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, first tenure), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), Reptile (2020-23), and DI (2022 – 2025). Now the Committee of Banana (2023), time (2024), the returning Octopus of Odstock (2026) and the deadpooling equivalent of a gap year temp Marlfox (2026) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
SO LOW Economist Robert Solow has died aged 99. He was known for his pioneering work linking technology to economic growth that formed the basis of the Solow-Swan model (exogenous growth model). He won the Nobel Prize in 1987, and was picked by three teams. Robert Solow23 August 1924 – 21 December 2023, aged 993 […]
MIGHTY ATOM SPLITS Tap dancer Mo Moreland has died aged 87. First known as half of the husband-and-wife club act Mighty Atom and Roy, she later led the Roly Polys fat lady dancing troupe that often appeared on Les Dawson’s TV shows. She was picked by two teams. Mo Moreland1936 – 15 December 2023, aged […]
GENERAL FUNERAL Actor Jack Axelrod has died aged 93. He was active on US TV from the 80s to 2020, and was noted for roles such as a mafioso in General Hospital, the “Electrolarynx Guy” in My Name is Earl, and a semiconscious patient in Grey’s Anatomy. Also a guest star on It’s Always Sunny […]
MILLAR TIME Rugby player Syd Millar has died aged 89. The prop played for both Ireland and the Lions, and later coached the Lions on their fabled 1974 South Africa tour. He was picked by Dr Shipman’s waiting room and The Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn. Syd Millar23 May 1934 – 10 December 2023, aged 892 TEAMS […]
THE DEATHBED OF CUCHULAINN Irish punk great and dentist’s nemesis Shane MacGowan’s miraculous long run of gravity defying has come to an end. His family encouraged him to be well-read and he managed the impressive feat of reading Joyce and Dostoyevsky by age twelve. He managed the even more impressive feat of taking to the […]
NORMAN MAKES THE HIT PARADE! US sitcom titan Norman Lear has moved on up aged 101. If his primary claim to fame in the UK is “that chap who Americanised UK sitcoms”, in the States he was one of the most important figures in TV history. He was there from the medium’s nascency, writing jokes […]
REST IN PISSINGER When reflecting on the crab rave breeding ground that is Henry Kissinger and his long list of “accomplishments”, it can be easy to forget how easily he himself could’ve been a genocide victim. Born to a Jewish family in Weimar Germany, the Kissingers fled to the United States in the late 1930s […]
DEATH MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY Heartthrob Ryan O’Neal has died aged 82. He was first an amateur boxer, but acting proved his calling and he became a popular soaps actor with a leading role on Peyton Place. He soon segued to film stardom, including Love Story, What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, and […]
SANDRA DAY A GONER! A long-held tradition in the US Supreme Court is that of the “swing vote”, namely the right-wing justice who throws the left flank a bone once in a blue moon to continue to make the institution appear legitimate. For many a year, that niche was filled by first female justice Sandra […]
EL TEL NOW NIL Venerated footy manager Terry Venables has died aged 80. “El Tel” was England’s most popular manager since the glory days of Alf, memorably taking the team to the 1996 Euro semis. His career began as a player with Chelsea, where he won the League Cup, and crisscrossed through Tottenham and Queens […]
