Man beats out Irish teacher to take Guinness World Record for loudest shout
An Australian man has broken the Guinness World Record for the loudest-ever shout recorded, reaching an ear-splitting 122.4 decibels.
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, who works as an air conditioner cleaner and an honorary town crier, shrieked “now” to smash the record.
The volume of the shout reached that of a thunderclap, a pneumatic drill, or a chainsaw.
It took the 58-year-old seven separate attempts to break the world record. He admitted that, following the triumphant yell, his voice was “shot” for days.
As per Sky News, the record-breaker explained, “There’s no way that you can actually practise for it. You have to just keep it for the day, especially with the world record attempt.”
The record was previously held by a teacher from Northern Ireland, Annalisa Flanagan, who yelled “quiet” at 121.7 decibels in 1994.
The pair are close to the pain threshold; the UK charity for the deaf, RNID, explains that at 130 decibels, which is similar to the sound of a jet taking off some 100 metres away, is the noise level where listeners begin to experience pain in their ears.
McGrail-Bateup picked the word “now” after experimenting with a few different words.
He explained, “My daughter and I worked together to find the best word to hit the decibels. The previous word was ‘quiet’ but that wasn’t quite loud enough and we ended up settling for the word ‘now’.”
The Australian also admitted that he used to be very quiet and shy as a kid; eventually, he joined the theatre after he left school, where it became “very clear then that I needed to pipe up, make myself loud“.
He landed the victory on May 2nd at a radio studio; a professional acoustic engineer and several witnesses were present and confirmed the record.
This isn’t the first time McGrail-Bateup boasts of being a record holder. In 2019, he shot 10 archery arrows in 60.03 seconds, the fastest recorded time that year. However, nine months later, a seven-year-old beat his record by over 11 seconds.