Ig Nobel Prize

 

The Ig Nobel Prizes is a parody(work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work) of the Nobel Prizes and is given out in early October each year for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research.

The stated aim of the prizes is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think".

The awards are sometimes veiled criticism (or gentle satire), but are also used to point out that even the most absurd-sounding avenues of research can yield useful knowledge

The first Ig Nobels were created in 1991 by  Marc Abrahams, editor and co-founder of the Annals of Improbable Research, and the master of ceremonies at all subsequent awards ceremonies

Awards were presented at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced". Ten prizes are awarded each year in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace, but also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research

The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT but now in Sanders Theater at Harvard University. 

The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard–Radcliffe Society of Physics Students