# Anyone ever participated in a Guinness record attempt?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 13, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050 "2013-01-13T07:39:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/1 "2013-01-13T07:39:21Z")
'Cause I have. š
Today I was part of [Snow Day](http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Photos-Seattle-breaks-record-for-worlds-biggest-snowball-fight-186658631.html), a charity event in Seattle that sought to break the worldās record for most participants in a snowball fight (formerly 5,387 in South Korea in 2010) in order to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club. The organizers had 162,000 pounds of snow trucked in from the Cascades, and after about two hours of informal snowball fighting, the Guinness people carefully observed the crowd for 60 seconds and determined that 5,811 of us were throwing enough snowballs to be considered participants and the record was broken. I may have been just a small part of it, but it was the most fun Iāve ever had in the snow, and now I get to tell people Iām a Guinness world record holder.
Anyone else out there participated in an event like this, or achieved a world record on their own?
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/2 "2013-01-13T07:52:26Z")
We tried it in high school. A school club, I forget which one, tried to beat the record for pushing people continuously in a shopping cart. Or maybe it was in a carriage but we used a shopping cart. We were at it day and night, going around and around the running track, I forget for how long. It failed to be recognized though, as weād not followed some rule or other.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/3 "2013-01-13T07:56:50Z")
Back in the 70s, I attempted to balance 40 or so quarters on my elbow in a stack, then quickly snap them up with my hand. It would have been a world record too, but apparently US quarters were smaller than what the book had in mind. There was no way I was going to be able to grab that many half dollar or dollar size coins, so I didnāt even bother.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/4 "2013-01-13T11:15:31Z")
Not only an attempt, but two successful placements!
First was, and I donāt recall the exact wording, but something like most people body painted at once. It was fun. Also, the SPF of āBlueā is Not Enough. NSFW link: [spoiler][spoiler][http://www.livingbrush.com/guinnessrecord7-2006.html[/spoiler][/spoiler]](http://www.livingbrush.com/guinnessrecord7-2006.html%5B/spoiler%5D%5B/spoiler%5D)
Second was most couples hugging. That was oddly not fun, as the organizers were really stressy about it. And our record only stood for about 3 seconds before it was blown out of the books.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/5 "2013-01-13T14:59:01Z")
Longest Wang. Missed it by that much.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/6 "2013-01-13T16:10:57Z")
Yes, I participated in a record attempt. I joined a Facebook group that was trying for the Guinness record of being the largest Facebook group. I donāt know (or care) if it succeeded.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/7 "2013-01-13T21:37:59Z")
Longest continuous pool playing.
Sometime in the late 60ās or early 70ās.
I was part of a DeMolay group that played pool for 600 or 700 hours (I canāt remember). We beat the previous record by a few days and I think our record fell within a year.
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/8 "2013-01-14T00:05:14Z")
Worldās largest banana split, in college in the 70ās. Long since been bettered.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/9 "2013-01-14T11:12:47Z")
I have. Guinness do not, as a rule, note records concerning the intake of alcohol, but this was about the largest number of people taking part in a malt whisky tasting, not how much each of us drank, which wasnāt much anyway. Iām told we made it, but I never checked the book.
As it happens some other bar owner heard about it and tried to beat our record. Unfortunately for him there was something wrong with his papers, I donāt remember exactly what it was, but in the end he lost his license to sell alcohol.
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### Author:  [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/10 "2013-01-14T12:39:44Z")
Yes, it was for the largest single gathering of simultaeous firebreathers. It took place at Stonehenge and was filmed for the Guinness 50th anniversary show so Iāve got a GWR certificate and Iāve been on telly too.
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### Author:  [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/11 "2013-01-14T16:34:07Z")
Yes, in June 2008. The most people simultaneously bending spoons (a la Uri Geller). Think we made the record, assume it still stands.
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### Author:  [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/12 "2013-01-14T17:19:01Z")
My dog and I were involved in the worldās largest dog obedience lesson in Houston, a few years back. Think there was a few hundred of us. I still have the T-shirt for it somewhere.
