Didn’t Happen of the Year Awards
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The Didn’t Happen of the Year Awards (or DHOTYA) is a British social media entertainment brand, mainly known for representing the DHOTYA social media webpage on Twitter. As of June 22, 2022, the account has over 408,000 followers. The main aim of this social media page is to provide humorous satirical entertainment for their audience in the form of light-hearted mockery directed at other social media accounts, sometimes celebrities, who attempt to lie or exaggerate stories via social media.[1]
Every year, via their page, the general public can vote for their DHOTYA winner out of a select group of nominees, which is the story which is their favourite, either for being the funniest or simply the most unbelievable.[2]
In 2018 and 2019, the phrases ‘Didn’t Happen of the Year Awards’ and ‘DHOTYA’ were respectively trademarked.[3]
In 2016, the account was bought for £300 by Harry Barnes, a customer service social media manager from Warwickshire, who said that he ‘liked the concept’. In 2019, more than 643,000 people cast a vote and DHOTYA reached over 200 million views on its content.[4]
In September 2018, betting company BetVictor announced that they would be offering a betting market on the 2018 awards.[5] This was the first time gambling companies had collaborated with a Twitter account over the outcome of a poll. [6]
Format[edit]
The yearly awards are generally hosted at the end of each calendar year via the official DHOTYA Twitter account, in a "World Cup" style Twitter poll format. This is done by selecting the best 32 tweets of the year, and randomly putting these into 8 groups of 4, labelled Group A, Group B, Group C etc. Each one-on-one "match" is a Twitter poll sent out to the public to vote for their favourite in that particular match.
Group Stages: The group stages are voted on by the public, with each member of the public getting 1 vote per group. The two tweets with the highest vote percentage will progress to the "round of 16", the two tweets with the lowest voting percentage will be eliminated from the competition.
Round of 16: The winner of Group A will face a one-on-one vote, or "match", vs the runner up of Group B in this round. The runner-up of Group A will face the winner of Group B, and so forth throughout the progressing tweets from each of the 8 groups. The tweet with the highest percentage of the votes in each match will progress to the quarter finals. The tweet with the lowest percentage of the votes in each match will be eliminated from the competition.
Quarter Finals: The winner of the "Round of 16" match 1 will face the winner of the "Round of 16" match 2 in the first quarter final match. This is then repeated with the winner of "Round of 16" match 3 facing the winner of the "Round of 16" match 4, and so on. The tweet with the highest percentage of the vote in each quarter final match will progress to a semi final, with the tweet with the lowest percentage of the vote in each quarter final match being eliminated from the competition.
Semi Final: The winner of the Quarter Final 1 match will face the winner of the Quarter Final 2 match in the first Semi final match. This is also repeated for the winner of the Quarter Final 3 match facing the winner of the Quarter Final 4 match. The tweet with the highest percentage of the vote in each semi final match will progress to the final, with the tweet with the lowest percentage of the vote in each semi final match progressing to a "Third Place" match.
Third Place Match: The losing semi finalists will face each other in a match to determine who come's third and fourth in the overall awards.
Final: The winning semi finalist will face each other in the final, with the tweet with the highest percentage of the vote in this match being crowned winner of the award for that year. The tweet with the lowest percentage of the vote in this match will be deemed runner-up.
Notable incidents[edit]
Tom Zanetti[edit]
In 2018, DJ Tom Zanetti claimed on Twitter that a ticket inspector on a London train had banned him from boarding, so he ‘booked a helicopter’ to take him instead. However, he was flooded with messages after the story was picked up by the DHOTYA and went viral, with many claiming that he was lying, with some people going as far as checking plane schedules to prove the illegitimacy of his claim, which was eventually proven false.[7] Whilst Zanetti was the bookies’ favourite to win the 2018 awards, he did not.[8]
Chris Eubank[edit]
In 2019, former WBO middleweight and super-middleweight world boxing champion Chris Eubank claimed that he had won the lottery in 1984, but was ‘scammed’ out of over $100,000, instead taking a lower offer of $25. DHOTYA branded the tweet an ‘insane lie’ and hundreds of thousands of people got involved to attempt to verify the claim.[9] [10]
The story was an early favourite to win the 2019 awards, and bookmaker BetVictor were even offering odds on the winner, this was first time gambling companies had collaborated with a Twitter account over the outcome of a poll.[11]
Owen Paterson[edit]
In 2019, Conservative MP Owen Paterson wrote to Labour MP Louise Haigh to request that she removed her nomination for the 2019 DHOTYA awards, after she cast doubt upon Paterson’s claim that “people came up to me on the Tube, saying ‘just get on with Brexit’” during a Channel 4 News interview.[12]
The interaction went viral, with thousands of views and interactions, and eventually Paterson was part of the final 32 nominees for the 2019 awards, although he did not win.[13]
