Sattar Beheshti's mother and handing the Sakharov Prize to Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi.
- While Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016), won in 2015 ~ "For disrespecting religious beliefs despite claiming for Free thought in France".
- Cheryl Boone Isaacs (President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - aka Oscars) copped for the villains role in 2016 ~ "For deliberately removing Muhammad: The Messenger of God, from the Foreign Language Film nominates in 88th Academy Awards, and showing the anti-Islamic nature of Academy Awards."
 |
| Special Award For Dieter Kosslick ... |
- In 2015, A special award went to Dieter Kosslick, a German film critic, in a parody of the Berlin Golden Bear Awards ~ For "devaluation of the Arts" by awarding the golden bear prize to an "anti-Iranian movie" ~ Taxi by Jafar Panahi.
Whether you think these people a 'chaffy characters', who have 'performed a service to the [Iranian] revolution' and thus an 'indefinite foolishness for them,' is up to you. Certainly the judges of the Wet Gunpowder Award, felt they did, so who am I to argue? But ironically, what it lacks in publicity, it most definitely makes up for with by its complete lack of any humour ... but then they don't do irony, or even much fun.
Which brings me back to the Turnip Prize, which has run for 19 years from the New Inn public house in Wedmore, Somerset, England, and is for whomever creates rubbish modern art "using the least amount of effort possible" to do so. The 2016 winner was 'Pole Dark' ( a pole painted black). In 2017 the six finalists included 'Pulled Pork' (a toy pig being pulled by a tractor), and 'Minnie Driver' (a small golf club) .... the winner was 'Pulled Pork'.
Other notable winners were:
- Ewe Kip - (A Sleeping Sheep). Winner in 2014.
- Jamming with Muddy Waters - (A Jar containing Jam and some Muddy Water). Winner in 2011.
- Manhole Cover - (A Pair of White Y Fronts). Winner in 2009.
- Take a Leaf out of my Chook (A raw chicken stuffed with leaves). Winner in 2003.
- Minstrel Cycle - (A bicycle constructed of sweets, cocktail sticks and Tampons). Winner in 2000.
- Alfred The Grate - (Two burned rolls on a fire grate). Original Winner in 1999 and benchmark setter.
The Turner Prize is already a parody of an arts award, I'm not sure that the Turnip Prize accomplishes much but I understand someone's drive to do something to highlight its lunacy.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't describe the Darwin Awards as ridiculous, I find it comforting to be reminded that natural selection hasn't totally left us to our own devices.
The pseuds who run the Turner Prize don't realise that its a parody ... that what makes it funny. The Darwin Award isn't ridiculous but the content is ... people finding stupid ways to shuffle off this mortal coil.
DeleteYes, that's what I thought you meant. One shouldn't laugh but the number of selfie deaths is shocking.
DeleteI find it funny that in Iran, 'The Arts' don't include women dancing, women singing, men and women acting together, or indeed any other part of human life that includes women, or even men who don't simply praise the revolution in many cases.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to imagine what arts the Iranians think are being devalued!
It does seem a bit odd, now that you mention it. Thanks for the comment.
Delete