ALL:
00:00:54
Yeah! How are you feeling? I'm feeling pumped. Yeah? Yeah.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:01:00
For Colin Kaplan, the stakes couldn't be higher. Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever thought that I'd be doing anything like this.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:01:07
After a year of planning, he's about to find out if his city, New Haven, Connecticut, can eat its way into history by hosting the world's largest pizza party. Let's get some pizza.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:01:20
Kaplan, a local historian and food tour guide, is so obsessed with pizza, last year, he chartered a jet to Washington and got his Congresswoman to declare New Haven the pizza capital of America. New Haven, pizza capital, baby. [CHEERS, APPLAUSE] Is this a serious endeavor? Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, I think it is. I'll tell you what, it seems light and fun. But it's serious in the sense of what's on the line.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:01:49
What's on the line is the glory of a Guinness World Record. And people will do just about anything to get one. Humans are such an interesting bunch, aren't we? And record breaking is an innately human thing. And if that means you do strange things like swallowing sausages whole, or climbing Everest, or running a marathon with a milk bottle on your head, then that's fine. That's great.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:02:16
Craig Glenday has been the book's editor in chief for the past 21 years. I really like that. So I think we want more of that.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:02:23
In his signature Scottish accent, he recounts with a straight face what is often a circus of absurdity. We get things like fastest time to run around my garden, playing the banjo with a snake on my head. It's like, next. They get a nice letter of like, thank you, but no thank you.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:02:41
Cutest babies and cutest dogs don't make the cut either. Records must meet strict criteria. They have to be filmed from multiple angles, verified by independent eyewitnesses, and measured with precision. Each year, Guinness World Records receives roughly 50,000 applications. But as many as 95% get rejected. The largest number of submissions come from the United States. One of my favorite days on the job I was at the X Games at the Staples Center in LA. And a dog zipped past me on a skateboard. And despite the heat, I chased after this dog. And I found the owner and said, I've never seen a dog on a skateboard. And he said, oh, this is Tillman. He loves skateboarding. I had a tape measure. We measured out 100 meters of the car park at the Staples Center. And we set the record there and then because I was so amazed by it. Do you just walk through the world with a tape measure in your pocket?
CRAIG GLENDAY:
00:03:37
Well, I do, usually. Do you? Yeah, I have a tape measure and a stopwatch, because you never know.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:03:42
Many of the record holders you know, Usain Bolt for the fastest 200 meters, Beyonce for the most Grammys, and many you've probably never even imagined-- Go.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:03:55
--like serial record breaker David Rush, an Idaho tech worker, who has broken more than 350 records and counting, including most bites taken from three apples while juggling for a minute. Just past the two mile mark. And most T-shirts worn during a half marathon. And Monsieur Mangetout. That's Mr. Eats everything in French. He held the record for the world's strangest diet. The guy who'd supposedly eat in a Cessna because he could eat metal and glass. A Cessna plane. Well, apparently, it took him two years. We couldn't quite-- Doesn't sound very healthy. Well, I mean, his wife wouldn't let him use the toilet at home, because if he'd been eating metal, it tends to come out like bullets. And it would chip the porcelain. So he'd have to use a hotel with metal toilets near his house. This is the craziest interview I've ever done, I'm just saying. Sorry. I'm sorry. Go back to what you were saying that when you-- I mean, for me, it's every day. So I don't quite get it, but yeah. He could do glass and metal. He couldn't do chains. But to meet him was a real honor for me because he was like a childhood hero for me. You must get this question all the time. Why? Why. I mean, it's different for everyone. Everyone has a different reason. Some just want fame, some want to be in print. We do validate people that do things that others might seem a bit weird, like eating aircraft and stuff. Do you not see that as weird? [SIGHS] I mean, I see it as really interesting. I gotta tell you, I thought it would be a little crazier than this. Inside the company's London headquarters, Glenday keeps a cabinet of greatest hits. --is Craig's cabinet of curi-oddities.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:05:45
Like the world's smallest playing cards, and a giant size 29 shoe. Like the Vanna White of oddities here. What is this? If you have a little investigation of that, it's the world's oldest vomit. Vomit? Vomit. So about 100-- You got me on that one. 160-- it doesn't smell, and it's obviously petrified.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:06:05
Not everyone chooses to break records. I'm 5'10 So what was she? She's just on 7 foot. The tallest and shortest people often have had genetic conditions. The woman with the longest fingernails, 43, hasn't cut them since her daughter, who painted her nails, passed away in 1997. So she still holds the record? Still has the record. And I think that's the longest ever measured.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:06:31
The idea for the book began during a hunting trip at this country estate in Ireland, where the manager of the Guinness Brewery got into an argument over who could name the fastest game bird in Europe. To settle future pub debates, he commissioned a book of superlatives which eventually became the Guinness World Records. The first one was published in 1955. The initial reaction from the book trade was not that positive. In the first sales meeting ever, the salesperson wrote 6 on the slip. And they said, do you mean 6000, 600. He said, no, 6. They just wanted six-- Six for the whole country. --copies? Yeah. By the end of the week, it was like 10,000. They sold that quickly. And it was just blew up.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:07:15
70 years later, it's still a hit at school book fairs. But today, the name Guinness World Records is synonymous with viral stunts that become clickbait gold. Is Google your biggest competition? I could pull my phone out right now and search the world's fastest bird. You might as well open the window and shout your question into the street. And you'll get an answer, yeah. But is it the right one? Well, I can say it. I know Sultan Colson's, 8 foot 3, because I was there with the tape measure. I measured him.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:07:43
He's also measured the shortest person, who he learned about after a woodcutter passed through a remote village in Nepal and alerted the team at Guinness World Records. So it was confidence enough for me to then go to Nepal-- You get on a flight and go to Nepal to measure this person?
