I n 1981 Jeff Dailey, a 19-year-
old gamer, became the first known person to die while playing video games. After achieving a score of 16 660 in the arcade game Berzerk, he succumbed to a massive heart attack.
In the 1950s, British military
men were given LSD to test if it would improve effectiveness in combat. The results speak for themselves: “One hour after taking the drug, with one soldier climbing a tree to feed the birds, the troop gave up, admitting that he could no longer control himself or his men. He then lapsed into laughter.”
The winner of the Darwin Awards for 2007 was ‘The
Enema Within’, where a man died of alcohol poisoning after having three litres of sherry inserted anally.
Alexander McQueen’s latest
runway creation are a monster pair of 12-inch, python-skin stilettos.
Sergey Tuganov, a 28-year-old
Russian, bet two women he could have sex with them both continuously for twelve hours. Several minutes after winning the $4300 bet, he suffered a heart attack and died – the result of ingesting an entire bottle of Viagra.
In Germany in 2001, BerndJürgen Brandes was volun-
tarily stabbed and eaten by Armin Meiwes, later dubbed the ‘Cannibal of Rothenburg’. Meiwes had placed an ad online looking for someone to eat, and Brandes explicitly consented. As is known from a videotape the two made, Meiwes amputated Brandes’ penis and the two men attempted to eat it together but could not because it was “too chewy”. Brandes then sautéed the penis in a pan with salt, pepper and garlic, but by then it was too burnt to be consumed.
South Africa’s Apartheid
regime banned a number of classic books; in 1955, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was banned as “indecent, objectionable, or obscene”. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, a story about a horse, was also banned – merely for its title.
I
n 2005, 28-year-old South Korean Lee Seung Seop collapsed of fatigue and died after playing the videogame Starcraft online for almost 50 consecutive hours.
T
ime magazine’s Man of the Year for 1982 was the computer.
T
he vibrator, a common sex toy for women, was originally designed in the nineteenth century to combat the anxietyrelated symptoms of ‘hysteria’. Nowadays hysteria is no longer considered a legitimate diagnosis – but its 1880 ‘treatment’ is still highly regarded worldwide.
British taxidermist Reid Pappard
makes use of the city’s leftovers by taking animals commonly viewed as pests and turning them into fashion accessories like purses and headwear. More art than product, however, don’t expect to find these in your local boutique.
Sunday Bloody Sunday
began with “Don’t talk to me about the rights of the IRA” but was ultimately changed to “I can’t believe the news today” because U2 was afraid that their peace calling would be misunderstood.
R
ock standard ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple refers to a Frank Zappa show in Montreux, Switzerland in 1971 where someone accidentally fired a flare gun into the ceiling and burnt the place to the ground.
I
n his youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis’ babysitters included Cher and Sonny Bono.
I
n 1843 a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and died of starvation.
M arilyn M anson was first
arrested in Florida on 27 December 1994 after a concert at Jacksonville’s Club 5 for “violating the adult entertainment code”. Manson was detained for 16 hours before being released without charge. Bizarrely, police believed Manson had performed oral sex onstage with a man, and then thrown either his or the man’s penis into the crowd. It turns out it was actually Jack Off Jill vocalist, Jessicka, wearing a fake penis.
M otley Crue’s Nikki Sixx’s
hardcore heroin addiction cost him his life. Well, almost. In 1987 he died from an overdose only to be miraculously brought back to life. After his heart had stopped beating for two minutes, paramedics administered two shots of adrenaline to bring him back from the brink. The incident inspired the song ‘Kickstart My Heart’.
I
n 2008, Boy George was convicted for the assault and false imprisonment of Audun Carlsen, a male escort, in his East London home. He was released on home detention curfew in May 2009 after serving four months of his custodial sentence.
I
n December 1999, P. Diddy and J-Lo were at a midtown Manhattan nightclub when gunshots were fired. After a police investigation, Diddy and fellow rapper Shyne were arrested for weapons violations. Diddy was acquitted of all charges, but Shyne was convicted and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, an outcome that raised eyebrows about the influence of fame.
B
y 1977 The Sex Pistols were banned in most of the UK, so in August of that year they toured as ‘SPOTS’ (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly), surreptitiously playing gigs under various pseudonyms.
A
C
rno arstens’ first performance with side-project New Porn at the Cape Town music venue Mercury Live in 2001 saw Arno pogo himself straight through the stage. He finished his set in the hole.