History Literature / GuinnessWorldRecords

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: Any record categories that would result in harm to animals are specifically disallowed. Even seemingly benign records like "Heaviest Fish" have been scrapped when it was discovered that people were intentionally overfeeding their fish in an unhealthy way to beat the record.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: [[AvertedTrope Nope]], you will not find her in the record book, because the committee does not accept records based on subjective and nonmeasurable parameters like beauty or goodness of character.

These inspired a Creator/{{BBC}} television show, ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers'' (after Castle's death, just ''Record Breakers'') that ran for nearly thirty years. This was the first of what Website/TheOtherWiki lists as ''twenty-two'' Guinness Book of Records - franchised shows around the world. The Guinness World Records franchise has its base in London, with the museums franchise operated from Orlando, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}.

-->-- '''Roy Castle''', closing theme to ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers''

* ExpositoryThemeTune: the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QFt1ZeDftk opening song]], performed by Roy Castle, that kicked off every edition of ''Record Breakers''. And its closing theme song ''Dedication'', about the quality you need to be a Record Breaker.

* MedalOfDishonor: While all the records are remarkable, not all of them are for achievements the honoree would be proud of. Presumably no one is glad about the record for "[[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} worst nuclear reactor disaster]]", for example. And we can't imagine the record holder for "[[BodyHorror largest kidney stone]]" was very thrilled about that, either.

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These inspired a Creator/{{BBC}} television show, ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers'' (after Castle's death, just ''Record Breakers'') that ran for nearly thirty years. This was the first of what Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists as ''twenty-two'' Guinness Book of Records - franchised shows around the world. The Guinness World Records franchise has its base in London, with the museums franchise operated from Orlando, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}.

* ProudToBeAGeek: Records related to gaming, cosplay, the internet, and other {{nerd}}y pursuits have their own {{spinoff}} book: ''Guinness World Records: Gamers' Edition''.

* UpToEleven: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashrita_Furman Mr. Ashrita Furman]] holds the Guinness World Record for Person With The Most World Records, becoming the first individual to hold more than 100 records at once.

->''Dedication. Dedication. Dedication!\\

Oo-ooh! Dedication's what you need.''
--> Roy Castle, closing theme to ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers''

* MedalOfDishonor: While all the records are remarkable, not all of them are for achievements the honoree would be proud of. Presumably no one is glad about the record for "[[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} worst nuclear reactor disaster]]." And we can't imagine the record holder for "[[BodyHorror largest kidney stone]]" was very thrilled about that, either.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: [[AvertedTrope Nope]], you will not find her in the record book, because the committee believes that beauty is subjective and thus cannot be officially measured.

* ImpracticalMusicalInstrumentSkills: After being challenged by the [=YouTube=] channel Creator/TwoSetViolin, Guinness retired the category for "Fastest Violin Player", admitting they didn't have a way to measure important musical things like accuracy, clarity, and articulation.

* ExpositoryThemeTune: the EarWorm [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QFt1ZeDftk opening song]], performed by Roy Castle, that kicked off every edition of ''Record Breakers''. And its closing theme song ''Dedication'', about the quality you need to be a Record Breaker.

* ItsTheBestWhateverEver: Basically the whole point.

->''Dedication. Dedication. Dedication!''
->''That’s what you need!''
->''If you wanna be the best, and you wanna beat the rest,''
->'' Oo-ooh! Dedication's what you need.''

!! Tropes to beat on television shows derived from or based on the Book:-

* [[FilmOfTheBook Book To TV Screen]]: The Guinness Book of Records became a long-running BBC TV show, ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers''. Aimed at children, it was also popular with adults, and every edition featured at least one record-breaking attempt, usually supervised by one or both [=McWhirter=] brothers. After [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Castle Castle]]'s own early death, other presenters took the show over and it ran for over twenty years.
* [[ItsTheBestWhateverEver It's the best whatever ever - and we can beat that, live on TV!]]: Basically the whole point.

These inspired a Creator/{{BBC}} television show, ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers'' (after Castle's death, just ''Record Breakers'') that ran for nearly thirty years. This was the first of what Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists as ''twenty-two'' Guinness Book of Records - franchised shows around the world. The Guinness World Records franchise has its base in London, with the museums franchise operated from Orlando, {{Florida}}.

These inspired a Creator/{{BBC}} television show, ''Roy Castle's Record Breakers'' (after Castle's death, just ''Record Breakers'') that ran for nearly thirty years. This was the first of what TheOtherWiki lists as ''twenty-two'' Guinness Book of Records - franchised shows around the world. The Guinness World Records franchise has its base in London, with the museums franchise operated from Orlando, {{Florida}}.

A number of stunts for which awards were given in the past have since been disallowed for any new attempts - especially those involving excessive eating or drinking - because some of them are considered too dangerous when done to the excessive level some people take them to.