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Why does the Guinness Beer Company Track World Records? · Ridiculous History

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ben.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We're here with our super producer, Casey Pegram. I don't
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: know if he has a world record yet. And I'm
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Nol the average man, Brown. Is that a world record?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Are you the most average? No, I'm quite average at
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: being average, but I hope to one day go out
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for a world record in averageness. It turns out, Noll,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that there are so many world records. We always hear
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: about these things, where so and so has the largest
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: collection of matchsticks, which you know, going back on our
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: earlier common luminous from a previous episode, I could see
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that being a world record. Well, it's also like, you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: obviously we think of world records. We think of things
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: like being the fastest runner, or things that are measured
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: very specifically and precisely in sports in the Olympics, you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: competitive sports like but then there's the fun dumb ones
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: like the match sticks or you know, the world's largest
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: postage stamp. I don't know if that's real, or like,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you know, the world's tallest man, which is a distinction
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: worthy of being you know, put in a a in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a document or a book. Shall we say, and we
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: know and love that book, and it's called the Guinness
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Book of Records, and it's been around for a long time.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: As it turns out, yes, it's been around for quite
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a while. But the question is, if you're like a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: lot of kids in the United States, the question is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: where does this book come from? For most people, it
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: was a book. I don't know about you, but growing up,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: there was a thing in my neck of the woods
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: called like the Scholastic Book Fair. Yeah, and one of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the hot items in the book fair was going to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: be Guinness Book of World Records, followed only by scary
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: stories to tell the dark. Yeah, nailed it. Wow. Do
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: we go to the same school. I think everyone went
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to that school. I think they toured around with that.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: There were those cases. It looked like a rock show.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: They were like these kind of like rolling cases and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: they'd open them up and they'd be full of these
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Scholastic paperbacks and you could also do a book order.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I remember that. But yeah, the Guinness Book was always
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a hot ticket because it adds later editions, crazy like
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: holographic kind of covers, and it was very glossy and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a really cool eye popping book. You know, and it
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: was full of all kinds of gross stuff and weird stuff.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Kids love that stuff, but it turns out so do
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: drunk Irish people. Yes, speaking of fantastic segways, my friend,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the question for today's episode is where did this book
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: come from? Doesn't have anything to do with the Guinness Brewery,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: because you know, it's completely possible that there's just some
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: guy named Rutherford Pte McGuinness who decided to calculate every
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: world record. Luckily, it turns out that is not the case. Yeah,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: sort of like the case with the Michelin Stars for restaurants.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: People ask the same question, like, is this Michelin like
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the Michelin man the tire company. Well it turns out yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: they had a stake in the game is best publishing
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a travel guide? And then you end up with this thing,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the Michelin Star system for restaurants, such as the case
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: with Guinness. So, as it turns out, the genesis of
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the Guinness Book of Records can be traced back to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a conversation that took place during a hunting party in
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: County Wexford, which is in Ireland, not too far from Dublin.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: That's right, Sir Hugh Erie Campbell Beaver. Will his name
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: rich Sir Hugh Ere or Eerie e y r E.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Campbell Beaver. Let's refer to him henceforth as Sir Hugh.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with Sir Beaver, but you could do
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: sir Hugh if that's why, let's go with so okay,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: So regardless of the nomenclature, we choose. Sir Hugh Beaver
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: was a British engineer and he was the managing director
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of the Guinness Brewery at the time. He was hunting
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: birds with his friends in n Beaver shot at a
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: game bird and missed the shot winn awry, and this
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: led the party to wonder not only about how fast
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: this particular bird was, but it also led them to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: ask what is the fastest bird in existence? And they
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: did not find any reference to this information across the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: European continent. They were dumbfounded. Yeah, you would think that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that would be something that would be in like encyclopedia
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: or record books of some kind that to me is
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a more run of the mill type record or at
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: least just something of scientific note that would be out there.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But no, they couldn't find it. So they figured, hey,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: this could be cool as as a promotion for for
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the brewery, you know, because he got guys in pubs
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that are having drinks and trying to settle arguments. Why
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: not have a book you could whip out and say, Actually,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: it's sort of the invention of Actually, I like the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: way you phrase it. There, the lack of information haunted
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Sir Hugh Beaver. Picture this otherwise content irishman laying in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: bed at night, staring at the ceiling, tortured by this
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: idea that no one knows which bird in the world
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: is the fastest, which game bird is the fastest. I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: don't want to live in that world. I don't know
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: what he was saying to himself. Yeah, I don't want
