You’ve probably heard of Guinness World Records – or the Guinness Book of World Records, as it was more commonly known until 1999.
First published in 1995, Guinness World Records is a reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world.
Since then, Guinness World Records has become the world’s best-selling copyrighted book, and with each new edition, we are introduced to more bizarre and mind-boggling records, just like the ones we’ve listed for you here!
Stretchiest Skin
Garry Turner has been the proud owner of this record ever since 1999, thanks to a rare medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome – a connective-tissue disorder where the collagen becomes defective and includes the loosening of the skin and hypermobile joints.
This means that Mr. Turner can stretch the skin of his stomach to 6.25 inches, and doesn’t even feel any pain when he does it. The Briton is currently a sideshow performer and was a member of The Circus of Horrors in 2005.
Most Body Piercings
Some records can’t be broken because some people are born with a unique trait or physical quality that simply can’t be matched by anyone else (see Mr. Turner and has stretch skin). Other times, it’s a question of finding someone willing to put themselves through quite a bit of pain and/or adorn themselves with multiple piercings, as is the case with Elaine Davidson.
The Brazilian has a record 462 piercings on her body, including 192 piercings on her facial area and 214 piercings in her pubic area.
Most Big Mac Burgers Eaten in a Lifetime
There are McDonald’s addicts all over the world, but all of them pale in comparison to Donald Gorske of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
The 67-year-old, known as the “Big Mac enthusiast”, holds the record for most Big Macs eaten in his life, a whopping 28,788. He claims the Big Mac constitutes 90-95% of his total solid food intake and eats about 14 of these burgers each week. Interestingly, Mr. Gorske only weighs 185 pounds (he’s 6’2) and claims a cholesterol level of 140.
Largest Rubber Band Ball
For something so simple and somewhat pointless, it’s amazing how much use the average person can get out of a rubber band.
Joel Waul achieved his record after building a 9,032-pound monster rubber band ball and earning himself a spot in the Guinness World Records back in 2008. Mr. Ward used 700,000 rubber bands of all sizes to build his 6 foot, 7-inch ball he named “Megatron.”
Longest Plank Held
The plank is a position many a gym-goer and yoga practitioner will be familiar with. It’s a simple enough position – simply get into a push-up position, but rest on your forearms instead of your hands. The tricky part is holding it, as your abdominals can get taxed quickly.
That is, unless, you’re Mao Weidong of China, who held a plank for eight hours and one minute back in 2016.
Heaviest Onion
You won’t be surprised to learn that food is a category on to itself in the Guinness World Records, given that people all over the world have managed to create gargantuan-sized items, ranging from doughnuts to Doritos.
In 2014, Tony Glover of North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom earned himself a world record for growing the heaviest onion ever recorded at 18 pounds, 11.84 ounces. Can you imagine the tears you’d get from cutting that thing?
Heaviest Object Sword Swallowed
Sword swallowing is a skill in which the performer passes a sword through the mouth and down the esophagus to the stomach. Despite the name, the act can be performed with numerous objects, including, apparently, a Dewalt jackhammer.
We know this because in 2007 Thomas Blackthorne sword-swallowed a jackhammer that weighed 83 pounds and 12 ounces, holding the full weight of the hammer and bit for over three seconds. The feat earned him a world-record nod for sword-swallowing the heaviest object.
Longest Fingernails
Plenty of people have a habit of biting their nails – some do it because they’re too lazy to actually use a pair of nail clippers, others because they’re bored or stressed.
Lee Redmond clearly doesn’t have either of those problems, since she spent 30 years growing her nails out, starting all the way back in 1979! Her nails are 28 feet and four inches long if you add up the length of all the fingernails. That’s a World Record, and by some margin.
Largest Collection of Guinness Memorabilia
The largest memorabilia collection is its own category in Guinness World Records, as you’d expect. People will collect and store all manner of items, and their stockpiles can grow to be pretty impressive! For example, Louis Georgiou of the U.K. has 2,111 pieces of Transformers memorabilia!
