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...
DAMN, BUSTED Last surviving Dambuster George “Johnny” Johnson has bounced off into the great beyond aged 101. He was one of 133 to participate in the famed mission that destroyed several Nazi German dams via the use of “bouncing bombs” which bypassed the dams’ protections. Johnson targeted the Sorpe dam, which ended up relatively unscathed […]
SLUDGE MILLS LANE Pugnacious boxing figure Mills Lane is out for the count aged 85. Though initially a boxer himself with moderate success, it was as a referee where he shone most, officiating north of one hundred championship fights with his “Let’s get it on!” catchphrase. This included the infamous ear-munching spar for which Lane […]
THE BEAT NO LONGER GOES ON No turning back time for Cher’s mum Georgia Holt, aged 96. She declared “I Got You Babe” in 1946 when giving birth to her iconic daughter. Holt herself navigated through the Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves world of entertainment, recording music and appearing on TV shows before her daughter was […]
LAST DANCE Pioneering ballerina Beryl Grey has died aged 95. Professionally performing since her teens, she was already doing Swan Lake aged 15 and was both the first British ballerina to dance in Russia and the first western ballerina to do so in Beijing. She was picked by BROWN BANANAS and There is nothing like […]
ETHEL BEREAVERS Actress Helen Slayton-Hughes has died aged 92. A frequent old lady face on aughts/10s US TV, her best-known role was as stenographer Ethel Beavers in 11 episodes of Parks and Recreation. She was picked by Most Unique Picks 2022. Helen Slayton-Hughes30 October 1930 – 7 December 2022, aged 92💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 9 […]
PATRICK TAMBAY A LA FLAMBÉ Racing driver Patrick Tambay has died aged 73. Racing with a variety of teams throughout the late 70s and early 80s, his most notable stint was with Ferrari, where he won his two Grand Prixes. He was a major morale booster for the team, who was shellshocked from the death […]
ROGER, WILKO, OVER AND OUT It’s another sign we’re getting old that one of the biggest (and happiest) miracle recoveries of 2010s deadpooling is no more. In 2013, guitarist Wilko Johnson announced that he was refusing treatment for terminal pancreatic cancer, and his surprise endurance into 2014 made him a canon cert for what seemed […]
BANG A JIANG! Chinese bigwig Jiang Zemin has died aged 96. Jiang rose to political prominence after the Tiananmen Square protests, and was selected as Deng Xiaoping’s heir apparent as a compromise candidate – ie unsympathetic to human rights, but not as openly violent about it as the party hardliners. Come 1993, he was president. […]
WEIR DODDERS OFF As eager deadpoolers winnow which ALS/MND/etc names to pick for 2023, this year’s most popular has removed himself from the equation. Rugby star Doddie Weir played as a lock for the Scottish international team throughout the 90s, and his towering build and chaotic playstyle once prompted Bill McLaren to describe him as […]
DOCUMENTARY SEDIMENTARY Documentarian Julia Reichert has died aged 76. Her first doc, Growing Up Female, is preserved by the US National Film Registry, and in the decades since she and husband Steven Bognar produced Oscar-nominated works focusing on the midwestern middle class. One of these documentaries depicted the closing of an Ohio GM factory, and […]