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: him to live in that world either, you know. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: there was no single official record, or, as he later realized,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: there weren't many official records at all. So he did
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: something about it, right, I mean, he he didn't allow
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: himself to be tortured by these waking nightmares of not
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: being able to know what the fastest game foul was, No, sir.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: He sought out a pair of twins by the names
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of Norris and Ross Mick Hirter, and they were journalists.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: More specifically, they were fact checkers. They were um intensely
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: uh pedantic fact checkers. They were known for their fastidiousness
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: when it came to verifying data and facts of any kind.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And they had worked um on Fleet Street, which was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I believe kind of a hub of publishing in London,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and they were involved in a lot of encyclopedias and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: they would travel the world over to confirm various facts
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: because at the time obviously no Internet. You had to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: go to the place, see the thing, confirm it, test it,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: clock it, whatever you have, what have you? And then
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: they did that what is the world's largest bag of haggis?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Well this is the even four Like this is like
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: even just with their kind of more um encyclopedic ventures.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: But they ended up being perfect for this promotion, right, yeah,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it was great casting and this was so our our friend,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: right Mr excuse me, Sir Hugh Beaver is haunted for
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: about three years by this experience. So it's nineteen fifty
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: four when he gets this idea for promotion. Uh. The
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: McWherter twins are perfect casting. There's there's no other way
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to say it. And together these folks team up in
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a Triumvirate and Guinness Superlatives is incorporated. In November of
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that year, they opened two rooms and they converted Gymnasium
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: on the top floor of Ludgate House at one oh
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: seven Fleet Street. And it took a lot of work
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to make this book. Uh they you. You can look
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: on the official His Street page for Guinness World Records
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and they refer to an initial research phase, but they
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: don't count it. And we can only imagine how much
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: research would be involved, because this is the first time
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: that someone tried to compile all the world records. Who
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: is the what's the fastest animal, what's the fastest game bird,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: what's the tallest point on Earth right? Or the highest
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: elevation from sea level. I found a really interesting stat
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: about this. It comes from the current marketing director for
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Guinness by the name of Stuart Claxton. He wrote a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: cool article that I found on HuffPo and he says
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that it took the twins sixteen weeks to put this
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: thing together and it costs thirty five thousand dollars And
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: luckily I've got my handy dandy inflation calculator here thirty
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: five grand. In nineteen fifty four, is equal to about
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars today. Yeah, and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I found out an even more specific stat about how
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: long it took them thirteen and a half ninety hour
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: weeks including weekendsting weekends and bank holidays. So I mean
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: no small feet and you know the week orders putting
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in all this backbreaking work for what at the time
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: just felt like a promotional item for a pint of ale.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Lagger Is it lagger? Is it Ale? I don't know
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: if I drink again stout it's stout. I hear that
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: it's very different when you're actually in Ireland. I'm sure
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: it isn't any any any folks from Ireland feel free
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to to flame our inbox at ridiculous at how stuff
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: works dot Com for our ignorance about lagger versus Ale
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: versus stout. Invite us to grab a pint with you
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: in Ireland. I hear that it is different depending upon
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the pub you visit. And I'm always curious what what
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: temperature is it supposed to be served at? We digress? Yeah,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: we all of us. Any was that like little did
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the mcquarters know that this, you know, seeming promotional item
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: for an alcoholic beverage. Shall he say, UH was gonna
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: blow up to be this massive cultural touchstone that has
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: gone on to sell hundreds of millions of copies over
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the years, and like you said, as a as a
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: staple and in book fairs the world over. Uh. In
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, summer of nineteen fifty five, they publish
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the book. There are fifty thousand copies, and as as
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: we have mentioned, they were mainly promotional items. But very
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: soon Sir Hugh Beaver realized that he had accidentally stumbled
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: into the zeitgeist. People the world over. They wanted to
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: know who the world's tallest man was, who the world's
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: shortest person, or the fastest person, or the fattest person,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: or the person with the longest fingernails, was most average
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: person or or the most average person who I believe
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: still is John B. Smith. Yes, they were like ten
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of him and they're all tied for average. Yeah. But
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that's the thing. Like it was, the zeitgeis you think
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: in and of itself because it hit on a an
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: interest that many many people clearly shared. But it also
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: created this kind of outpouring of like obsession with record
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: keeping and record holding right, you had to kind of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: invent new records. Where it became. It went from like
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: things like you're talking about the fastest or the tallest
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: or the biggest or whatever. It turned into things like
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: world record for most ballet dancers standing on point on
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: a pier uh and that was in Thessaloniki, Greece, on
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: October one, uh and it was for thirty seconds, three times.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So the further you get down the line, the more
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: specific they get. But what were some of the early