But there’s even a record for the largest collection of Guinness World Records memorabilia! Martyn Tovey of Radstock (also in the U.K.) has 2,164 unique items.
Heaviest Weight Lifted by a Human Beard
Guinness World Records is full of data chronicling heavy lifts made by men, women, and children of all sorts of objects. But when it comes to the heaviest weight lifted by a human beard, there’s only one record, held by Antanas Kontrimas of Lithuania.
Mr. Kontrimas lifted 63.80 kg with his beard back in 2013. He’s also managed to support the weight of a human via his beard. That’s some strong hair fibers!
Loudest Burp
People can do incredible things with their bodies. Through years of dedicated training, we can see such skills on display, typically in sporting events like the Olympics. Some people train their whole lives for one dive, one gymnastic routine, one lift, or, as is the case with a Mr. Paul Hunn, one burp.
Hunn unleashed a burp of 109.9 decibels back in 2009. To put that into perspective, Hunn’s burp is louder than a large orchestra.
Longest Moustache
Sporting an epic beard or a smart mustache is all the rage nowadays, as it rightly should be. After all, ‘beard’ stands for being exceptional among regular dudes.
So while some gents prefer to inexplicably go clean-shaven, Ram Singh Chauhan from Jaipur, India went in the opposite direction, allowing his mustache to grow for over 37 years. The result was a 14ft mustache, earning him a World Record back in 2010 that still stands to this day.
Fastest Time to Eat a Bowl of Pasta
We all have someone in our life that resembles an unhinged animal rather than a human in the 21st century when they eat. But as it turns out, they could have a career as a competitive eater. Elite competitive eaters can easily make $500,000 a year between a combination of winnings and sponsorships (food for thought, eh?).
Competitive eater Michelle Lesco turned her talent for rapid eating into a world record when she scoffed down a bowl of pasta (100 grams plus sauce) in 26.69 seconds.
Most Consecutive Pinky Pull Ups
Many people around the world have had to resort to home workouts during this time of quarantine lockdowns enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some achieving fantastic results. But they would have some way to go to match Tazio Gavioli can do.
The Italian holds the world record for consecutive pinky pull-ups with 36 reps. So congratulations on your one-arm pull-up, but you’ve still got some way to go to impress us, friend.
Largest Ping Pong Paddle
Are you tired of always losing to the same person in the weekly office ping pong tournament? Want a guaranteed way to win each and every future match you play? Well, just build a giant paddle!
That’s exactly what Rise Brands did in 2017 in Columbus, Ohio, building a paddle that is 11 feet, 7.8 inches tall and six feet, 7.8 inches wide. We’re pretty sure that’s not regulation size.
Most Toothpicks in a Beard
Beards aren’t just stylish facial accessories that make all men look 1000 times better. They have practical purposes too, like as a nest for birds that need rescuing, or as a handy place to store things, like tooth pics, for example.
In 2018, Joel Strasser managed to fit 3,500 toothpicks in his beard. It took three hours and 13 minutes to accomplish, but he got his name in Guinness World Records for his efforts!
Most Tattooed Man
Plenty of people have multiple tattoos. Some go as far as to get build up a tattoo ‘sleeve’, covering their arm(s) and/or leg(s) in permanent ink. But even people who might be covered in tattoos have nothing on Lucky Diamond Rich – also known as Gregory Paul McLaren.
The New Zealander has spent more than 1,000 hours having his body modified by tattoo artists, as well as having his earlobes stretched and his teeth replaced with silver veneers.
Farthest Arrow Shot Using Feet
Most of us would struggle to fire an arrow a respectable distance using our hands, let alone our feet! But some people are just more talented in the art of archery than your average person.
Brittany Walsh is a Guinness World Record holder in acrobatic archery, as well as ‘a solo hand balancing artist’. In 2018, Walsh fired an arrow an incredible 40 feet and 4.64 inches using only her feet!