David Baddiel[edit]
In an article in the Sunday Times, widely acclaimed comedian, musician & author David Baddiel spoke about how a simple tweet he posted regarding a comment made by his 12 year old son was targeted by "didn't happeners", tagging DHOTYA in his post and calling him a liar. Whilst Baddiel acknowledged in his article that his concerns weren’t actually aimed at DHOTYA, he believed that a percentage of the followers were trolls and referred to their behaviour as "'something so deeply joy-destroying, so entirely reductive, about someone who sees a personal story being shared and immediately declares it not-true.'"[14]
Zimbini Mtongana[edit]
Zimbini Mtongana was a South African woman who was nominated for the 2018 award following a tweet she posted in June of that year. She claimed that she was almost a victim of human trafficking before her father launched an unlikely rescue bid. After thousands of people saw her story, which went viral via DHOTYA, she received thousands of messages from concerned strangers and eventually came out and admitted that her story was fake.[15]
List of DHOTYA winners[edit]
| Year | Title | References |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Keith’s Mum | |
| 2017 | #ProudAuntieMoment | [16] |
| 2018 | Supermarche | |
| 2019 | He’s Only 1 | [17] |
| 2020 | The Voiceless | [18] |
| 2021 | Almonds | [19] |
Reception[edit]
One criticism of the awards is that women are unfairly targeted, and as a result can be victims of online harassment. However, Harry Barnes rebutted these claims, suggesting that ‘ there’s no targeted approach from DHOTYA supporters and that both men and women are called out for their ‘lies’ or fabrications.’[20]
During the first year of awards in 2016, the account grew from 17,000 to over 100,000 followers, and that growth has further increased. The account also receives hundred and thousands of likes for every post, the numbers of which have been steadily increasing.[21]
References[edit]
- ↑ Jane, Mary (22 June 2022). "20 Times When Individuals Told A Lie So Bad That They Got Selected For The "Didn't Happen Of The Year" Awards". pupperish.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Patterson, Calum (19 December 2019). "Best nominees for Didn't Happen of the Year Awards 2019". dexerto.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Barnes, Harry (22 June 2022). "Intellectual Property Office: Harry Barnes". trademarks.ipo.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Stretton, Rachel (18 April 2020). "Meet the man behind satirical Twitter account spreading humour during coronavirus pandemic". coventrytelegraph.net. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ https://blog.betvictor.com/en-gb/other/betvictor-news/didnt-happen-year-awards/
- ↑ Casey, Jamie (4 February 2019). "Chris Eubank's Lottery Story an Early Runner for DHOTYA 2019". gambling.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ O’Sullivan, Kyle (28 January 2021). "Celebs Go Dating's Tom Zanetti was 'caught out' after outrageous helicopter brag". mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Wood, Tom (19 December 2018). "Tom Zanetti Made Bookies' Favourite To Win 'Didn't Happen Of The Year' Awards". ladbible.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Benson, Michael (4 February 2019). "'INSANE LIE' Chris Eubank Sr creates internet furore with outrageous claim that he once won the lottery". talksport.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Lambourne, Jake (5 February 2019). "EU MUST BE JOKING Chris Eubank Sr claims he won the lottery and was cheated out of huge windfall – but fans aren't convinced". thesun.ie. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Casey, Jamie (4 February 2019). "Chris Eubank's Lottery Story an Early Runner for DHOTYA 2019". gambling.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Williams, Jay (21 March 2019). "THE HILARIOUS TWITTER BRAWL BETWEEN MPS OWEN PATERSON & LOUISE HAIGH". hitc.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Togoh, Isabel (21 March 2019). "Tory MP Owen Paterson Is Less Than Pleased To Be Nominated For A 'Didn't Happen Of The Year' Award". huffingtonpost.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tech-comedian-david-baddiel-on-being-branded-a-liar-on-twitter-tf86mmsgx
- ↑ Head, Tom (21 December 2018). "DHOTYA: Cape Town woman nominated for bizarre "lie of the year" award". thesouthafrican.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Tait, Amelia (26 January 2022). ""It did happen," says Green politician Amelia Womack, winner of the Didn't Happen Awards". New statesman.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Malinowski, Kamil (30 December 2020). "DHOTYA 2019 winner revealed after insanely close final". Dexerto.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Foster, Sophie (29 December 2020). "Whopping lie about genius child wins Twitter's 'Didn't Happen of the Year' award". Daily Star. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Barnes, Harry (28 December 2021). "#DHOTYA2021 WINNER". Twitter. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Bakar, Faima (11 March 2019). "Why do men keep nominating women for the Didn't Happen of the Year Awards for very mundane things?". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
- ↑ Whitehouse, Matthew (21 December 2018). "how the 'didn't happen of the year awards' became the perfect twitter account for our times". i-d.vice.com. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
External links[edit]
- Twitter: ([1])
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