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...
ROGER REPATRIATES SOUTH Long time British philosopher and gay botherer Sir Roger Scruton has died to give many people success on the DDP. Editor of the Salisbury Review for 20 years and a specialist in the aesthetics of conservatism, Scruton became himself after witnessing the May 1968 student protests in France. Whereas Ken Clark produced […]
OH MAN, THE SULTAN’S QABOOSHED The Sultan of Oman’s 50 year reign has been ended by dying at the age of 79. News of his impending demise hit the airwaves in December, and so thirty teams dived on the chance for a royal knockout, including DDP veterans I’m Sorry for Your Trouble and Carkers Convention. […]
PETE DYES Pete Dye designed golf courses. He designed dozens of the things, including the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, owned by some random billionaire or other. He designed golf courses for university and private clubs in a career that lasted thirty years. He had been battling Alzheimer’s for some time, and was […]
BYRYNES IT DOWN Ed Byrnes was a funny comedian who often appeared on TV and made fun of Alanis Morris… no, sorry, wrong guy. Edd Byrnes was a singer and actor perhaps best known, cinematically, for his role as Vince Fontaine in blockbuster Grease. Two teams decided he was the one that they wanted, […]
QUEEN OF SPAIN’S BEARD? Infanta Pilar was the older sister of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. She was the older daughter of the Count of Barcelona. She was the Duchess of Badajoz. She was President of the International Equestrian Federation from 1994 to 2006, which was apt as later in life there was some […]
FINAL HARVEST OF THE WURTZEL “Sylvia Plath with the ego of Madonna” as The New York Times once called her, Elizabeth Wurtzel was an infuriatingly egotistical writer, the sort she had to be to write a memoir in her 20s. She also, to be fair, revolutionised the entire concept of mental health writing, and if […]
SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE DISH When Tom Long announced that his cancer was under control and he was making a miraculous recovery, he disappeared from the shortlists of pretty much every DDP regular. Well done, all of us. Not much of a thanks for that vote of confidence. Many regulars […]
… DOWNSTAIRS Christopher Beeny was a familiar face on TV. He had a recurring role in Last of the Summer Wine, as well as In Loving Memory and The Grove Family. It was, however, as footman Edward Barnes in the much loved Upstairs Downstairs for which he was perhaps best known. He was a unique […]
DON HEARSE-N We move from basketball to baseball. This is going to be a theme, isn’t it? Well, TMIB knew feck all about pro-wrestlers, but if any of them die this year you can get jokes, anecdotes and funny stories about them. So, take the jokes, anecdotes and funny stories as read here. New […]
STERN SLAM DUNK START TO 2020 David Stern was once a promising lawyer, before he moved to the career in which he made his name: basketball administration. In 1984, he replaced Larry O’Brien as Commissioner of the NBA, an office he held until 2014. Stern managed to take office directly as Michael Jordan become a […]
