THE IG NOBEL PRIZE (1991-1994)

A parody of the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel [Ignoble] Prizes are awarded each year in mid-September, around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced, for achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Marc Abrahams, editor of Annals of Improbable Research and co-sponsor of the awards, said that "the prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology." All prizes are awarded for real achievements.

Partial list of Ig Nobel prize winners: 1991 - 1994

1991
Biology - Robert Klark Graham, for his pioneering development of the Repository of Germinal Choice, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobel Prize winners and Olympic athletes.

Physics - Thomas Kyle, for his discovery of "the heaviest element in the universe, Adminstratium."

Medicine - Alan Kligerman, deviser of  digestive deliverance, vanquisher of vapor, and inventor of Beano, for his pioneering word with anti-gas liquids that prevent bloat, gassiness, discomfort, and embarrassment.

1992
Medicine - F. Kanda, E. Yagi, M. Fukuda, K. Nakajima, T. Ohta, and O. Nakata of the Shiseido Research Center in Yokohama, for their pioneering research study "Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour," especially for their conclusion that people who think they have foot odor, do, and those who don't, don't.

Archaeology - Eclaireurs de France (a French Scouting organization), removers of graffiti, for damaging the prehistoric paintings of two Bisons in the Cave of Mayriere superieure near the French village of Bruniquel.

1993
Chemistry - Presented jointly to James Campbell and Gaines Campbell, of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, for inventing scent strips, the method by which perfume is applied to magazine pages.

Consumer Engineering - Presented to Ron Popeil, incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television, for re-defining the industrial revolution with such devices as the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone, and the Inside-the-Shell  Egg Scrambler.

1994
Biology - Presented to W. Brian Sweeney, Brian Krafte-Jacobs, Jeffrey W. Britton, and Wayne Hansen, for their break-through study, "The Constipated Serviceman: Prevalence Among Deployed U.S. Troops," and especially for their numerical analysis of bowel movement frequency.

Mathematics - Presented to the Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, mathematical measurers of morality, for their county-by-county estimate of how many Alabama citizens will go to Hell if they don't repent.

Psychology - Presented to Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, for his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.