Desipio, This Is Your Death Pool (2011)...

[J. Walter Weatherman]

22 players entered.

Possible individual point totals range from a high of 92 (powen) to a low of 48 (RedBeard).

144 total unique names were picked.

48 of these are survivors who appeared in 2010 entries, 96 are brand spanking new for 2011.

One player (Wheezer) submitted 10 completely new picks.

One player (Huey) submitted a full slate of 2010 repeats.

There wasn't a 100% unique slate. (Not even Wheezer, thanks to one relatively pedestrian selection in Christopher Hitchens.)

Oldest: WWI vet Frank Buckles, 110 next month (Yeti, bucking his rep)

Youngest: Canadian hypertrichosis patient Justin Bieber, 17 in March (Slaky, doing the Lord's work)

• Dead Pool Fact! Only one Desipiot made the Dead Pool cut: TDubbs, selected by SKO. Huey lost his spot at the prized #3 slot on Fork's list to Harmon Killebrew in a late revision.

Average age: 67.95

Median age: 70.82

Number of list revisions due to premature death: 3 revisions (Chuck, TEC and PenFoe) on 2 deaths (Richard Holbrooke and Bob Feller)

Number of revisions due to the late news of Harmon Killebrew's cancer: 2 (Fork and PenFoe)

Number of revisions due to forgetting to pick Brett Favre the first time around: 1 (Apex)

Killebrew, against my expectations, checked in at a modest 3 picks. Instead it was Aretha Franklin who ran away with this year's crown at an appropriately girthy 9 picks. The next most popular were Kim Jong-Il and Zsa Zsa (6 each).

(And, yeah, that includes RedBeard, who—protestations of literacy notwithstanding—picked someone named "Arethra.")

• Did You Know? Aretha Franklin's publicist is Tracey Jordan. Jordan notoriously shouted "Babalu-Aye!" at Bea Arthur's funeral.

Three picks that made me laugh on sight:

• Warner Saunders: I recall a story a Desipiot (maybe CT himself) once told about spotting Saunders buying Depends


• David Blaine: Because... that fucking guy


• Michael Jordan: Though, really, I should have remembered

Best theme list: TJ Brown's All-Chicagoland roster (Runner-up: Apex)

Powen again opted to call "modes of death." Ignored for scoring, shared for internets:

1 Snooki Choking on a big, fat dick...
2 Angelina Jolie Heroin Overdose...
3 Bruno Mars Cocaine and Prescription Drug Overdose...
4 Willie Nelson Secondhand Smoke
5 William Heirens Post-coital grabber in his cell.
6 Osama Bin Laden Choking on a AGM-114 Hellfire.
7 Jennifer Aniston Dies giving birth...
8 John Travolta Excessively hot ghey sex...
9 Larry King Old fucking age...
10 Kim Jong Il Choking on a big, fat dick...
Bonus: Al Yellon Choking on a big, fat bologna sammich celebrating a historical home run for the opposing team.

• Dead Pool Fact! Father and son Candidates for Death Kirk and Michael Douglas (9 picks between the two) appear together on two different lists (Fork and Butthead).

2011's top picks:

Aretha Franklin 9
Kim Jong-Il 6
Zsa Zsa Gabor 6
Lindsay Lohan 5
Michael Douglas 5
Dick Clark 5
Fidel Castro 5
Jimmy Carter 5
Kirk Douglas 4
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi 3
Maggie Daley 3
Muhammad Ali 3
Roger Ebert 3
Harmon Killebrew 3
Margaret Thatcher 3
Nancy Reagan 3
Julian Assange 2
Brett Favre 2
Glenn Beck 2
Scott Steiner 2
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. 2
Seve Ballesteros 2
Christopher Hitchens 2
Dick Cheney 2
Penny Marshall 2
Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers 2
Larry King 2
Ariel Sharon 2
Bob Barker 2
Charles Rangel 2
George H.W. Bush 2
Hugh Hefner 2
James Garner 2
Queen Elizabeth II 2
Ronnie Biggs 2
Andy Rooney 2
Mike Wallace 2

• PenFail Fact! PenFoe described octogenarian train robber Ronnie Biggs as his "Wheezer entry." But, not only is his claimed "obscure" pick #1 overall on The DeathList 2011, it's not even unique to our pool. Nice try, Scottsdale!

[Slaky]

Desippy worthy post right there. Chock full of the goods and a RedBeard insult that he probably won't even understand.

[Bort]

I've played on unrelated Dead Pools in the past and Ronnie Biggs has become a Vigoda like joke. He should be given to people, like the R S T L N E on Wheel of Fortune.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I've played on unrelated Dead Pools in the past and Ronnie Biggs has become a Vigoda like joke. He should be given to people, like the R S T L N E on Wheel of Fortune.

Ooh...

Dead Pool Fact! No one picked Abe Vigoda.

I guess his time has finally come.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I'm tempted to call shenanigans on RedBeard's pick of Chuck Berry...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/3119886-418/berry-chuck-theater-chicago-congress.html

Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Chuck Berry collapsed over his keyboards about an hour into his "Winter Dance" show before a standing-room only crowd Saturday night at the Congress Theater.

[Tonker]

Quality.  I love the fact that here, on a fringe message board, somebody most of us barely know has gone to this much trouble to do something so pointless, so thoroughly.  Thanks, Thrill.

[Yeti]

Quality.  I love the fact that here, on a fringe message board, somebody most of us barely know has gone to this much trouble to do something so pointless, so thoroughly.  Thanks, Thrill.

It's not pointless to me. I've been clicking refresh the last couple days over and over in anticipation

[Bort]

Quality.  I love the fact that here, on a fringe message board, somebody most of us barely know has gone to this much trouble to do something so pointless, so thoroughly.  Thanks, Thrill.

It's not pointless to me. I've been clicking refresh the last couple days over and over in anticipation

The only thing Yeti loves more than children are corpses.

They can't testify.

[Bort]

DPD.

Can someone confirm whether TDubbs is dead yet?

[Quality Start Machine]

• PenFail Fact! PenFoe described octogenarian train robber Ronnie Biggs as his "Wheezer entry." But, not only is his claimed "obscure" pick #1 overall on The DeathList 2011, it's not even unique to our pool. Nice try, Scottsdale!

He's not on my list, but the Gerry Rafferty thread is awesome.

[R-V]

Desippy worthy post right there. Chock full of the goods and a RedBeard insult that he probably won't even understand.

I'm standing and masturbating. And by masturbating I mean applauding. Thrill's unveiling of the Dead Pool is in my top two annual internet traditions along with the AV Club shitty band name post.

• Warner Saunders: I recall a story a Desipiot (maybe CT himself) once told about spotting Saunders buying Depends

That was me. It was at Costco. Warner buys them in bulk, like Yeti buys chloroform.

[R-V]

DPD. Nobody else picked Belushi? That shitpuddle is MINE.

[Internet Apex]

Tits-out, Thrill. This moment is the only reason I decided to submit picks this year.

[Chuck to Chuck]

Awesome work.  And bookmarked.

[Richard Chuggar]

DPD.

Can someone confirm whether TDubbs is dead yet?

help me