We’re all here because we love a good competition, but sometimes prizes can be a little… well, weird. Here’s a few strange and wacky prizes we’ve found on the darkest corners of the internet, some of which will leave you scratching your head and wondering, ‘who thought this was a good idea?’
What’s the wackiest prize you’ve seen? Comment below!
An island
We all dream of winning the perfect holiday, but how about winning your very own island resort? That’s exactly what happened to 26 year old Josh Ptasznyk, a former tax accountant who hit the jackpot in a competition and walked away with an entire island resort in Micronesia. Josh, the lucky man, snagged the Kosrae Nautilus Resort, complete with 16 rooms, a pool, and endless ocean views, for the small price of a $66 raffle ticket.
Apparently, the previous owners wanted to pass it on to someone who would appreciate it, and Josh just happened to be that guy – he is still running the island and living his best life. A reminder that sometimes, it pays to have a cheeky flutter!
A bacon scented candle
Here’s one that would be high on my list of comps I do not want to win: EnglishWelshie, a user on the MoneySavingExpert competition forum, won a Greggs bacon-scented candle. Yes, just as it sounds, that’s a candle that supposedly fills your home with the mouthwatering smell of sizzling bacon 🤢Unfortunately, we’ll never know if it actually worked because they never received it!
If you think that’s weird, you can buy bacōn Classic eau de parfum by fargginay which is described as “a sophisticated spicy maple fragrance with just a hint of bacon”, mmmm. Just what we all want to smell of.
A pig named after your book
There’s a novel in all of us, or so they say – and if that’s true, you might want to consider entering the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. This annual award celebrates the best comic novel, and entrants not only receive a bottle of swanky Bollinger champagne together with the complete works of P.G. Wodehouse (who incidentally, did write ‘Pigs Have Wings’) but they also get a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after their winning book.
Nothing says, “Congratulations on your brilliant comedic writing” quite like a pig with your book’s name!
Photo By Amanda Slater from Coventry, England – Gloucester Old Spot Boar, CC BY-SA 2.0
A tribe of goats
It’s hard to pick just one wacky prize from this next game show: Let’s Make a Deal. The long-standing show is well-known in the US but likely to be less familiar to us Brits. It started in the 60s and the idea is simple: the contestants had to quickly decide whether to keep their chosen prize or trade it in for something behind a mystery curtain. Sometimes, they’d find something decent hiding behind there, like a swanky car – but it’s the other prizes (known as ‘zonks’) that have earned this show a place high on the wackiest prize list. Cabbages, bottles of gravy, rolls of foil and even a tribe of goats have been won by the wackily-dressed contestants. Although usually considered joke prizes, traders legally win the zonks and so if a barnyard buddy takes your fancy, it’s yours to take home!
A chocolate statue of your head
Another one that isn’t too high on our prize bucket list, is Reese’s Halloween promotion offered entrants the opportunity to ‘Become a Reece’s treat’. £5,000 was up for grabs (OK I’d take that), alongside a peanut-butter filled chocolate statue of your head and shoulders, “approximately life-sized”, although the promoter warned that a 100% likeness could not be guaranteed and the end result would be a creative interpretation of the winner by the Chocolatier. Eating a bust of myself would be just too weird…
A treadmill
A treadmill as a prize? That’s not too weird, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to win something so useful, or valuable? Well… unless you’re in a wheelchair, that is. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to The Price is Right contestant Danielle Perez. Clearly the show’s researchers hadn’t done a great job and in a moment that left Danielle stammering and viewers stunned, she was awarded a treadmill – despite being unable to use it. Perez took it in stride, humour and all, tweeting: “When you win a treadmill on national TV… but you have no feet.” Now that is how you handle an awkward prize with class!
Your combined weight in beer
If your cellar is looking a little empty, perhaps a spot of wife-carrying could be just the thing to fill it up? The British annual wife-carrying competition continues a tradition that began centuries ago, and awards its contestants with prizes such as their combined weight in beer, together with £250 towards their expenses in representing Britain and competing in the World Wife Carrying Championships. But this competition isn’t for the faint-hearted – it involves running a course of 380 metres with a real-life ‘wife’ (of at least 50kg) on your back, with 15 metres of ascent and 15 metres of descent. “VERY TOUGH!” The promoters warn:
“Wife carrying can be a dangerous activity, which can lead to any one or more of the following injuries: slipped disk, broken legs and arms, limb dislocations, neck and spinal damage, facial injury, skull fracture, hernias, and other sundry injuries and illnesses, and potentially including death.”
Hmm, and potentially divorce as well, we can imagine. Still, there’s always the beer…
A marble pencil
Crackerjack was a much-loved kids’ variety show that ran from 1955 to 1984, and one of its most memorable games was the quiz, Double or Drop. The rules were simple: for every correct answer, contestants were handed a prize to hold, but for each wrong answer, they got a cabbage. If they dropped any of the items or racked up three cabbages, they were out! The winner got to choose from a basket of toys, but the real prize everyone secretly wanted? A Crackerjack marble propelling pencil – a badge of honour for every runner-up. Nothing too weird about a pencil, but definitely weird that everyone wanted one a lot more than the main prize!
In fact, the pencil became so iconic that when Queen Elizabeth II visited the show in 1961, she was gifted a set of Crackerjack pencils for her children – none other than the now King Charles and Princess Anne! Nowadays you’ll be hard pushed to find any of these pencils around although the odd one does pop up now and then.