Largest Hula Hoop Spun by a Female
It seems that when it comes to spinning a hula hoop, you’ve either got it, or you don’t. But, like anything else, sometimes it just takes a lot of practice to master hula hooping. But how much practice must Getti Kehayova have had to spin a hula hoop 17 feet and .25 inches in diameter?
As it turns out Kehayova used a protective vest to spin the hoop, and nearly broke a few ribs in attempting to set the new record. But set a record she did, successfully spinning the giant hoop at least three times.
Largest Humanoid Vehicle
A humanoid vehicle is a vehicle with its body shape built to resemble the human body. Essentially, think of a Transformer in its ‘natural’ form.
Plenty of people have managed to create humanoid vehicles over the years, but none as big or as impressive as Mononofu, built by Sakakibara Kikai in Japan. The towering vehicle is 28 feet tall and weighs a whopping seven tons. The name ‘Mononofu’ translates to ‘Samurai Warrior’, and the vehicle took six years to build.
Man Covered by Most Bees
You’ll find that plenty of records in Guinness World Records are absolutely mad, which tells you something about the person(s) who achieved them. We mean, who would willingly allow a hive of bees to settle on them for any length of time?
Gao Bingguo, that’s who. The Chinese beekeeper set a new Guinness World record after covering his body with almost 1.1 million crawling bees weighing a massive 109kg (240lbs) back in 2015. He was stung over 2,000 times and his body temperature rose to over 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
Longest Kiss
Not everyone is comfortable with PDA – public displays of affection. Particularly if it involves a couple kissing for a really, really long time. But we’ll excuse it for a world record attempt.
But if you’re looking to break the record, you’re going to need to have some serious endurance, because the current world record stands at an absolutely insane 58 hours, 35 minutes, and 58 seconds, achieved by Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat of Thailand.
Most People in a Large Car
Anyone who has taken a road trip with a big family or group of friends knows that it can get pretty claustrophobic – especially if you’re traveling in a small car.
We assume none of the 41 people who managed to fit themselves into a Toyota Rav 4 at the Toyota Centre Krasnoyarsk Zapad (Russia) in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, had claustrophobia. Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t have been able to set this bizarre yet still impressive world record!
Largest Hairy Family
Congenital Generalized Hypertrichosis is an extremely rare skin disease, characterized by hair overgrowth on 98 percent of male bodies (excluding their palms and soles), and mild and asymmetric hair overgrowth in females.
Victor Gomez, Gabriel Ramos Gomez, Luisa Lilia De Lira Aceves, and Jesus Manuel Fajardo Aceves are four members of a family of 19, spanning five generations in Mexico, who all suffer from the condition.
First Person to Break the Sound Barrier in Freefall
There are plenty of brave men and women that feature in Guinness World Records, but in our estimation, none come close to Felix Baumgartner – the first and only human being to have broken the sound barrier in freefall.
To give you an idea of just how much of a legend the Austrian skydiver is, on 14 October 2012, Baumgartner ascended to the stratosphere in a helium balloon, and wearing a specialized suit, proceed to jump from the balloon back to Earth. In the process he also set world records for skydiving an estimated 24 miles, reaching an estimated top speed of 843.6 mph, or Mach 1.25.
Tallest Living Human
Humans come in all shapes and sizes, but only one man can call himself the tallest living person on Earth. That man is Sultan Kösen, who stands 8 ft 2.82 inches tall.
He is the seventh tallest man in history, and one of only 10 to have reached 8 ft or higher, according to Guinness World Records. Kösen’s growth results from the condition acromegaly, caused by a tumor affecting his pituitary gland. Due to his condition, he uses crutches to walk.
Shortest Living Mobile Human
Edward Nino Hernandez, of Colombia, measures 72.10 cm – around 2 feet and 4 inches tall and weighs just 22lbs.
Mr. Hernandez suffers from a condition known as hypothyroidism, which stunted his growth. “I use my smile to conquer the world! I always share my big smile with everyone; that’s my charm,” Hernandez told UPI. “I can achieve everything I set my mind to. Everything is possible . . . Size and height don’t matter! I want people to meet who I truly am: small in size, big in heart!”
