Death happens. Why not make it interesting?
The online competition to guess which famous people won't make it to the end of the current year. If they're elderly, ill, or just live a high-risk lifestyle, stick 'em in your team, and for each one whose death you correctly predict, you'll score points. DDP was dreamt up in Derby, England (hence the name...) by Big Iain back in 1996. Other hosts: Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid (2003-7), Octopus of Odstock (2008-9), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), and Reptile (2020-23). Now the Committee of DI (2022), time (2024), and Banana (2023) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
DEATHS OF GIRLS AND WOMEN Few can dispute David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals’s 2013 wins as one of the all-time great DDP victories. It shattered the previous hits record off a blend of cutting-edge research, correctly called remission-turned-relapses, and fortune favours the brave. One of the few duds was Alice Munro, the acclaimed Canuck short story […]
COPPA KEEL There is a strange deadpooling paradox to Kristin Hallenga. No one can dispute that her death aged 38 was at far too young an age. Yet she also was an ancient relic of the DDP, first being picked for her stage 4 breast cancer in 2010 after being diagnosed the previous year. She […]
THE BLACKOUT If Roger Corman and Mark Damon were both basketball players or something, I may well have fused them into one obit, as it’s fitting that Damon met his maker shortly after Corman. A frequent face in spaghetti westerns, Damon would star in Corman’s The House of Usher and become a pioneering champion of […]
COLONCIDE Basketballer Corey “Homicide” Williams has died aged 56. The US-based player ultimately made Australia his home, and as a star player for the Townsville Crocodiles was a key figure in increasing popularity of the National Basketball League. A brush with advanced colon cancer landed him on multiple teams’ radars, with Smart Beta entering the […]
SHIRLEY YOU CAN’T BE BREATHING Author Shirley Conran has died aged 91. Her self-help Superwoman introduced the phrase “life’s too short to stuff a mushroom”, and bonkbuster Lace introduced “Which one of you bitches is my mother?” She devoted her later years to maths activism, and now adds points to Bibliogryphon’s Bookworm Food. Shirley Conran21 […]
STELLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAA!!! Minimalist artist Frank Stella has died aged 87. His painting and sculpture portfolio encompassed stark grayscales to colourful curves, and he had already received a MoMA retrospective by the time he was 33. He was unique for All Death Is Consolation. Frank Stella12 May 1936 – 4 May 2024, aged 87💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = […]
REIGN OF TERRY ENDS Footballer Terry Medwin has died aged 91. The winger played for Swansea Town, Tottenham Hotspur, and the Welsh national team. He scored the decisive goal against Hungary during the 1958 World Cup, allowing Wales to make the quarters. Though the team soon got knocked out by a young Pelé, it remains […]
AUSTERITY FOR AUSTER Author Paul Auster has died aged 77. He was renowned for his experiments with the narrative in The New York Trilogy and 4 3 2 1, the latter of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. After announcing his cancer diagnosis last year, he became a cult pick this one, with Feng […]
BLUE OOSTER COLD Golfer Peter Oosterhuis has died aged 75. He was twice runner-up at the Open, won a PGA Tour at the Canadian Open, and mustered a winning record at the Ryder Cup despite never actually playing on a winning team. Later a commentator mainly in the US, he announced an Alzheimer’s diagnosis a […]
DEVIL’S DIJK Figure skater Sjoukje Dijkstra has died aged 82. She won gold at the 1964 Winter Olympics, the first Dutch athlete to accomplish the feat. She was unique for She’s a Dead Skate, Charlie Brown. Sjoukje Dijkstra28 January 1942 – 2 May 2024, aged 82💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 10 POINTS