Your student debt – paid off
One of the strangest prizes was featured on Paid Off with comedian Michael Torpey, a satirical game show where contestants competed to have their student loans paid off. The premise seemed like a glimmer of hope for those drowning in student debt, but the reality often left contestants walking away with only a fraction of their loans covered – or nothing at all. The final round required contestants to answer general knowledge or major-specific questions, with correct answers determining what percentage of their debt would be paid. Critics were quick to point out that the show capitalised on the inherent stress and desperation of real-life financial struggles, making the whole concept feel like a cruel joke.
A cow called ‘Desiree’
What is it with competitions and farm animals? After his first Wimbledon victory in 2003, tennis legend Roger Federer was given an unexpected and rather unique prize in recognition of him taking part: a cow! Upon returning to the Swiss Open after his Wimbledon triumph, the tournament organisers presented him with the cow, which he humorously named “Juliette.” Federer joked about needing to find a garage for the cow and left her in the care of a dairy farmer in Gstaad. Interestingly, Juliette later gave birth to a calf named “Edelweiss.”
In 2013, a decade later, Federer was awarded another cow by the Swiss Open organisers, which he named “Desiree.” These definitely have to be the most quirky trophies in his collection!
A wheel of cheese
Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0
It’s not only Brits that will be familiar with this prize: the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake now has world-fame, with people travelling from all over the world to take part. In this yearly event held at Brockworth near Gloucester, participants race down the 200-yard (180 m) long hill chasing a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. The first person to cross the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese.
The cheese itself is Double Gloucester (of course) and weighs 3 to 4-kilograms. It is protected for the rolling by a wooden casing round the side, so despite its bumpy journey, it’s still edible at the bottom!
A $10,000 fish bowl
This bizarre prize popped up on game show High Rollers from the 1970s, where two people rolled giant pairs of dice and then attempted to remove the number they rolled from the game board. In one episode the contestant was awarded an antique Chinese fish bowl worth $10,000. Host Alex Trebek, ever the charmer, tried to smooth things over by asking the lucky lady, “But you like antiques, right?” Sure, Alex… that’s exactly what everyone’s rolling dice for!
12 full-sized grandfather clocks
Starting with Fred Lorenzen’s victory from pole position in 1964, NASCAR race winners at Martinsville Speedway have always received a grandfather clock as their trophy. It chimes every 15 minutes, providing them with a regular reminder of their accomplishment. NASCAR legend Richard Petty has quite the collection of these iconic timepieces – taking home no less than 12 clocks since the introduction of this truly unique prize and ensuring his wins are truly unforgettable!
Darrell Waltrip has scooped 11 of the clocks although only keeps three in his house (can you blame him), while Jimmie Johnson has eight of the nine clocks he’s won at home.
The tradition of awarding the winner a grandfather clock was started by the Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell’s grandfather, H. Clay Earles who wanted a trophy that wouldn’t just sit around on a shelf and collect dust. “He figured if he did a grandfather clock, the driver’s wife would like it, too, and it would be put in a prominent place in their home.” (Campbell)
Pickle Juice
In this competition, entrants stood the chance of winning a case of pickle juice worth £157. The pickle juice craze began after defender Kieran Trippier necked a bottle after going down injured in England’s opening match against Serbia in Euro 2024. The Sun ran the promotion, gifting 1,200 bottles from the Pickle Juice Company to fifty readers, including 24 bottles of its “Extra Strength” shot.
Although it doesn’t sound like something you’d dream of winning, Pickle juice actually has a pretty good rep. It markets itself as a way to prevent muscle cramps or at the onset to stop exercise induced or nighttime cramps, and experts are happy to confirm that it’s the real deal. According to Professor Mayur Ranchordas of Sheffield Hallam University, “Drinking a shot of pickle juice can alleviate cramp almost instantly. This is where it gets its magic tag from. Sodium, potassium and vinegar contained in it combine to trigger a reflex in the mouth which sends a signal to the muscles to stop cramping.” Who knew.
Jedward’s soiled underpants
Back in 2011, gossip site HolyMoly.com (which was bought out by Big Brother) offered a pair of Jedward’s soiled undies following their appearance on Celebrity Big Brother series 8. The competition read:
“Exciting competition time, everyone! Exciting! Celebrity Big Brother! So, you know when we offer slightly horrid yet imaginary prizes at the end of some of our stories? Well, this time we’ve actually got real prizes! That’s right, you can win a pair of Jedward’s deeply suspicious boxers (honestly, what the f*** is that stuff? It looks like talc, yogurt and seawater) plus Kerry’s fags and her lighter, which seems to have been either badly chewed or at least mildly corroded. PRIZES FIT FOR A KING! All you need to do to win all three of these priceless these items is to answer the following question: Who is Alice Levine’s slave driving, yet handsome, weekend co-host on top-rated Big Brother spin-off Big Brother’s Bit On The Side? Competition closes next friday (16/08/2011). No one from Holy Moly or anyone even vaguely related will be entering. More on taste grounds than anything legal.”
~ Fri, 09/09/2011 – 11:24 by John Hill, HolyMoly.com
Bleurgh. The answer incidentally was Jamie East, who also happened to be the founder of HolyMoly.com.
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