The most jokes in an hour world record – a potted history

As you may have read, Scottish Friendly’s Donald MacLeod is attempting, next month, to break the world record for Most Jokes Told in an Hour.

The Most Jokes in an Hour world record has a long and illustrious history and some famous names have held the title. Scottish Friendly dusted off the record books and took a look back.

Famous names

Undoubtedly the most famous holder of the title has been comedian, television personality and brother of Jeremy, Tim Vine. Tim is perhaps most famous for hosting the Channel 5 quiz show ‘Whittle’ as well as appearing in the hit TV show ‘Not Going Out’. However, he broke the Most Jokes in an Hour record back in October 2004 by telling an impressive 499 jokes in an hour – which beat the previous record of 362.

This record was superseded by Michael Lehman of Australia who managed to get himself into the Guinness Book of Records with a superior 549 jokes at the Rhino Room club, in Adelaide, South Australia in May 2005. You can watch a video of Michael’s record breaking feat here. Michael is the the current holder of the title and the man Donald has to beat.

In 2011 Tim Vine made a half-hearted attempt to wrestle the title back in May 2011, but as you’ll see, he didn’t strictly play by the rules.

Indian attempt

One curiosity is this attempt by Korukonda Ranga Rao, an employee of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in India.

Mr Ranga Rao claims, in 2013, to have managed 654 jokes in the allotted time which works out at nearly 10 jokes per minute – which would make him the world record holder (and give Donald an even bigger target to beat). However, the attempt doesn’t appear to have been officially ratified by the Guinness Book of Records.

According to The Hindu website, not only did Mr Korukonda Ranga Rao have 12 judges present, but the the Indian Minister for Infrastructure and Investment, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, was also in attendance. I doubt there will be anyone as illustrious to cheer Donald on but no doubt the patrons of the Park Bar will be in good voice.

This particular world record has spanned continents  and created laughter across the globe. Next month our focus will be on a certain  head of actuarial in a pub in Glasgow.

We wish you luck Donald.








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