Dead Funny

Each year, a Colorado town throws a party to honour the corpse of a frozen grandpa — proof it’s not just us Brits with a talent for eccentric humour

We do eccentricity well in Britain: Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks, the plain wackiness of Morris dancing and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, whose manifesto includes nationalising crime to make sure it doesn’t pay. They’ve got my vote.

Then there are our eccentric sports. We’ve got cheese-rolling, bog-snorkelling, gurning championships and, speaking from my own experience, the maddest of all: The World Extreme Lilo Championship. That’s right. I once navigated the class IV rapids of the River Nevis on an inflatable bed. I was one of the lucky ones — the chap next to me, riding a blow-up doll, nearly drowned.

In America, it’s different. Crazy here means Scientology and stockpiling guns. It’s altogether less fun. So, imagine my delight when I discovered a bit of British-level eccentricity here, in my adopted home of Colorado. The mountain town of Nederland (not to be confused with Michael Jackson’s Neverland) is like the love child of Davy Crocket and Timothy Leary — part 1960s acid casualty, part beaver-skinning Armageddon survivalist. It’s also the home of, perhaps, the world’s craziest festival.