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: ones that were in that first edition, ben Oh? Sure.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: The the earlier ones were things that still seem iconic
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to us today, such as the world's tallest man who
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: ever lived, meaning both living or dead, That would be
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Robert persh and Wadlow, who was eight ft eleven inches tall,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: although nowadays, if we're talking about living people, the title
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: would go to Turkish national Sultan Cosen, who holds the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: record at eight feet three inches currently. However, the interesting
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: thing about the evolution of the Guinness Book of World
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Records is that of the thousands of applications that the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Guinness World Records Organization receives each month, most are for
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: new records in categories that did not exist in the
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: original publication in ninety five, things like the longest kiss.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: The current record, by the way, is fifty eight hours,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: thirty five minutes and fifty eight seconds. You have to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: just twist your head. I don't know. I'm gonna show
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you a pretty cool picture that look how bored this
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: lady looks. You're doing some head twisting and there would
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: have to be something otherwise there'll just be longest period
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: with lips pressed together. What qualifies a kiss? That's tough.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's just the you know, fifty eight hours
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is a long time to do any degree. The thing
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that's neat too, though, is to this day the book
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: contains about the same number of records as it did
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: when it first came out in fifty five, and then
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the next year in the USA in fifty six, which
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: is about four thousand and the original edition, there weren't
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: any color, glossy images like you see today. It was
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: all black and white photos, and there were a lot
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of hand drawn illustrations of the more encyclopedic entries, like
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: things like the blue whale or any you know, animals,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: largest mammal exactly. But some of the things that were
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: in that first edition that are still quite iconic today
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: are a man named John our Cobb held the world
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: record for land speed in a single direction at four
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and three point one three five miles per hour. And
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: that was um a man by the name of Manningford
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: faith Jan graceful. These names, Lord Manningford faith Jan graceful.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. That's a cow, a British Friscian cow, Frescian
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: cow that have the highest lifetime milk yield at three
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: thirty pounds over seventeen years. But good gravy man. The
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: name your cow? That Manningford faith Jan graceful. Oh my heavens,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: that sounds like a Toast of London name. Big time,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: big time. I hear your climb vandango and then you've
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: got you. You guys never heard Toast of London. Check
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: out Toast of London. It's it's fantastic. Um it's on
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Netflix right now, actually plug. But then you've got this
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: last one, which I really enjoy. There's a pub. There
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was a pub called the Smith's Arms that held the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: record for being the world's tiniest pub and it was
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: ten feet wide and four ft high four ft high.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: That's what it says. That's interesting. There's also there's also
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a record for the largest prenatal yoga class. That's the thing.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: If you want to break that record, all you need,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: as of our recordings day, is five hundred and fifty
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: four participants, So you gotta get five and fifty four
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: pregnant people to do yoga with you, and boom, you're
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: in the book. We have seen um, all three of us,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Noel Casey and I have seen some pretty specific and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: strange records. There's one for spinning a basketball on a
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: toothbrush while holding it in your mouth. If you can
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: do it for more than twenty two point four one seconds. Congratulations.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: That sounds like a Harlem Globetrotters kind of trick. It does,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: it really does. There's there are records for the fastest
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: planting of rice seedlings. There are superlatives of plenty, you know.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: We we've seen things like the person with the most
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: piercings or the most tattoos. Nowadays, the Guinness World Record
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: brand is owned by the Jim Pattison Group. They're the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: same company that owns Ripley's. Believe it or not, did
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: you ever go to those museums? I've been to a few. Yeah,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: they're kind of schlocky boardwalk tourist traps sort of. Uh,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: they're fine. They're fine. Sounds like I'm poopling. I'm not.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I love them. I'm I'm fully into it. I do
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: no museum of death, I'll give you that. That's true.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: They are a little bit you know, they have their
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: their morbid side, that's try, but they're way more lighthearted. Right.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: We do have some good news as well about the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: fate of the mc wertard twins, who were really the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: driving force for this. I think is it a good
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: news bad news situation, because there's definitely some bad news.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: It is a bad news good news. So from nineteen
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: seventy two on the mcwherder twins were familiar figures in
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: a show called record Breakers. Yeah. That actually stemmed from
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: a children's show called Blue Peter that I think he's
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: still running you this day, some permutation of it. But
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: record Breakers was much more specifically tied to the whole
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Guinness thing, and it showcased the brothers um steadfastness at
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: clocking records and measuring success and failures in all these departments,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and they became kind of presenters television presenters in addition
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: to being behind the scenes folks. And they must have
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: had some phenomenal cognitive ability because part of the show
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: involved putting the Mick Werder's on the spot to have
