''1000 Ways to Die'' is an American

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that aired on

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

from May 14, 2008 to July 15, 2012, and also aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

during its run. The program recreates unusual supposed deaths, true events, and debunked

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

s, and includes interviews with real medical experts who describe the science behind each death. Up until the end of season one, the final story of each episode showed actual footage of dangerous situations that ''almost'' ended in death, along with interviews of those involved in the situations. A portion of these deaths have been nominated for or have received a

Darwin Award The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor that originated in Usenet newsgroup discussions around 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool by dying or b ...

Ron Perlman Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...

served as the narrator on every episode since the third episode (with

Thom Beers Thom Beers (born July 20, 1952 in Batavia, New York) is an American television producer and narrator/voice-over artist. Career Beers, a former producer and executive with Turner Broadcasting System, Turner Broadcasting and Paramount Syndicated T ...

narrating the first two episodes); beginning with the episode "Tweets from the Dead", Joe Irwin was featured as the replacement narrator. Spike burned off the final four episodes, ending the series with the airing of "Death, The Final Frontier." ''1000 Ways to Die'' was canceled due to low ratings after the producers and stars of the show ran a

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

against the network.

Opening sequence

U.S. version of Warning UK version of Warning First version (only used in the first two episodes) Second version

Stylization

''1000 Ways to Die'' takes a

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...

dark humor approach to death through its presentation of stories derived from both

myths Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

and science, and the show makes liberal use of

artistic license Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

to significantly embellish or change the circumstances of real-life incidents that resulted in death for greater entertainment value. Not only are the names changed, but also substantial amounts of the locations, dates and context. Four notable exceptions are the accurate descriptions of the deaths of

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

Jack Daniel Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel ( January 1849 – October 9, 1911) was an American distiller and businessman, best known as the founder of the Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery. Early life Daniel was the youngest of ten children born t ...

Mary Mallon Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born American cook believed to have infected between 51 and 122 people with typhoid fever. The infections caused three confirmed deaths, ...

, and

Sigurd Eysteinsson Sigurd Eysteinsson, or Sigurd the Mighty (reigned 875–892Ashley, pp. 440–441), was the second Earl of Orkney—a title bequeathed to Sigurd by his brother Rognvald Eysteinsson. A son of Eystein Glumra, Sigurd was a leader in the Viking co ...

, although the latter's death was depicted as having occurred in Norway but in actuality it occurred in Scotland. A frequently recurring motif is that of unsympathetic or unintelligent individuals' choices backfiring on them, resulting in death. Some of the deaths resemble real life events they are based on, for example death No. 197 – "Dead Eye" was based on the real life death of Jon Desborough. Some take enormous poetic license with the truth. For example, death No. 692 – "Gone Fission", a story of two hapless Yemeni terrorists in 2009, implausibly attempting to build an atomic bomb, was based on the real

Demon Core The demon core was a spherical subcritical mass of plutonium in diameter, manufactured during World War II by the United States nuclear weapon development effort, the Manhattan Project, as a fissile core for an early atomic bomb. The core wa ...

accident involving U.S. scientist

Harry Daghlian Haroutune Krikor Daghlian Jr. (May 4, 1921 – September 15, 1945) was an American physicist with the Manhattan Project, which designed and produced the atomic bombs that were used in World War II. He accidentally irradiated himself on August 2 ...

in 1945. Some of the stories include elements of truth, for example No. 396 – "Onesie & Donesie," where an accident-prone TV shopping network host is injured by a collapsing ladder, stabbed by the tip of a broken

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

, then finally burned to death when a onesie he is wearing catches fire. The ladder collapse happened to Harold McCoo on the

Cable Value Network QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Penn ...

in 1988, although he was unhurt. The katana incident happened to Shawn Leflar on ''The Knife Collector's Show'' on the

Shop at Home Network The Shop at Home Network (more commonly known as just Shop at Home, Shop at Home TV, SATH) was a television network in the United States. Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006, Shop at Home (SATH NASDAQ) was a public company which s ...

in 2001. However, the third part of the story is made up. The show is filled with

black humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

(particularly in the narration) which tempers the otherwise somber theme of death. It portrays the deaths using live-action recreations of the events along with expert and sometimes witness testimony, also using graphic

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

animations, similar to those used in the popular TV show '' CSI'', to illustrate the ways people have died, similar to the "X-Ray moves" of the 2011 reboot of ''Mortal Kombat'' and ''

Mortal Kombat X ''Mortal Kombat X'' is a 2015 fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the tenth main installment in the ''Mortal Komba ...

'', due to them showing bones being fractured and organs being damaged. A narration provides background information within each death-story, which all end with titles that are

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...

s on popular

figures of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...

Seasons

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1000 Ways To Die 2008 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2000s American anthology television series 2010s American anthology television series 2000s American black comedy television series 2010s American black comedy television series 2000s American horror television series 2010s American horror television series English-language television shows Spike (TV network) original programming Television series by Original Productions Television series by Fremantle (company) Television series featuring reenactments Television shows about death

Opening sequence

Stylization

Seasons

See also

References

External links