What we learned throughout the first season of "Guinness World Records: Gone Wild!" is that record-breaking does not discriminate.
It will break the hearts of young and old. It can submit the strong and favor the weak. It can render months and years of persistence and training irrelevant with one fluke of a misstep. But, where it's always consistent is in the human drama it provides, and Thursday's season finale proved no different.
We were first introduced to a man who made a difficult record look easy, and that portended good things for the episode. Scott Damerow took the stage, told the crowd he would crush at least 130 eggs with his head in one minute, and then proceeded to wow everyone with his speed, precision, and ability to take residence in any short-order brunch kitchen.
Then came a young couple that, well, wasn't a couple at all.
Paul Prado and Sophia Rojas came to us as roommates but, when pressed, revealed that Sophia also had a live-in boyfriend, who soon appeared on stage. Prado admitted to a bit of nervousness in the presence of this third party and nervousness would not fly when the two tried to break a record that has stood for 13 years: the farthest marshmallow nose blow, to be caught in the mouth.
Whether it was nerves or air pressure or not eating a solid breakfast earlier in the day, Prado and Rojas fell achingly short of the record, as he launched a marshmallow from his nose into her mouth just 1.5 inches short of the record 16 ft 3.5 in.
Photo courtesy truTV
Distraught and having come so close, the duo convinced GWR adjudicator Stuart Claxton to allow one more try, however. And later in the show, Prado and Rojas returned, this time for glory: on the first try of their second attempt, the marshmallow was blown an amazing 17 ft 11 in, absolutely crushing a record that had stood for more than a decade.
The same couldn't be said, though, for a trio of record attempts in the middle of the show, all of which also involved food.
Attempts at the most hamburgers stuffed in the mouth whole (the "whole" burgers all came out of the mouth as one mushy blob), fastest time to eat a raw onion (three audience members who were not up to the task), and most watermelons crushed with the thighs in one minute (the slipperiness of the melons didn't allow for enough traction) all came nowhere near setting records for their respective reason.
Thankfully, two record pros were there to save the day, including pogo stick maestro Fred Grzybowski.
Photo courtesy truTV
Grzybowksi took to the outdoor track of the "Gone Wild!" arena to become a four-time holder for the most consecutive backflips on a pogo stick. Having originally set the record with eight flips in 2009, Grzybowksi continued to push his limits, upping the record total to a successful 12 straight flips, and making it look easy.
What wasn't easy was the last attempt of the night, made once again by a previous record holder.
Mike O'Hearn stood, in full American football pads and helmet, in front of 19 panes of tempered glass, hoping to break through them all consecutively. Some panes he smashed through with ease. Others, his momentum couldn't carry him and he bounced off the glass like a rubber ball. By the end of his run, O'Hearn lay exhausted, sprawled among a sea of glass shards.
Photo courtesy truTV
When he arose, O'Hearn waited patiently to see if his effort provided another place in Guinness World Records lore.
That suspenseful success brought the incredible first installment of "Guinness World Records: Gone Wild!" to a close and what an awesome season it was. From men flipping over speeding cars to women throwing refrigerators, the Guinness World Records universe was on full display throughout.
If you missed any of the action, make sure to visit the " Guinness World Records: Gone Wild!" page at truTV.com for full episodes and individual record clips ( Note: full episodes not available outside United States).
And stay tuned -- no one knows when Guinness World Records may go wild next!
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