The Darwin Awards started in the early 1990s, apparently in the form of chain emails about people who died in stupid, self-caused ways. Because of the nature of chain letters, it's hard to say exactly when they started. Wendy Northcutt started collecting and investigating these stories in 1993, after her cousin Ian told her about the Darwin Awards. Northcutt made a website devoted to the Darwin Awards to house her collection in 1994. At the time, she only had about 10 stories, but even then they were compelling enough to get people's attention. She is now effectively in charge of the "official" Darwin Awards, but the awards themselves predate her involvement.

As for the "why" of the Darwin Awards' existence, as far as I can tell, they have always been about entertainment. People get the opportunity to say "wow, that was really dumb of that guy/girl", and can either pat themselves on the back for never doing something that foolish, or amuse themselves by forwarding the story to someone they know who may be in danger of committing the same stupid, fatal error as seen in the story. On some level, it's a little like the combination of entertainment and warnings about potential dangers in the world that children used to get from fairy tales. Theoretically, these stories are true (a few urban legends have crept in to the collection, but by and large these things really happened) which makes them that much more powerful as examples to the rest of us.

Some of the stories are fantastically stupid, and it may be a little comforting to know that the idiot at the heart of the story didn't reproduce. The thought of people like this being weeded out of the gene pool by their own actions makes the future of our species look ever so slightly brighter.

According to http://www.darwinawards.com/misc/faq.html#history the Darwin Awards were started in 1993 based on 5 stories then circulating on the Internet. How? The author of these awards, Wendy Northcutt decided to start collecting such stories and published them on the Internet. Why? Wendy Northcutt says:

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For me, it's, "Wow, there but for the Grace of God go I, Wendy," and I recall sub-catastrophic events in my past, and am thankful to still be here! Taking life for granted is a trap. Appreciating life and its short, sweet beauty... that's what activates inside me.
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