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: an instant recall of obscure facts and figures, and they
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: were almost never wrong and almost never at a loss
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: for the numbers they were asked to recall. Another thing, Now,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I bet most of you boys watching have got hair
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: twice as long as your father's have four times as
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: long as your grandfather's. But do you know who grew
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the longest hair in the world. Well, it was a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: man called Swanna Pendra s and I his hair was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: twenty six ft long. Low, I wouldn't like to wear
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: this the day after we've watched it. Oh, did you
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: know if you don't believe that, the longest bed on
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: record was that of Hans land Seth of Norway, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: his beard was seventeen and a half feet in length,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and he died in nineteen twenty seven and it had
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to walk backwards all that. The longest king of niles
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: on record are there as of a Chinese priest who
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: top twenty seven years to grow them to a height
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of or length of twenty two and three quarter inches,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: very handy for scratching your ankles. So what happened next?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Here's where we find the darker turn that we we
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: mentioned briefly. Ross mc whorter was shot fatally by the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: i r A on his London doorstep in nineteen seventy five.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: That's right. He was a big, outspoken opponent of the
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: ira A and he used his celebrity to speak out
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: against them and pushed for a tougher response against the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: these kind of republican terrorists by the British government. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: he actually offered a fifty thousand pound reward in nineteen
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: seventy five. That is a lot of cash for any
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: information that might um lead to the arrest of any
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: i ra A cell that was trying to carry out
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: these just deadly bombing campaigns all throughout London that were
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: happening at the time. And Norris mcwerder soldiered on as
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the book's editor until nineteen eighties six. Afterwards, he continued
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: as an assistant editor, and he spent a lot of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: time involved in political organizations, particularly what was known as
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the Freedom Association. He wanted to reign back what he
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: saw as the over arching or overwhelming power of governments
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and trade unions. He retired finally in nineteen six, and
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he was seventy eight when he died playing a game
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of tennis in two two thousand and four. And what's
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: interesting is that these brothers essentially created the foundation for
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: this publication that we still know today that hasn't changed
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: a ton. I mean, the whole idea is very much
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the same as it was when they published the first edition, which,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: by the way, you can find on eBay for only
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: about fifty pounds you can get a first edition Guinness
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Record Book. Really, I was really shocked. I would have
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: thought that they would be more scarce, but I guess
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: maybe not a first edition. But it's definitely like among
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: those first several editions, because the first edition, I think
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: they only made ten thousand copies and then they just
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: kept having to go into reprints of that first edition.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: But in that first edition, the brothers are not directly credited.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: They are just called the compilers, the compilers, so there
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: was a bit of anonymity there. It's it's it's fascinating
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: you said that, And no, I think we would be
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: remiss if we did not address a question that everyone
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: listening is wondering, which is, how do we set our
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: own world records? Is it possible in this day and age.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Is it possible for a well meaning uh John Smith
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: in the crowd, John or Jane Smith to grab a
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: superlative all their own? The answer is yes, but it's complicated. Yeah.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And one of the reasons it's complicated is because, like
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: it's been around for so long, and the records have
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: to get more and more obscure and bizarre, and the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the the the conditions, right, like the whole ballerina standing
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: on tiptoe and jumping every thirty seconds or whatever. Like
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: you can set these bizarre guidelines, that's sure, that's a
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: record because no one else thought of those exact conditions
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to do it. But as far as like breaking like
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you know, a speed record or something like that, that's
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: a little more tough. But you know, you it's within
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: your grasp if you want to come with something weird
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that no one thought of. But right it is not
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: by any means impossible. It really depends upon a couple
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of things. The first thing that you will do if
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: you want to set a world record that goes into
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: print in the book is to find something that is measurable, provable,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: has a single point to it, and can be beaten.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Unless it's the first ever version of something like the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: first person to walk on an asteroid, right, or the
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: first person to eat the state of Texas. That's not
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: gonna happen. What if I just did the first person
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: to hold a pencil in my closed eyelid by the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: eraser for twelve minutes and no one has thought of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that particular thing to do yet, could I could I
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: technically qualify if if no one has done that one. Yeah,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: there's a little bit of subjectivity here because the editors
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: or the compilers must think it's interesting. And I think
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: that's specific enough that they would they would consider it interesting,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: especially if you did it for like twelve hours or something.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I want to do it with twelve hours. I want
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: to do it for a maximum ten minutes. Well, you
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: could get it. You could get it for ten minutes.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: But if you said it at ten minutes, what's going