The record has since been broken and the latest one I can find is by Felcan in Valencia, Spain, on April 22, 2012, with 390 pairs of dogs and people. (Use google to find the reference and then use the cache to view it.)
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/13 "2013-01-14T18:23:51Z")
Yup.
Most people simultaneously skinny-dipping, in 2009.
Read about it here: [http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2009/07/reporters\_noteb\_10.php](http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2009/07/reporters_noteb_10.php)
To see a slightly NSFW photo of the event, click on the āread the full frontal featureā link on the above page (which is SFW).
Iām the fifth person from the right in the front row, wearing sunglasses and with my hat off and in front of me on the poolās edge.
Fun times!
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/14 "2013-01-14T19:00:46Z")
Several record-setting and record breaking zombie events; walks and most zombies on an amusement park ride.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/15 "2013-01-14T19:07:59Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> Back in the 70s, I attempted to balance 40 or so quarters on my elbow in a stack, then quickly snap them up with my hand.
Yeah yeah, we all tried that. We all saw that Happy Days episode.
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/16 "2013-01-15T15:20:07Z")
This past October, I participated in the annual Arcadia Festival Zombie Walk in Kalamazoo, MI. They attempted to break the Guiness World Record for most Zombies gathered. We were trying to break the record of 4,093 set in Asbury Park, N.J., on Oct. 30, 2010, but we came up 107 zombies short.
We could have broken the record if there werenāt some problems. There were many there who did not dress up like zombies, including the organizers, the band hired to entertain us, and others. There were children there dressed up, but their parents were not.
Overall it was fun, but I think the organizers could have done a better job of promoting the event.
Here is a news article about the event: [Zombie Festival falls 107 bodies short of breaking world record in Kalamazoo (photo gallery) - mlive.com](http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/10/zombie_festival_falls_107_bodi.html)
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/17 "2013-01-16T14:54:31Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#):
>
> This past October, I participated in the annual Arcadia Festival Zombie Walk in Kalamazoo, MI. They attempted to break the Guiness World Record for most Zombies gathered. We were trying to break the record of 4,093 set in Asbury Park, N.J., on Oct. 30, 2010, but we came up 107 zombies short.
>
> We could have broken the record if there werenāt some problems. There were many there who did not dress up like zombies, including the organizers, the band hired to entertain us, and others. There were children there dressed up, but their parents were not.
>
> Overall it was fun, but I think the organizers could have done a better job of promoting the event.
>
> Here is a news article about the event: [Zombie Festival falls 107 bodies short of breaking world record in Kalamazoo (photo gallery) - mlive.com](http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/10/zombie_festival_falls_107_bodi.html)
I havenāt been to yours yet but its on my list. I did the Dorney Park Invasion with the Asbury and Philly Walks and it was fantastic. Asbury has such a great machine/team promoting things that they are going to be tough to beat. We (Pittsburgh) are going more the āFestā route now. Between that, the walk and the motorcycle run it makes a fun day of leaking blood all over the city.
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/18 "2013-01-16T22:12:41Z")
Attempted but did not break the recordā¦
Largest number of people lap sitting. This was at college, hundreds and hundreds of people line up very close to each other, at the signal we all sit.
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### Author:  [@Blisters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blisters)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/19 "2013-01-18T06:14:53Z")
Yes! It was an attempt at the ālargest kazoo ensemble.ā
No idea if it was successful, still stands, or how precisely lots of people playing the kazoo honors Jerry Garcia. I do, however, still have my orange kazoo.
> **[World's Largest Kazoo Ensemble Record Attempt At Tonight's Giants Game | SF...](http://sfappeal.com/2010/08/worlds-largest-kazoo-ensemble-world-record-attempt-tonight-at-giants-game/)**
>
> SF Appeal: San Francisco's Online Newspaper
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### Author:  [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-participated-in-a-guinness-record-attempt/647050/20 "2013-01-18T08:34:20Z")
**Largest YMCA Dance**
Disco Fever II, Hollywood Bowl
28 June 2003
Broken at the Sun Bowl, 31 Dec 2008
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