CRAIG GLENDAY:
00:08:00
And we would never have known about him had that woodcutter not gone through the village that day and sent us the video footage.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:08:07
And then there are the rules. So rigid they've sparked office debates over who makes the cut for the largest gathering of people dressed as Smurfs. So it's like, OK, well, what is a Smurf, what do they wear, do they all have blue skin. Yes. You might have to write guidelines for any possible topic. So we've got this huge big book of experts, from archeologists--
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:08:32
To Smurfs. --to Smurf-ologists. Yeah, I don't know if that's a thing. But we've got a myrmecologist, which-- What is that? Myrmecologist, an ant expert. So if we've got a question about what's the most dangerous ant. Quick, get the myrmecologist online. So you'd get-- we've just found this big ant. Is it the biggest.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:08:49
For large events like the New Haven pizza party-- I am today's official Guinness World Records adjudicator, so I'm basically the judge.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:08:57
--Guinness World Records sometimes sends an adjudicator responsible for enforcing the rules from headquarters. You're going to write how many people you disqualified. Hopefully, that is a nice big round 0.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:09:09
Thomas Bradford is one of 81 adjudicators the company employs across six continents. His day job is as a performer at Disney. But when it's go time, he puts on his trademark blue jacket. The largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs was one of my favorite events. And you kind of expect people to just come in the classic inflatable t-rex costume.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:09:31
What do they come in? Diplodocus, triceratops, you name it, we had it.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:09:36
Legit gear. Everything. I had to turn away people that were dressed as Godzilla, because Godzilla is not a dinosaur. How do you break it to a dinosaur in a bad costume that they don't qualify? You kind of just have to play the role. I think my accent helps. And there is a level of authority that comes with a British accent. Very much that. The largest pizza party is probably the most competitive record that I've ever been a part of.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:09:59
Is that true? I didn't think it would be as-- it's a lot. They're stressing you out? This is one of the most stressful record attempts I've had.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:10:07
Colin Kaplan needs 3358 people to show up in order to beat the current record. And you want to beat Tulsa. We're going to beat Tulsa, Oklahoma.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:10:18
Participants get 15 minutes to eat two slices of pizza and drink a bottle of water. But here's the catch-- they have to stay until the party is officially over. And-- They must eat the entire pizza. No one can leave their crusts. They have to eat the crust.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:10:37
What makes a pizza party like this so difficult? People. Yeah. You don't know if they're going to stay for 15 minutes. They might wait for 14 and be like, I'm fine. You're disqualified if you leave after 14 minutes. So people is the toughest thing. This official Guinness World Records attempt has begun. [CHEERS, APPLAUSE]
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:00
At first, it was slow going. What if not enough people show up? Or have you guys already accounted for--
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:05
But then in came the pizza obsessed college students, children, those in their finest pepperoni attire.
KAPLAN:
00:11:15
Its 10,000 slices, which is 625 pizzas in about 3.5 hours.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:21
Kaplan's pursuit of a record didn't come cheap. Brands and businesses chasing titles for marketing must pay fees. He said he paid nearly $30,000 and fundraised six figures to cover all the costs, including eight ovens and all that cheese. There you are.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:42
When Thomas Bradford wasn't busy being a celebrity-- Awesome!
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:47
--he and a group of hundreds volunteers kept the tally. Only two didn't finish? Yes. One left? Perfect.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:54
With an hour to go-- It's going to go to the wire, I think. It's going to be close.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:11:58
--Kaplan was still trying to make the pie calculations add up. We could actually feed 1,800 people starting at 6 o'clock. And that means that we could 100% beat the record and almost get to 5,000.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:12:12
So did they? [CHEERS, APPLAUSE] Finally, the verdict. And now, New Haven is home to the world's largest pizza party.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:12:22
4525 people gathered for a new Guinness World Record-- Congratulations, New Haven. You are all officially amazing.
AYESHA SIDDIQI:
00:12:35
--and a slice of history. Human beings are innately the same everywhere. They are, really, because they're trying to get through from birth to death and have as much fun and enjoy life and get all the experiences that you can. And we see this every day. The world is full of these amazing, fun things, if you just look in the right place.
