How Hard Can It Be? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thrown by a tornado

Suter was not planning on becoming a world record holder that day. In fact, at the start of his legendary achievement he wasn't even awake. The 19-year-old was asleep in his grandmother's trailer in Fordland, MO, when the tornado struck on March 12, 2006. As the winds rattled the trailer he was knocked unconscious by a falling lamp. A short while later he awoke in the middle of a field 398 metres from where the trailer had formerly been.

Suter had no recollection of his flight. On waking up, he ran, dressed just in his boxer shorts, to a neighbour's house to take shelter. Surprisingly, despite his violent ejection from his home, his main injuries came from the lamp and from cuts on his feet from running barefoot across the ground.

Answer: Cockroaches

Ken achieved the feat of eating 36 cockroaches live on "The Big Breakfast" TV show in 2001. Truly a breakfast of champions. When asked how they tasted he responded, "They taste awful. I just think of England and a pint." Oddly, there were no recorded attempts to beat this record in the subsequent 20 years.

Ken also set an unofficial record in 1988 for stuffing 47 live rats down his trousers as part of his stage act. An appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" provided part of the inspiration for the children's novel "Ratburger" written by BGT judge David Walliams.

Amazingly, as well as his career in "entertainment", Ken continued to be gainfully employed as a zookeeper.

Answer: T-shirts

Just wearing 22 T-shirts seems remarkable enough (although far from a record - David and Jennifer Rush of Boise, Idaho each put 35 on in 60 seconds in 2021 for example). However, to take them off while continually juggling a football with your head is on another level. Muņoz is a professional football freestyler and performed his world record at a Mexican football awards dinner, beating the record previously set at 21 by Brazilian Marcelo Ribeiro da Silva in 2009.

The 22 shirts included one representing each of the teams in the Mexican Liga MX. It was the eighth time that Muņoz had set a football juggling world record. His previous records included consecutive stairs climbed while juggling a football and fastest marathon run while juggling a football.

Answer: Tongue

Blackthorne first set this record in 2004, when he lifted a weight of 12.3kg or 27lbs. To enable him to set this record, all Blackthorne had to do was pierce his tongue, insert a hook into the piercing and then train for six years. To be counted as a record he had to hold the weight off the ground for five seconds. He broke his own record with the 2022 lift whilst appearing on an Italian TV show about record breakers.

To put it in context, the weight that he carried amounts to roughly the weight of a large two-year-old child, eight house bricks or 57 rolls of toilet paper.

Answer: In space

Polyakov entered the Mir space station in orbit around planet Earth in January 1994 and left to come back to terra firma in March 1995. As well as the scientific experiments that he conducted whilst on board, the purpose of the mission was to demonstrate that humans could endure the long duration in space that a trip to Mars would require should any country choose to take on that journey.

Answer: 66 years

Chillal started growing his nails at the age of 14 after being told off at school for having a broken nail. He only grew the nails on his left hand so that he could still do practical things with his right. He eventually cut his nails in 2018 after 66 years and donated them to a museum. He paid a heavy price for his record, with the weight of the nails causing nerve damage on the left hand side of his body.

A petasecond is approximately 31,709,791 years. Live that long and you'll be fairly certain to make the record book.

Answer: Riding a skateboard

Professional skateboarder Scholey solved 500 cubes in 40 minutes as part of Guinness World Records day in November 2022. Records set by others that day included most blindfolded backwards standing somersaults in one minute and most back wheel bike bunny hops on a bar in one minute.

Answer: In your beard

Obviously this impressive effort was captured live on Instagram as all important world events are. Strasser achieved his goal after more than three hours of careful placement of the picks, describing the feat as being a result of "good technique" rather than the size of his beard. Surprisingly, given his efforts, Strasser claimed that he only had a beard because he was lazy.

Answer: In less than 23.8 seconds

Although any of these efforts would be impressive it was the rate at which Shannon performed the speech that got him into "Guinness World Records". He was recognised as the world's fastest talker, with his soliloquy representing a delivery speed of 655 words per minute.

Answer: No

Not a chance. Not even close. Ashrita Furman of Brooklyn, NY, could fill more than 50 quizzes with his record-breaking efforts alone. At one stage Furman held more than 550 records recognised by "Guinness World Records". His first record was set in 1979 when he completed 27000 consecutive jumping jacks. He then went on to set records such as farthest distance run on stilts, most sit-ups in an hour and fastest mile run while performing somersaults.

Time well spent I'm sure you'll agree.