The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for things that first make people LAUGH, and then make them THINK. The name “Ig Nobel” is said to be derived from a pun in the English languge.
The pun draws out only one of several very different aspects of Ig Nobility.
That pun seems to crop up in the strangest places. And it crops up elsewhere, too. Investigator Regula Noetzli writes:
“Please tell me this is not a coincidence! The web site dictionary.com always chooses a “Word of the Day.” Today, the day of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, their Word of the Day is ‘ignoble'”:
Word of the Day for Thursday September 30, 2004
ignoble \ig-NOH-bul\, adjective