A look back (a news report, on Oct 9,1996, via the Wayback Machine) at the Ig Nobel Prize for fastest way to ignite a barbecue.
(An additional, until-now untold aspect of the story: The university’s administration was proud of this, then years later suddenly decided to be frightened of mentioning it, then eventually became again proud of it. University administrators, some of them, can be remarkably timid creatures.)
Here’s video of George Goble doing that R&D work: