I was flicking through the Guinness book of records the other day, to see if there was anything mildly interesting. Well as it turned out I wasn't impressed but more amused by what people were willing to do to get themselves noticed. Don't get me wrong there are some impressive achievements and some unusual attributes, but the majority of the book just contained complete garbage that succeed in only making me laugh.
For example, the most ferrero rocher eaten in one minute (5), and the fastest time to pluck a turkey featured in the unusual skills section. But upon entering the Test of Strength section I was outstand at what some people could do, the heaviest car balanced on someone's head (159.6kg) and the heaviest weight lifted by the ear (61.7 kg) both being outstanding. Most of the records seem to be only achieved as a result of people coming up with new and unheard of thing to do such as greatest distance covered on a static cycle, and fastest lunge mile.
It begs the question as to whether the records in this book should be admired or frowned upon, most of the achievements in the Human body section just seem to promote freakish and abnormal attributes. If all you want is a cheap laugh at ridiculous tasks and abnormal deformities then this is the book for you, but to be brutally honest I find this book to be a disgrace, putting it bluntly. I just wonder if they will stop allowing silly tasks into the records archive and continue with the display of humanities achievements. This means less of the oldest male stripper and more of the modern scientific or sporting breakthroughs.
Even if you take a quick look at the official website, and look under the headings of science or sport, there is little actual applaud able achievements most of them being Largest rubber dam or Largest ski lesson.
Its really just a personal opinion on the matter, but to be quite frank, I find it difficult for anyone to disagree. Unless the purpose of the Guinness book of records is to get a cheap laugh, then my hole argument is a total waste of time.
