Death by coconut

Coconuts falling from their trees and striking individuals can cause serious injury to the back, neck, shoulders and head, and are occasionally fatal.

This legend gained momentum after the 2002 work of a noted expert on shark attacks was characterized as saying that falling coconuts kill 150 people each year worldwide.

[15] The origin of the death by coconut legend was a 1984 research paper by Dr. Peter Barss, of Provincial Hospital, Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, titled "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts", published in The Journal of Trauma (now known as The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery).

[16] In his paper, Barss observed that in Papua New Guinea, where he was based, over a period of four years 2.5% of trauma admissions were for those injured by falling coconuts.

[19] In response to the dubious distinction, Barss told the Canadian Medical Association Journal, "When you're treating these injuries daily, it's not funny at all".

[18] In May 2002, the legend gained new momentum when George H. Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, claimed that "[f]alling coconuts kill 150 people worldwide each year".

Such reports include: A later 2001 study[34] over a five-year period found all skull fractures from falling fruit were in children under the age of ten.

In December 1923, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a man was killed while trying to crack open a coconut with the butt end of a loaded revolver.

[58] In an effort to determine who had taken a book from a classroom, an elementary school teacher at Harnahalli required each of his students to touch a coconut bearing a namam, a religious symbol.

It doesn't take a great intellect or reasoning power to be able to laugh at a monkey running off with Gilligan's dinner or a guy getting conked on the head by a coconut.

[76] In the 2000 film Cast Away, the stranded character played by Tom Hanks is alarmed several times by loud thuds, which he cannot identify.

In March 2006, Newsweek ran a satirical article on former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, stating he testified that he had sustained amnesia after being struck in the head by a falling coconut and, as a result of the injury, was unable to recall the events that occurred during his time at Enron.

[80] In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve", Patrick Star is addicted to a show where nothing happens except a man gets hit in the head by a coconut.