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Guinness World Records (TV Series)

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Mighty_Emperor

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I suppose this could turn into a bit of a rant but it has been niggling me for a bit (and I have mentioned it in passing). On Challenge TV in the UK they are showing the US show "Guinness World Records" which has genuine feats of people pushing the limit of their abilities (as the book and the British series did) they also have other records that are purely on for their freakshow value and tend to be:

1. Potentially dangerous - the Guinness Book of Records wouldn't have records that were potential dangerous or would encourage people to get themselves killed in the process.

2. Silly and made up purely to have someone come on and do something daft.

3. Almost definitely some kind of trick.

Some examples:

Now world's fastest wheelie seems like a legitimate endeavour.

The regurgitator doing 'the most coins regurgitated to order' is really pushing the limits of what is human endeavour and what is a trick (see another thread on him) as well as being silly and made up.

'holding molten lead in the mouth for the longest time' is clearly a trick dating back many years and was exposed by Houdini (see the same thread mentioned above).

The most shrimp (prawns) eaten by a duck from a human mouth (the point I gave up watching tonight) just seems utterly pointless.

'The most scorpions held in mouth' and 'the largest scorpion held in the mouth' seem very unwise.

This might seem nitpicking (and in some ways there has never been any hard and fast rules and some stunts have been dangerous or a bit silly but this has really pushed things beyond what I'd find acceptable) but the Guiness Book of Records has been the arbiter of the extremes of human endeavour - there were always very old people but if Guiness didn't find the documentary evidence convincing they were out of the running. This kind of made up stunts and fakery are clearly going to hose away their reputation and where exactly do we stand then? What is the authority on these matters that we can defer to?

Are there alternative organisations? Should their been a Fortean Commission for Extreme Human Endeavour? Should I not really worry about these things as there are more important things happening in the world?

;)

Emps
 
DD: My concern is that the US versions descent into a freak show (not that I'd really mind that kind of show but I just don't think it can be fitted into the Guiness format) territory will cheapen the whole Guiness name and by extension Norris the Nazi.

Emps
 
"Norris the Nazi"? Is this another childhood allusion shattered?

I'd think the use of Guinness is trademarked, so there must be some kind of endorsement (and an enormous wedge of greenbacks stuffed into the Guinness family pockets). And yes, they've tightly regulated against encouraging acts which are dangerous to themselves or others, gluttony, .etc.
The authority, as I'm sure you know if you've been kicking around these shores for a while, is completely subjective. I don't know of anyone outside Guinness, or even how Guinness itself conducts its "official" work.
Commerce is at the heart of this one - attract the punters with a sub-par Jackass with a pinch of X-Files and Ripley's Believe it or Not. The acts they do and the freaks they exhibit are, I'm sure, just for entertainment purposes and will in no way appear in the book. Unless a record attempt has Norris there with a stopwatch or Roy egging them on it'll never be official in my book. :p
 
Norris hasn't even been listed as the author on the newer books for quite some time.
 
As far as I can remember Norris McWhirter was involved in a very dodgy right-wing organisation. I'm not too sure of the veracity of this but the story was certainly doing the rounds in the 1980's.
 
Sorry Norris the Nazi was our 'affectionate' name for him in our house when I was growing up. Just to continue the information but when his twin brother was assassinated he knew at that moment which gets him into the annals of twin telepathy (I believe one of the recent books on this subject reviewed in FT mentions this incident.

See:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_McWhirter

On to the legitimacy of the US show 'Guiness World Records' a search for:

guinness book of records

bring up:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

which is in the Google/DMOZ directory:

Kids and Teens > Entertainment > Television > Reality Shows

Although so is Junkyard Wars (the US Scrapheap Challenege) so that might not be significant.

And this redirects to the above domain:

http://www.guinnessrecords.com

The latest version of the Guinness Book of Records is called:

Guinness World Records 2004 (Guinness Book of Records)

see:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1892051206/

and this has been the case since at least 2000

Technically the website carries on the old tradition of the Guiness Book of records with things like the longest female beard:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=54276

But as the TV show of the same name is syndicated all over the world and appears to be the only televisual mouthpiece then I must assume it is legit and that when they declare people the Guinness world record holder for X then that is official (althoug whether it makes it into th book is another thing).

I suppose this comes back to the question of their authority:

The authority, as I'm sure you know if you've been kicking around these shores for a while, is completely subjective. I don't know of anyone outside Guinness, or even how Guinness itself conducts its "official" work.

And I suppose they have only been the authority on this because they say so and there is no independent assessment of how they condust their work they could really do anything they like. It might just be some kind of childhood susceptibility to authoritarian figures but if Norris didn' give it the thumbs up then they could whistle. I sort of thought that FT relied on Guinness for things like establishing the oldest person, etc? Might have to check that.

I suppose I might be getting concerned over nothing but I have always considered Norris and the other Guinness Book of Records 'officials' to be, essentially, like the Olympic Committee of extreme endeavour. I suppose I just bought their hype :(

Ahhhhhhhh the FAQ shows why not all records go in the book:

"Why is my record not in the book? "

Each year we receive approximately 65,000 enquiries from around the world from people who want to set or break records. Many are successful and their details are added to our database of records.

However, we can only publish around 4,000 records in the book each year, as it would be impossible to publish entries on all records and record-holders. An editorial decision therefore has to be made as to which records will be included.

If your record hasn't been selected for publication on this occasion, there's a chance that it may be included in future editions, dependent upon the requirements of the book-buying public and the managing editor’s discretion. It may also appear in this website.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/faqs/FAQ_Answer.asp?ID=7

Emps
 
My point gets a mention at the start of the Simpsons episode "Take My Wife, Sleaze"

Episode guide:

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF05

>> And the record for least amount of taste in a TV special is ...
Richard E. Green: "The Guinness Book of World Records" show seemed to be parodying this book-turned-into-TV show that was on FOX last year, except the actual show was hosted by some random sports announcer looking for off- season work (see "The World's Funniest" and some of those clip shows for more of them). The TV show actually had the largest tumor removed from a person, but MOST of the features on the show are not even RECORDS, just crazy stunts or first-time attempts at something, but they usually try to tact on some kind of record to make it on topic, such as "longest time that two people held together only by a curved pipe that the two people are holding in their mouths can stay balanced on top of each other".

Spoof records included:

Man with least number of faces (none)

Smelliest tumour removed from man

Emps
 
The human obsession with the freaky, bizarre and odd.

They get ratings, ratings get them ads, ads get them money. The media loves you!
 
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