bobbo says:

I’ll bet he still breeds.

Colin says:

Something tells me alcohol may have been a factor in the guys stupidity.

Misanthropic Scott says:

Even if he died from this, I doubt it would be spectacular enough to get a Darwin Award nomination. You should see the lengthy list of drownings that they provided me when I suggested a nomination for someone who jumped off the South Street Seaport pier into the churning waters of New York Harbor to retrieve a DISPOSABLE CAMERA. That idiot was found some hours later much farther out to sea. And that wasn’t enough to get any consideration.

I think if this guy died and were suggested, the Darwin Awards folks would just list a long list of far stupider people that burned or blew themselves up accidentally. It’s really quite amazing that our species persists.

Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

Me? I’d use a longer stick.

Improbus says:

It seems that the only socially acceptable way to thin the human herd now days is stupidity. I wouldn’t worry about stupid people becoming extinct though. It seems that stupidity is a dominant gene not recessive.

John Paradox says:

I think if this guy died and were suggested, the Darwin Awards folks would just list a long list of far stupider people that burned or blew themselves up accidentally.

There’ve been a couple of times I’ve sent off stories of suicide by stupidity to the DA folks. It’s VERY difficult to find something they either haven’t already considered, or have even more extreme examples.

TRUE, HardCore stupidity isn’t easy.

J/P=?

OhForTheLoveOf says:

# – Something tells me alcohol may have been a factor in the guys stupidity.

That’s total BS! There has never been any credible evidence that alcohol contributes to stupidity!

This is a message from your friends at Budweiser.

Mr. Fusion says:

I’m reminded of when I was in my early teens. After raking leaves all of one autumn’s morning, I tried to burn them. Only they were damp and wouldn’t burn. So I tried a little accelerant. About ½ quart of gas. After the BOOM my mother came to the door and asked what happened. As I sat on my kiester now bereft of eyebrows and some sideburns, leaves floating down like snowflakes on fire, in my teenage attitude I just had to say “what noise”.

Sometimes you just have to get burned a little to find out what HOT is really about.

Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

20, don’t pick on Mr. F….many of us have done stuff like that. Back in the days when we thought aerosol cans in fires were cool, I didn’t realize that a butane aerosol can was special.

Or, the time when we poured a pint of that same accelerant on the road and throw a lit cig at it…seeing your shadow as you run away is cool.

Or the time….never mind. Luckily me and my friend knew a guy who lit an M-80 and tried to put it out by holding it under water in a sink…he had three fingers remaining, and we were smart enough to pay attention to that lesson. But still, I’m really surprised I made it out of my teens, and that my kids don’t share any of the same tendencies.

Mike C says:

See, our society is screwed. These people do indeed procreate…just look at Olo Baggins’ post. He passed his infereiority on to our gene-pool. We’re doomed.

Elwood Pleebus says:

#18 lol
Is that a gas can in the lower right hand corner? or a bucket perhaps.
Wonder what else they had up their sleeves?

and yes, it does bring back memories of stupid stuff in the early years.

god's Grim Reaper says:

#21, Olo,

I don’t begrudge Jim. As he mentioned, that partly explains why my eyebrows have grown in so thick in my adult life. Now, if I can come up with an explanation for all that nose and ear hair.

Truth be told, all kids that age are invincible. Many of the stunts we pulled we would be horrified if our own kids were to do them today. Yet we learned from our trials and tribulations. Whether or not it was the broken bones (I’ve broken both an ankle and a rib), the black eyes (yup, had a couple), the burns, or the worst one the whipped butts when our fathers got wind of our stunts.

Remember how it was only fun until somebody lost an eye? Well I know of an older kid who did lose lose an eye to a BB gun. Yup, all the parents were pretty careful for a few years about BB guns after that. Until they found out we were shooting wooden matches onto the highway at night. When they hit the pavement they would burst into flames and startle oncoming drivers.

Was this a stupid thing for the kid to have done? Sure was. Most sane people though can point to something similarly stupid that they have also done. And this kid? Only some singed eyebrows and maybe a little less hair on top.

Experimentation and curiosity are usually admirable traits.

Billabong says:

Genetic winnowing at its best.

Wally the Engineer says:

Reminded me of days with a friend and setting off zinc and sulpher charges.
It was great fun until he fried his entire face. Miracle that he wasn’t disfigured.
I would not have messed with a pressurized can and fire. That just has “bad day” written all over it.
I loved the corkscrew flip at the end.