[h.a. cherev]

Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt.....

What a way to go....

[PaulJ]

The elephant story remind me of an old joke:

A man is sitting on a city bus. The bus pulls up to a stop and on boards another man completely covered, from head to toe, in dung. Sure enough, he sits right next to the first guy.

After suffering through a few minutes of the ungodly smell the first guy asks him what's up with the filth.
"Well," says the poop covered man, "I work for the zoo and my job is to take care of the elephants. Today one of the elephants was constipated so I had to get my ladder, climb up behind him and give him an enema. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out of the way quick enough and.....well, you can see what happened."

"That's horrible!", exclaimed the first rider, "why don't you find another job."

Shocked, the zoo keeper looked and him and replied, " What! And quit show-biz?"

[2sheep]

Some accidents have all the earmarks of being the judgment of God upon someone.  Here's one that causes one to wonder:

Man Dead in Cesspool Accident (DEA Agent)

Sept. 4, 2001 -- HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (AP) - A man who had been practicing archery in the back yard with his two children died when his cesspool caved in and swallowed him, police said.  Michael Lobasso, 35, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was standing on the ground above the cesspool when it gave way at about 12:40 p.m. Monday, Suffolk County police said.

Searchers located his body a few hours later, but worked throughout the night to remove it because the walls of the 18-foot-deep cesspool were crumbling on top of the quicksand-like pool, police said.  The body was recovered at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Detective Sgt. Arthur Ahl said.

"The more they dug, the worse the body actually got stuck,'" he said.  When rescue crews arrived, they found a 3-foot-wide hole that grew to about 15 feet across as they searched, Huntington Manor Fire Chief Charles Hoffman said.  Fire officials told Newsday they didn't see any construction or digging that could have caused the cesspool to cave in.

[Junior]

As most of these turn out to be hoaxes (the zookeeper story was debunked months ago), I always take these lists with a grain of salt. However, they are still interesting reading.

[Waco]

Definition of a "womb". The sound of an elephant fart,,,,ah...womb!

[Alouette]

The elephant dung story has been around for at least five years and has anyway been exposed as a hoax.

Weekly World News reenacted this event for a spoof photo featuring celebrities Rosie O'Donnell and Helen Thomas.

[eureka!]

bump for later.

[Steve0113]

Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in February in Selbyville, DE., as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

I'd have to vote for this one.

[Snuffington]

There are a lot of "Darwin Award" websites these days. Some are more careful and hoax-free than others. What's your source?