A booby prize is a joke prize

Prize

A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people to recognise and reward actions or achievements. Official prizes often involve monetary rewards as well as the fame that comes with them...

 usually given in recognition of a terrible performance or last-place finish. A person who finishes last, for example, may get a booby prize such as a worthless coin. Booby prizes are sometimes humorously and jokingly

Joke

A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...

 coveted as an object of pride.

Booby prizes, however, may not be given just to those who just have a terrible performance. At times, the term "booby prize" is used for a consolation prize given to all non-placing participants of a competition.

Origin

The word "boob" stems from the Spanish bobo meaning stupid, which in turn came from the Latin balbus meaning stammering

Stuttering

Stuttering , also known as stammering , is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds...

; the word booby to mean dunce

Dunce

A dunce is a person incapable of learning.The word is derived from the name of the great Scholastic theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus, also referred to as Doctor Subtillis, or "Subtle Doctor", whose works on logic, theology and philosophy were accepted textbooks in the universities from...

 appeared in 1599.

Booby prize literally means "idiot's prize". The OED dates this usage to 1893. Booby trap

Booby trap

A booby trap is a device designed to harm or surprise a person, unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of the victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. However, in other cases the device is placed on busy roads or is...

 and "booby hatch" are related terms.

Examples

• An award is given annually for Mr. Irrelevant
  Mr. Irrelevant
  "Mr. Irrelevant" is the title bestowed each year upon the last pick of the annual National Football League draft.- Irrelevant Week :The name arose in 1976, when former Southern California and NFL receiver Paul Salata founded "Irrelevant Week" in Newport Beach, California. He announced the final...
  
  , the professional American football
  American football
  American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
  
   player each year who is selected last in the NFL draft
  Draft (sports)
  A draft is a process used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia and the Philippines to allocate certain players to sports teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players...
  
  .
• A Red Lantern
  Lanterne rouge
  The Lanterne Rouge is the competitor in last place in a cycling race such as the Tour de France. The phrase comes from the French "Red Lantern" and refers to the red lantern hung on the caboose of a railway train, which conductors would look for in order to make sure none of the couplings had...
  
   is given to the cyclist who finishes last in the Tour de France
  Tour de France
  The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
  
   and the last musher in the Iditarod.
• A wooden spoon
  Wooden spoon (award)
  A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
  
   is a common booby prize which is awarded in such sports as Rugby Union
  Rugby union
  Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
  
  , Rowing
  Rowing (sport)
  Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
  
   and in particular to the bottom team on the ladder in Australian Football League
  Australian Football League
  The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
  
   (AFL).
• The anthropomorphic Dusty Bin was given as a booby prize in the TV game show 3-2-1
  3-2-1
  3–2–1 was a popular British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, between 29 July 1978 and 24 December 1988. Throughout its run, the show was hosted by former Butlins Redcoat Ted Rogers. It was based on a Spanish gameshow called Un, dos, tres.....
  
  .
• A number of game shows have used their own terminology to describe booby prizes, won by contestants who had made either a poor decision or an unlucky choice. On Let's Make a Deal
  Let's Make a Deal
  Let's Make a Deal is a television game show which originated in the United States and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The show is based around deals offered to members of the audience by the host. The traders usually have to weigh the possibility of an offer being...
  
  , booby prizes are called "zonks," while the Chuck Barris-produced The New Treasure Hunt called these items "klunks."
• Two games on The Price Is Right
  The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
  The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
  
  offer a booby prize-of-sorts for a losing contestant:
  • A cash prize of less than $10 for revealing the three numbers in the piggy bank prize's blanks (before completing the price of either one of the two more desirable prizes).
• Traditionally, the cadet graduating West Point with the lowest academic record was known as the "goat" and was given a silver dollar by each of his classmates.
• On the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
   Quiz show Blankety Blank
  Blankety Blank
  Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
  
  losing contestants were famously presented with a Blankety Blank Cheque Book and Pen
• On the New Zealand game show It's in the Bag
  It's in the Bag (game show)
  It's in the Bag was a long-running New Zealand radio and, later, television game show. The show began on radio in the 1950s and was hosted and directed by Selwyn Toogood. In the 1970s a television version of the show was developed which was also hosted by Toogood until his retirement in the 1980s....
  
  , three of the game bags have booby prizes in them, ranging from rubber ducks to boxes of washing powder.