Odd Stories: LaughFest 2012 Opens with 607 People Wearing Chicken Beaks to Set a Guinness World Record

Grand Rapids - LaughFest 2012 opened its 10-day festival with 607 chicken beak wearers dancing the “Chicken Dance” to set a new record.

The Bob and Tom All Stars showcase, Martin Short, Sinbad and more LaughFest headliners soon will be in town for Gilda’s LaughFest, inspired by the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of “Saturday Night Live.”

But the second festival of laughter for the health of it opened today with more than 600 people wearing paper chicken beaks for more than 11 minutes to set a brand-new record for the largest gathering of people all wearing animal noses – in this case yellow chicken beaks, dancing to the polka music of Diddle Styx.

“Everybody dance! You’ll stay warmer,” encouraged Leann Arkema, president and CEO of Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids, named for the late Gilda Radner, who died in 1989 of ovarian cancer.

A preliminary count recorded 649 people in the official LaughFest “Chicken Coop” downtown next to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. But official chicken-beak spotters disqualified a few for removing their beaks during the 11 minute, 39-second stunt.

Details of the stunt will be forwarded to Guinness World Records for certification.

LaughFest 2011 opened with a rubber chicken toss in Rosa Parks Circle. A total of 925 faux fowl were flung to set a new record for the Guinness Book of World, shattering the previous record of 265 set near Boston.

Dozens of last year’s participants brought those birds back with them for this year’s stunt to open the second LaughFest, which continues through March 18 in downtown Grand Rapids with additional events in Holland and Lowell.

Radner’s brother, Michael Radner, of Detroit, returned for the second time to encourage the participants in today’s stunt.

“Gilda loved to make people laugh, and people loved to laugh at her,” he said. “This event is so wonderful because it leaves so many people laughing.”

Odd Stories: World's Shortest Man Discovered in Nepal

Katmandu - The record for the title of the shortest person in the world has been broken by a 72-year-old man in the country of Nepal.

At 22-inches, Chandra Bahadu Dangi has broken the record set by 23-and-a-half inch high Junrey Balawing of the Philippines. The third-shortest man is another Nepalese man named Khagendra Thapa Magar, who stands at just under 26-and-a-half inches. The shortest woman in the world is aspiring actress Jyoti Amge, who stands at just under 25 inches.

Because he never seen a doctor and never left the village, nobody either inside or outside the village was aware of his height until a forest cutter met him. Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records are set to arrive in the country on February 26th to measure him.

Dangi has never been married and lives with his eldest brother and his family in the village of Rhimkholi. All of his brothers are of average height. They aren't sure when exactly he stopped growing.

He said about the event "I am very happy to be in Katmandu for the first time in my life. I am here so I can take the Guinness title."

Odd Stories: Mom in Central China Gives Birth to 15 Pound Baby

Beijing - A mother in central China has given birth to a 15.52 pound (7.04 kilogram) baby, possibly the largest newborn on record since the country's founding in 1949.

 

The state-run Tianjin Post said Tuesday that the 29-year-old mother in Henan province gave birth to the boy Saturday by cesarean section. It said delivery took just 20 minutes and both mother and the baby, named Chun Chun, are doing fine.

The paper said Chun Chun's parents are average size and there was nothing unusual about his mother's pregnancy or diet.

The paper said it wasn't immediately clear whether Chun Chun made China's record books.

Guinness World Records says the heaviest newborn ever recorded was born to an Ohio woman in 1879 and weighed 23.7 pounds (10.77 kilograms).