( CNN ) -- If you asked me -- and God knows nobody has -- I would have to guess that never in the history of humankind has anyone ever actually slipped on a banana peel . Believe me . I 've tried . When things get slow in my house we experiment with fruit . ( To which he immediately realized the suggestiveness of that last sentence . ) Now , while I maintain my strong conviction that nobody has ever slipped on a banana peel , Japanese researchers have proven that these things can , in fact , decrease the friction under a shoe sole by one-fifth . Which means ... it 's possible . And I applaud this research , for it is delightfully pointless . At least until slipping on banana peels becomes a real thing and turns into an epidemic . `` News flash ! This just in from Los Angeles , where 600 more people have slipped on banana peels . One eyewitness on the scene described it as , quote : Hilarious . '' But this was real research . Done by real scientists . Who received real awards for their banana study . Real awards ! You see , every year in September there is a gala held at Harvard where great minds come together to celebrate the Ig Nobel Prizes . Which are just like the Nobel Prizes , but with an `` I '' and a `` g '' in front , thus suggesting nobody here has managed to cure cancer . At the Ig Nobels ( Think Ignobles , but pronounce it Ig-NOH-bells ) , instead of celebrating life-changing achievements , they honor those who `` first make people laugh , and then make them think . '' Really , it sounds like the kind of event I could attend without pants . At first , people would laugh . And then they would think . `` Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! Wait . Why is this man covered with rainbow sprinkles ? '' The overall goal of the Ig Nobels is to encourage interest in science , medicine and technology by highlighting the absurd and the unusual . Like banana peel studies . Because they 're light and fun . And , in the end , you might actually learn something . As opposed to what you are reading now , which , while light and ( quite debatably ) fun , will ultimately leave you with nothing more than a permanently burned image in your brain of my naked body covered in rainbow sprinkles . You 're welcome . Anyway , that 's the concept behind the Ig Nobels . And their 24th annual celebration was just held on Thursday . The theme was : Food . So , in addition to Team Banana from Japan , which won the physics prize , other awards were given out to such important studies as how cured pork can stop a nose bleed , and what happens in the brain when people somehow see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast . The latter was the winning study of the neuroscience prize . I did n't read the actual research , but I 'm pretty sure seeing Jesus in your toast suggests that your brain wiring suddenly made the connection that you have an eBay account and -- hark ! -- you also love being on the local news . That 's when you see it . But my favorite award was the prize for public health . This year , that went to a study investigating whether or not owning a cat is mentally hazardous for humans . It is . The cat study was a slight variation from the food theme ( I hope ) but good science nonetheless . I mean , it was that or banana peels . Or Jesus toast . Or pork in the nose . Heck , come to think of it , maybe I should 've been a scientist . After all , I like experimenting with meat . ( To which he immediately realized the suggestiveness of that last sentence . ) Follow @ JarrettBellini on Twitter . And prepare to be underwhelmed . See more content with questionable news value at CNN Comedy .
A Japanese study of the slipperiness of banana peels won an honorary Nobel prize on Thursday . The Oxford Nobels are a parody award for science , presented at Oxford University . Another award was for research into whether or not cats are bad for human mental health .