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 Death Impends (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...
TEARDROPS KEEP FALLIN’ ON HIS HEADSTONE One more bell to toll with the death of esteemed composer and Austin Powers star Burt Bacharach, aged 94. Typically working in tandem with Hal David, he was known for creating some of the classiest, most prestigious slices of pop around, such as the theme song to The Blob. […]
PERVEZION OF JUSTICE Former Pakistani despot/patriot hero (delete as applicable) Pervez Musharraf has died, rather uncharacteristically of natural causes, aged 79. A longtime general, his promotion to four-star general by then-PM Nawaz Sharif saw him lead the charge in the Kargil offensive against India that soon blossomed into a months-long war. Relations grew frosty between […]
HURRICANE HAZEL DOWNGRADED And there I was thinking Canadian mayors needed to love nose candy to make a cracking obit… Longtime Canuck political force “Hurricane” Hazel McCallion has died aged 101. Her first go for political office was in 1964, unsuccessfully running as a deputy reeve in Mississagua. It would be the only time she […]
THIS OLD WORLD STARTS GETTING HIM DOWN… Doo-wop legends the Drifters lived up to their name with their frequent rotation of personnel – members kept drifting in and out. Their two best-known incarnations were completely different bands – the “first Drifters” were initially helmed by Clyde McPhatter, then cycled through several frontmen before manager George […]
ROCK HUDSON We at the DDP salute character development. Diana Rots carved out deadpooling notoriety in the mid-2010s by plucking their twenty from the previous year’s top teams – assembling a team through this manner is now seen in deadpooler’s parlance as “Diana Rotsing”. Their 2023 return tacked towards originality, and this shift in approach […]
THE HUNT IS OVER Spanish film auteur Carlos Saura has died aged 91. His upbringing in the throes of the Spanish Civil War influenced his filmmaking, as did the censorship of the Franco regime, which forced him to lean heavy on symbolism to get the themes of his films across. Among his best-regarded works were […]
BLAZEVIC ABLAZE Croatian footballer and manager Miroslav Blazevic has died a day before his 88th birthday. Recognisable by his white scarf good luck charm, he steered the Croatian national team to an impressive third place in the 1998 World Cup. The “coach of all coaches”, as his homeland called him, also had stints managing Switzerland, […]
NO LONGER STROUGALING What sounds like a pastry but is in fact a Czech Communist leader, Lubomir Strougal has died aged 98. Selected as Czechoslovakia’s prime minister in 1970, he was a classic political weather vane – initially wary of the Warsaw Pact crushing of dissent, he joined in for the ride when it was […]
FEBRUARY OFF WITH A BANG! What a country America is – where the sitting Vice President can shoot a guy and not even be the first example. Some 200 years after Aaron Burr shot Broadway star Alexander Hamilton, Prince of Darkness Dick Cheney went quail hunting with Texan lawyer Harry Whittington in early 2006. Cheney […]
MR. MONK AND THE FAILED KIDNEYS Buddhist monk Hsing Yun has died aged 95. An adherent of Humanistic Buddhism, he took a name literally meaning “nebula” to reflect his worldview. He founded the Fo Guang Shan order in 1967, which now has its tendrils all over the world. Politically he was known for his promotion […]
