Theo Chapman is assistant online editor at the Lowy Institute.
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Europe was a hard event to spoof but there have been one or two amusing efforts. But for a far less controversial view of human achievements there are the Ig Nobel prizes, described in this video by their founder Marc Abrahams.
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The awards are organised by the Annals of Improbable Research and 'honor achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think'.
This year's physics prize went to a US-UK team who calculated the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail.