The Problem with Guinness World Records
Have you ever been watching a sports game on tv and the commentators bring up some ridiculous statistic? Such as: Total passing yards by a backup quarterback in the month of September when throwing into the wind on the road coming off a home loss. I may have just made that up, but I’m sure, somewhere in the annals of the NFL, there’s a stat for that. But stats like that only raise the question of, how many people even meet those requirements?
Well, this is precisely the problem with the Guinness Book of World Records, 99.99% of the records are stupid. Somebody thought of the most absurd thing they could and did it for as long or as many times as they could. Case and point…
Ashrita Furman
Ashrita Furman is known as the man with the the Guinness World Record for the most Guinness World Records. He has set over 600, and currently still holds over 200. Here’s just a few examples of some of his records:
Fastest 10k sack race: 1hr 22 min 2 sec.
Most number of balloons inflated by the nose in 1 minute: 9.
Most paper aircraft caught by the mouth in 1 minute: 17.
Most fire torches lit and extinguished in one minute: 128.
Fastest mile on pogo stick while juggling three balls: 23 mins 28 secs.
Longest time to hula hoop underwater: 2 mins 38 secs.
Most arrows broken with the neck in 1 minute: 31.
Greatest distance travelled on a bicycle balancing a milk bottle on the head: 10.8 Km.
And let’s not forget the absurdity of records like Wang Lei’s 2020 record of most apples held in own mouth and cut by a chainsaw in 1 minute: 28. But going back to my previous point, how many people have even tried some of these? Can they really be considered records when there’s only been a single instance?
The Guinness Book of Amazing Achievements
According to the Guinness World Record website, in order to qualify, a record must fulfill ALL of the following criteria. They must be:
Measurable – Can it be measured objectively? What is the unit of measurement? We do not accept applications based on subjective variables. For example - beauty, kindness, loyalty.
Breakable – Can the record be broken? Our record titles must be open to being challenged.
Standardizable - Can the record be repeated by someone else? Is it possible to create a set of parameters and conditions that all challengers can follow?
Verifiable - Can the claim be proven? Will there be accurate evidence available to prove it occurred?
Based on one variable - Is the record based on one superlative and measured in one unit of measurement?
The best in the world - Has anyone else done better? If your record suggestion is new then Guinness World Records will set a challenging minimum requirement for you to beat.
However, it’s the last requirement that I have a problem with. Guinness should not be setting the goal for records to be, individuals should simply be trying to set the bar as high as they can. For something to be considered the best in the world, a certain amount of competition is required. If something is being attempted for the first time, it should instead be recognized as an achievement, placed into a second index for things that are the first and only. The Guinness Book of Amazing Achievements (the original name of the Guinness Book of World Records) should be brought back as a separate entity from the record book, and an achievement should only be recognized as a record when it starts being competed over.
There’s a big difference between doing something that’s never been done before, and being the best in the world.
