Some are funny, but not ridiculous.

For example,

> for their experiments to learn whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies.

This isn't absurd. It is currently thought that the stripes are NOT for camouflage, since simulated predator vision (such as lions) cannot resolve them. It is believed that one reason for the stripes could be to act as a deterrent against flies (how exactly, not sure).

In this sense, testing whether it works on cows isn't absurd!

Of course Ig Nobel prizes aren't necessarily intended only for absurd or ridiculous research. Their stated purpose is to honour achievements that "make people laugh, then think".

Sometimes that means the achievement (or "achievement") is something genuinely absurd. Other times it's not.

The great thing about this award is that it’s often real and beneficial science.

The study debunking blue zones won, but it was some of the best science I’ve ever seen. (Removing false knowledge is more important than adding new knowledge)

Turns out the Mediterranean diet doesn’t help you live to a hundred, there was just a lot of pension fraud in Italy.

Turns out best predictor of Japanese centenarians is if the local records hall was destroyed in World War Two (because the records were replaced by non native speaking records clerks)