You don’t have to work hard for years to get these awards. A little public shame and the anti-award won’t be long in coming.
“Foot in mouth”
The strange name of this anti-award is inspired by an English phraseological unit. This is what they say when someone has said something stupid, absurd or offensive. The selection of nominees for the award is based on the same criteria. The Foot in Mouth Award is given for the most absurd public statements. “I know who I really am. Nobody else knows who I am. If I were a giraffe and someone said I was a snake, I would think to myself that I was actually a giraffe,” Richard Gere once said. In short, the actor honestly earned his “Foot in Mouth.”
“Red Lantern”
As befits an anti-award, the Red Lantern is awarded not to the winner, but to the loser — the athlete who takes first place from the end of the famous cycling race, the Tour de France. The embodiment of the award is deeply symbolic: in the old days, a red lantern was hung on the last carriage of a train — now this function is performed by red side lights. The most famous winner is three-time winner of the lantern, Belgian Wim Vansevenant. As a rule, racers are not particularly upset when they receive this award; the attention of the press becomes something of a consolation prize.
“Pigasus”
It is no coincidence that “Pigasus” is written with an “i”. The creators of the award combined two English words – pig and pegasus, that is, “pig” and “pegasus”. The winged pig has been awarded since 1982 to those who have made the greatest contribution to pseudoscience. The award was invented by the famous skeptic James Randi, who wanted to draw attention to the activities of various parapsychologists, psychics and other pseudo-experts. And he succeeded! It is noteworthy that there is no physical statuette, but the founder “transmits” non-existent piglets on an “energy” level.
“Golden Raspberry”
The Golden Raspberry is probably one of the most famous anti-awards. In addition, it is a double of the American Academy Award, the Oscar. The nominees and winners of the Raspberry are traditionally announced the day before the lucky ones. Of course, it is much more pleasant to receive an Oscar than the title of the worst actor of the year, but it is a great test of your sense of humor, and many successful actors have passed it with honor!
Darwin Award
Charles Darwin is the author of the theory of natural selection. We warn you right away: the concept of the award is not only ironic, but also cruel. It is usually awarded posthumously to those who died absurdly due to their own stupidity (and will not spoil the gene pool). In rare cases – to people who survived but became infertile.
“For bad sex in literature”
Low-grade pulp novels are out of the question, the experts of the British magazine “Literary Review” criticized with their choice the excessive and inept use of sexual images in serious fiction. Some authors were “lucky” to win more than once. Well, not everyone gets the hint… The winner has been announced annually since the early 90s, but since the pandemic the anti-award has been on pause.
“Big Brother”
The Big Brother anti-award is organized by German human rights activists and is intended to draw attention to gross violations of privacy. It is not given to specific people, but to government agencies or companies that are guilty of excessive surveillance of ordinary citizens. It was first awarded in 1998. The award was named after a character from George Orwell’s novel 1984.