Longest Time Breath Held Voluntarily
Remember that game you used to play in swimming pools with your pals? You’d all take turns holding your breath underwater, each time trying to beat the top time. Most people would struggle to get over a minute, but most people aren’t professional freedivers like Aleix Segura Vendrell.
The Spaniard holds the record for longest time breath held voluntarily at an astounding 24 minutes and 3.45 seconds.
Most Roof Tiles Broken in One Minute by a Woman
Ever seen those clips of martial arts students and masters breaking bricks and other sturdy objects using just their fists? Pretty impressive, right? Well, Lisa Dennis of the U.K. decided to take things up a notch by breaking a ton of roof tiles in one minute. 923 tiles, to be exact.
During her entire attempt, only two tiles from the stack Dennis hit during the one minute time period did not break.
Most Fingers and Toes on a Living Person
You may think that someone having more than 10 fingers and 10 toes is something you’d only see in a sci-fi movie, but it turns out it’s a very rare but very real anomaly in humans, called polydactylism. Occurrences of polydactyly are sporadic, meaning that the condition occurs without an apparent cause — while some may be due to a genetic defect or underlying hereditary syndrome.
Devendra Suthar of India has 14 fingers and 14 toes, which is the most of any living person on the planet.
Largest Pizza
Pizza is regularly voted as the most popular food in the world, and with good reason – it’s absolutely amazing and anyone who says differently is crazy.
Some people love it more than others of course, and it seems that Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi and Matteo Giannotte love it the most. The quintet prepared a pizza with a total surface area of 1,261.65 m² (13,580.28 ft²). The pizza was named “Ottavia”, a word of Roman origin for “eighth son”.
Tallest Sandcastle
A day at the beach with family and friends often means we turn our hands to building a sandcastle – or attempting to make a half-decent one.
Then again, we don’t normally have a team of 12 sculptors and eight technicians working eight hours a day over the course of three and a half weeks to build a 57 ft 11 in tall sandcastle like the folks at Skulptura Projects GmbH did. It took 11,000 tonnes of sand mixed only with water, and was completed in June 2019.
Farthest Tightrope Walk in One Minute
Tightrope walks can be a terrifying experience for the viewer since they often occur at great heights, and sometimes the performer elects not to wear a safety harness.
For her attempt to set a world record wearing heels, Russian Oxana Seroshtan smartly chose to walk a tightrope at a safe height. She smashed the previous record by walking 24 feet and 7.2 inches in high heels.
Most Human Targets Hit With Plungers in One Minute
If there was an award for the most random record, throwing plungers at people would surely win. But perhaps it speaks to the creativity of Gerhard Doni, the man that came up with the record attempt, in the first place.
The German managed to throw (and stick) 15 rubber-cup plungers to people in the space of one minute in 2010, breaking his own record by one plunger.
Longest Duration Balancing on Four Fingers
Bruce Lee was an incredible martial artist, capable of performing some insane maneuvers – including a two-finger push-up. We bet Lee would have been impressed with Wang Weibao’s record.
In 2008, the Chinese managed to lift himself off the ground completely on to two fingers on each hand, and stayed there for an incredible 19.23 seconds! The record has stood since 2008, which gives you some indication as to just how impressive Weibao’s record is.
Most Ice Cream Scoops Balanced on a Cone
If ice cream vendors allowed you to fit as many scoops on a cone as possible for a fixed price, then Dimitri Panciera would be making a killing.
In 2018 the Italian beat his own record by managing to fit 125 scoops of ice cream on a single cone. Teach us your secrets, Dimitri!
Loudest Snoring
Has anyone ever complained about your snoring? Perhaps you have a partner who seems to make the whole house shake with their snores.
Well, spare a thought for the partner of Kåre Walkert, as well as Walkert herself. The Swede suffers from apnea, and recorded peak levels of 93 dBA whilst sleeping at the Örebro Regional Hospital, Sweden on 24 May 1993. Research has shown that differences in lung capacity and pharynx shape account for snoring.