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to happen? I guarantee you is. Next year there's gonna
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: be some JABRONI who goes for eleven minutes. It's not
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: gonna be me. It's probably not gonna be Casey. I
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: don't care. I just want to be in the book.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: You just want to be So. Another thing people do
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: is to set group records the world's largest thriller dance,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: for instance. Right we talked about prenatal yoga. Just if
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: you want to set a world record, get a bunch
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of your friends or a bunch of strangers to do
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: one very specific thing with you for as long as possible.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Which the the organization on that boggles the mind. You know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I guess I would try to. I don't know if
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I would beat the largest thriller dance. That was a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: record in Mexico with more than thirteen thousand people. Uh.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: It was on Michael Jackson's post humus birthday. They all
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: did the thriller dance. So, as as you can see,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: research is very important. And I'll anticipate the question that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of us have. Is there a person who
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: holds the record for holding the most world records? The
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: answer is yes. His name is Ashrita Furman. One of
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: his records is for pushing an orange for a mile
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: with his nose, and uh he famously researched the type
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of orange to use. So you need to pick your
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: battles carefully, and you need to be aware that you
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: can break a record without spending a dime. Uh. The
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: record breaking is free and open to everyone. They only
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: ask that you give them six to eight weeks for
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: existing categories and eight to twelve weeks for new ideas.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: So this pencil in the by the eraser that would
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that would qualify for a new idea. And every record
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: has a set of guidelines you have to follow. You
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: can apply online at Guinness World Records dot com h
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and they'll send these guidelines to you via email. There
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: is uh, there's there's a great piece of inspiration here
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: by a record breaker named Hannah Bosley. She, along with
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: three d and twenty four other people, holds the world
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: record for the largest gathering of people dressed as penguins.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And according to Hannah Boseley, breaking record is not as
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: hard to organize as you might first anticipate. So just
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: get going and if you want to do it, you will.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: And a streeta Furman who you mentioned, is holding the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: record for the most records at two hundred. I believe
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you said. Um. It also goes to show you don't
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: have to be some sort of superhuman or athlete. Uh.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: This this person is a health food store manager from
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: queens Um and the first record that he broke was
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine where he did twenty seven thousand
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: jumping Jack's uh. And then he also holds the record
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: for rope skipping on a pogo stick. He did that
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: at Cambodia's Angor Watt. Also he hula hooped at Australia's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Air of Rock and he traveled the entire length of
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Paul Revere's ride in forward rolls. So in forward rolls
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: like hum somersaults. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. So you
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: know it's up for grabs if if you believe it,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: go for it. And I think a good way to
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: wrap this up is to read the forward of that
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: original Guinness Book of Records, which was by a man
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: who at the time was the chairman of the Guinness
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Park Royal Brewery. And speaking of amazing titles, his name
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: was the Right Honorable Earl of Iva and he has
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: kg c B and CMG UM titles after that, and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: their various military orders that he was a part of.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And he prefaces that first edition with this forward. Wherever
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: people congregate to talk, they will argue, and sometimes the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: joy lies in the arguing and would be lost if
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: there was any definite answer. But more often the argument
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: takes place on a dispute of fact, and it can
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: be very exasperating if there is no immediate means of
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: settling the argument. Who was the first to swim the channel?
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Where is England's deepest well or Scotland's highest tree or
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Ireland's oldest church? How many died in history's worst rail crash?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Who gained the biggest majority in parliament? What is the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: highest point in our country? And so on? How much
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: heat these innocent questions can raise. Guinness in producing this
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: book hopes that it may assist in resolving many such disputes.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And may we hope turn heat into light. Fantastic and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: well said. We only want to add when you are
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: considering breaking a world record or forming a new one. Uh,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Guinness will not accept in anything that harms animals or
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: is dangerous for the would be record breaker. So you
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: can't do the longest time without sleep. Apparently you can't
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: do heaviest fish because people were over feeding their fish monsters. Hey,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: if you are working at breaking a record, or you
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: have a fun idea for a record that maybe has
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: yet to be dreamt up. Please shoot us an email
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: it ridiculous at how stuff works. You can also send
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: us a note on Facebook or Ridiculous History. We've got
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: an Instagram in ridiculous History, and leave us a review
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. We would
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: be much in your debt. Yeah, maybe we can set
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the We we can set the record for the most reviews.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: What's a dangerous game to play? I think we're inching
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: up on three now, so let's shoot for the move
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and we will see you next week. Folks, go break
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: some records of your own in exact tact.