The Ig Nobel Prize is a parody of the Nobel Prize, which is awarded every autumn to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Since 1991, the Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” The name of the award, the “Ig Nobel Prize” ( ) is a pun on the word "ignoble", an achievement “characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness”, and is satirical social criticism that identifies absurd-sounding, yet useful research and knowledge.