I was watching a show where folks were trying to come up with the worst 2nd places. They polled the shows audience & the highest % went for #4.

I'm sure people here could come up with others, so fire up the gray matter and add to the list. Oh yea, you have to exclude war & sports because there are just too many of those.

I'll start with only the least info possible, and after that I will give some short cliff notes on them for interested folks.

1) 2nd was Charles Thompson.....1st was John Hancock

2) 2nd was Edwin Aldrin.......1st was Neil Armstrong (not Lance)

3) 2nd was/is Pete Best......1st was/is Ringo Starr

4) 2nd was Robert Falcon Scott.....1st was Roald Amundsen


1) Charles Thompson - never heard of him, right? But you've certainly heard of John Hancock. Salesman to customer....."Can I get your John Hancock please?" At any law firm....same thing...lawyer to client (victim), "just put your John Hancock at all the places with the red highlight".

All day, every day, people are saying John Hancock in lots of similar situations to the one's I mentioned.

So yea, even though "Can I get your Charles Thompson here please" is a fine name too, Alas, Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence first & Thompson signed 2nd. So even almost 2 and 1/2 centuries later, Hancock is
still famous & nobody knows Thompson.

2) Edwin Aldrin - some folks may have heard of this guy. But he is nowhere close in fame to Neil Armstrong who was the first human to set foot on the moon. I would guess that some folks here wouldn't know that because I can tell what the overwhelming demographic is at this site ( that is not something I'm saying in a negative way at all, just an observation.)

It was really something back then. In 1961 President Kennedy challenged NASA to put a man on the moon that decade. But tragically on 11/22/63 Kennedy was assassinated, so he didn't see his challenge met on 7/20/69 by Armstrong.

3) I forgot the 3rd one out of the 4 they mentioned (I remember the 4th & will put it right after the one I just thought of). Pete Best, another one that I think some folks are aware of, but its light years to Ringo Starr.

Best kept getting sick a lot & would miss a lot of gigs. I think it sort of ironic that George Harrison led the charge to poach Ringo from Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. I think I also read that Lenin said that Best was just a lousy drummer. Beatles fire Best on 8/16/62 & Ringo Starr was on board to play a gig on 8/18/62 when they were still called the Silver Beatles & the rest is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (fill in the blanks cause the obvious word is too cliché).

4) Robert Falcon Scott - he led an expedition of British men who were going to be the first ever to reach the South Pole, but when they got there, they found out that a Norwegian expedition had beaten him there by 5 weeks. So his expedition ended up being the second one's there.

Then on their way back (this is merciless nature with incredibly cold temperatures....food for men & dogs, dogsleds to carry equipment and men), one by one they starve or freeze to death. This was voted the worst second place.

This was in January of 1912. The guy who led the Norwegians was the explorer Roald Amundsen. With the culture of our time now, I'm sure that Kim Kardashian is more well known than either of these guys.

And what made her famous, I don't really know, although I guess she's related to Bruce Jenner (the Olympian who won the men's decathlon in 1976), who is now Caitlyn....lol...Jenner.

And I think I heard Kim's claim to fame was having big buttocks. What a culture we have. There are so many astounding things going on in space....countries that have just become horrors, America GTHIAH....et. al.

But the evening news which is usually - if it bleeds it leads - starts off with....Who Shot J.R.? Or was that last week, year, or a few decades ago, etc.?

Ladislava Tótha - kick boxing. Not sure who #1 was.

2 man soggy biscuit contest

Coming up #2 at a russian roulette match must hurt.

this is a comic's 3 minute funny bit about his Uncle Arnie who was once the 2nd ranked Russian Roulette player in America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t2yTd6QV0c

I don't get the Pete Best one, he was the first drummer in The Beatles and Ringo was second, so second was really good.

At least Charles Thompson's name isn't being soiled centuries later by use in a really stupid expression.

Yea, I agree with you. That was a lousy example. Not enough thought into that one.

Russian roulette

When seeking a significant other.

That corrupt cooze Hillary and the DNC, somehow managed to come in 2nd place to Trump. It is really bad.

We don't even know if John Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was the president of the convention and his signature is famous because he signed it all huge and beautifully.

climaxing

being the 2nd sperm to get to the egg

Buzz Aldrin is really famous and everyone's heard of him.

I agree with Xander--Buzz Aldrin is extremely famous. He's more famous here than Gagarin, or Alan Shepard, who you could consider "first" for other astronaut feats.

And I agree that Pete Best was the FIRST drummer of the Beatles.

And John Hancock's signature isn't revered for being the first--it's revered because it's phenomenally large and aesthetic. I think he may have even signed the document twice.

Three of your four examples are total dog ****.

And Scott would have nowhere near the notoriety he has today if he had just gotten to the south pole second and then finished the expedition. It's so legendary because he and his team died, which had little to do with how fast Amundsen got there.

This is definitely true, but it is also true that more people have heard of Neil Armstrong.

Also +1 to John Hancock not being famous because he was first but just because his signature was so big.

Women's Olympic hockey

I would go with either second in Russian roulette or kickboxing. Pete Best pretty good too.

eatin' the puss

When two people are being chased by a grizzly bear.

When bidding to purchase something

All of this. WTF at this thread?