The Guinness World Records book used to be a pretty common annual Christmas present in my house. While there was some interesting stuff in there, I always preferred to read about the weirder stuff.
In fact, that series of books just made me realise how weird people really are. It seems like anyone will do anything just to say they have a world record.
Let’s take a look at some of the strangest world records that have been set across the globe. I’ll try keep this up to date, but things are changing constantly so bare with me if anything becomes outdated!
Most Watches Eaten
I guess you could say… it’s about time… that somebody did this? (Sorry). It’s not joke though. Back in 1998, South Korean chap Kim Seung Do ate FIVE watches in the space of 1 hour and 34 minutes.
It doesn’t seem like anyone has taken Kim up on this challenge yet, and I’m not really surprised.
Most Feet Sniffed
Yes, you read that right. There’s actually a world record for somebody that has sniffed the most amount of feet in their life. Maybe Guinness were really stuck for ideas at this point.
In her 15 year career as a foot care expert with Doctor Scholl in the USA, Madeline Albertcht has sniffed 5,600 individual feet. I doubt anyone will be in any hurry to beat this. Not really something to boast about either.
Longest Maggot Bath
Some people must REALLY be desperate for minor recognition, because this just isn’t pleasant. Sitting in a bath of warm soup or something? I’d understand that, it’s a bit of fun. But… maggots? *shivers*
In 2002, Christine Martin of Horsham in West Sussex sat in a bath of the little critters for an hour and a half. It doesn’t seem as if anyone else has beaten this, but you must be pretty weird to even consider it.
Longest Distance Pushing an Orange with your Nose
This is getting a bit ridiculous. In Brighton in 2016, Alistair Ross pushed an Orange along the sea front WITH HIS NOSE for an entire mile.
Alistair. Mate. I think you need to get a new hobby.
Highest G-Force Endured Voluntarily
Eli L Beeding Jr of the USA Air Force managed to break a record that probably isn’t safe to take on back in 1958. He was recorded to have endured 82.6 G’s for 0.04 seconds on a Rocket Sled during a deceleration experiment. While the huge amount of force was only for an instant, he was still hospitalised for 3 days after.
To put this into perspective, the most intense roller coaster currently has been recorded at 6.3 G’s, and fighter pilots can expect to experience 8 to 9 in special pressurised suits. Beeding’s reading even out does his colleague, John Stapp, who was known as the fastest man on Earth due to his experiments that saw him endure over 40 G’s!
Most Lightning Strikes Survived
Roy Sullivan of Virginia was a park ranger, but was most famously known for being a “human lightning rod”. In his lifetime, he’d been struck by lightning 7 times, and survived them all.
Some people are unlucky, but poor Roy here seems to have had it worse than anyone else in terms of luck. It’s a mystery how he didn’t get super powers.
Longest Attack of Hiccups
Hiccups can be a real pain, but you’ll never complain about them gain when you hear about what Charles Osborne went through. Born in 1893, Charles had hiccups for a whopping 68 years continuously, and they only just stopped for good a year before his death in 1991.
At 29 years old, Charles had a fall when trying to hook some pork to butcher. He said he didn’t feel anything, but his doctor told him he damaged a blood vessel in his brain the size of a pin. Because of this, he had an involuntary reflex which resulted in hiccuping.
It’s estimated he hiccuped over 430 million times throughout his lifetime, and he had to learn breathing exercises between them to suppress the sound.
Longest Time Stood Still
The mere thought of this makes all my muscles ache. In 1997, Om Prakash Singh managed to stand completely motionless for 20 hours, 10 minutes and 6 seconds.
How much would it suck to be attempting this, then needing to go to the bogs after the first 20 minutes? Would be the longest 20 hours of your life.
Think you’d be up for challenging any of these world record holders? Didn’t think so. If there’s any bizarre world records you happen to know about that you think is worthy of a mention, let us know in the commnets!
For those wondering – the picture is of Donald Gorske, who holds the world record for most Big Macs eaten in a lifetime – which is 26,000. Weird guy, but not a weird enough record to feature here. I just struggled to get pictures of any of the ones featured.