Crunchies
{{short description|Former technology industry awards}}
The Crunchies was an industry award given out from 2007 to 2017 by several technology blogs to the Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists they cover.{{cite news|publisher=AFP|title=Internet's young turks rally for big blogs Crunchies awards|date=January 18, 2008|url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5heM-ykCtBeIUQEjzWX_8n_2mdCPQ|access-date=December 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030005359/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5heM-ykCtBeIUQEjzWX_8n_2mdCPQ|archive-date=October 30, 2010|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|publisher=Business Insider|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/No-Love-For-Google-At-The-Crunchies-This-Year-3528806.php|title=No Love For Google At The Crunchies This Year|author=Matt Rosoff|date=February 1, 2012}}{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/a-song-of-silicon-valley/|date=January 11, 2010|title=A Song of Silicon Valley|author=Damon Darlin}}
The awards have been sponsored and co-hosted by blogs such as GigaOm, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and ReadWriteWeb (which no longer participates), and tabulated from votes on their sites. Awards have been given out at ceremonies at various theaters in San Francisco, California.{{cite news|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/01/techcrunch-facebook-google.html|date=January 11, 2010|title=Silicon Valley turns out for Crunchies|author=Jessica Guynn}}
The award, a plastic sculpture of a primate standing on top of a computer with a bone in his hand, is a reference to the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, or possibly to a scene spoofing that movie in Zoolander.{{cite news|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/01/19/heres-a-shiny-award-to-perk-you-up/|date=January 19, 2009|title=Here's A Shiny Award To Perk You Up|author=Scott Austin}}
On November 9, 2017, Techcrunch announced that the award show would be ending as part of the streamlining of operations by parent owner Verizon Communications.{{cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/11/09/the-crunchies-where-silicon-valley-went-to-be.html?ana=twt|title=The Crunchies, where Silicon Valley went to be celebrated and skewered, is ending|website=Bizjournals.com|access-date=November 23, 2021}}