These deaths are so absurd they’ll make you scream “WTF!”—no cap, they’re wilder than any meme. Read till the end to see 10 historic fails you’ll never unhear.
TOP 10. Hans Steininger ?
Back in 1567, Hans Steininger—the mayor of Braunau, Austria at the time—bit the dust in the most unhinged way possible: he tripped over his own super long beard. We’re talking 1.4 meters (4.5 feet) of facial hair here! He usually kept it rolled up neat to avoid disasters, but spoiler: that hack didn’t save him on that cursed day. His death? Total local legend for how absurd it was.
TOP 9. Basil Brown ?
This 48-year-old health food guru from Croydon, UK, accidentally offed himself in the weirdest way—chugging too much carrot juice. Dude knocked back a crazy 10 gallons of the stuff in just 10 days, and the sky-high vitamin A levels from that overkill totally fried his liver. Hot take: Even “healthy” stuff can be toxic if you go overboard—moderation isn’t just a cliché, it’s a lifesaver.
TOP 8. Kurt Gödel ?
This genius Austrian-American mathematician—known for his mind-blowing work—starved to death when his wife was in the hospital for a while. Turns out he had major paranoia vibes: he flat-out refused to eat anything that wasn’t made by her, scared it might be poisoned. It’s a total bummer for the academic world, but let’s be real—what a wild, absurd end for such a brainiac.
TOP 7. Mark Gleeson ?
There are a zillion safe ways to fix snoring—but Mark’s plan? Pure chaos. Desperate to stop keeping his family up, he stuffed cotton swabs up his nose before bed one night. Spoiler alert: It shut his snores down cold… but it also shut his breathing down for good. RIP to a legend who took way too big a risk for quiet sleep.
TOP 6. Robert Williams ?
His death might not seem that wild to us now, but back in the late ‘70s? It was straight-up historic. In 1979, Robert Williams—a hardworking guy at a Ford factory—became the FIRST person ever killed by a robot. He was just doing his job when a heavy robotic arm glitched and smashed right into his head. Total sci-fi horror come to life, and it shocked everyone at the time.
TOP 5. David Grundman ?
In 1982, David Grundman thought it’d be fun to shoot a cactus near Pleasant Lake, Arizona—spoiler: it cost him his life. Big yikes. He unloaded several shots at a massive saguaro, and that cactus fought back hard: its thick, heavy arms came crashing down and squashed him instantly. Note to self: Never pick fights with desert plants—they don’t play around, even if they look harmless.
TOP 4. Jeremy Brenno ?
Jeremy Brenno died in 1994 while playing golf—a sport that’s supposed to be chill, not deadly—and the way it went down is pure chaos. Frustrated by a bad shot, he lashed out and whacked a nearby bench with his club. The club snapped clean in two, and the sharp end flew back and stabbed him right in the heart. Golf is for relaxing, not risking your life—this incident still gives golfers the creeps.
TOP 3. Gary Hoy ?
Gary Hoy was a cocky lawyer in Toronto who plummeted to his death from the 24th floor of a downtown skyscraper. The kicker? He was showing off to a group of tourists, slamming his body against a window to prove it was “unbreakable.” Spoiler: It was NOT unbreakable. Talk about a flex gone catastrophically wrong—cost him his whole life.
TOP 2. Brandon Lee ?
Brandon Lee—the talented son of martial arts icon Bruce Lee—died in 1993 while filming the cult classic The Crow. In a horrific on-set accident, co-star Michael Massee shot him with a prop gun that had accidentally been loaded with real bullets. It was a devastating loss for Hollywood and his fans, an accident that still haunts the industry decades later.
TOP 1. Denver Lee St. Clair ?
In 2013, 58-year-old Denver Lee St. Clair got into a fiery argument with his stepson that turned physical fast—and it ended horribly. During the scuffle, his stepson angrily hauled his underwear over his head, covering his mouth and nose, and Denver suffocated before anyone could step in. Yep, you read that right: death by wedgie. That’s one weird, messed-up entry in the history books—no one saw it coming.
