Guinness Episode

An episode in a Sitcom where a character wants to break a record to be remembered for posterity. The bad part: the character tries with nearly every imaginable record, just to fail miserably. Once and over again.

Most of the time, the character will end up beating an obscure and rather unknown record, often "Highest Quantity of Failed Record Attempts in a Row". But a few times, the perseverance (or sometimes the luck) is prized with a real record.

Named for the Guinness Book Of World Records, the best-known compilation of world records in the English-speaking world.

Not to be confused with an episode in which the cast does nothing but drink beer - unless that's the record that they're trying to break.

Examples of Guinness Episode include:

Live-Action TV

• Happy Days did it twice.
  • In an early episode, Fonzie breaks the record for most garbage cans jumped over on a motorcycle, live on the TV show "You Wanted to See It" (a Serial Numbers Filed Off version of the show You Asked for It, which was running at the time Happy Days is set).
  • Later the Magilla Book of World Records guys were coming to town, so everyone wanted to break a record. Al tried to talk Fonzie into breaking his own record, but Fonzie refused. Fonzie's klutzy cousin was the only one to successfully break a record, catching 40 quarters flipped off his elbow.
• There was a Guinness Book of Records Game Show called The Guinness Game, where the contestants bet as to whether the attempter would succeed in breaking the record or not.
• iCarly had an episode dedicated to "breaking the longest webcast". They failed when they lost power due to the B-Plot, meaning it was not a continuous webcast. As consolation, they got to meet the World's Fattest Priest!
  • Plus, Spencer broke the record for the world's largest moving scuplture and let Carly and the gang add the last piece so they can share the credit.
• Fred Sanford on Sanford and Son attempts to break the world record for staying awake the longest. He fails, but in the process of helping Fred stay awake, his friends break records, such as bouncing a basketball consecutively and singing a song the most number of times in a row.
• The Red Green Show has an episode where various characters try to break world records after hearing that "the Guiness people" will be in town. At the end it turns out it's the Guinness beer company.
  • Who are the people who actually produce the Book of World Records, so, y'know ... same company.
• The war between Pillowtown and Blanketsburg on Community is triggered by a Guinness attempt. Blanketsburg has the potential to set a record but has no more room to expand, so the Dean orders Pillowtown torn down to provide more space. Things escalate.

Western Animation

• Arthur and friends made the world's largest pizza. In the same episode, Buster tried for longest time walking backward, Francine tried bouncing a soccer ball on her knee and Muffy tried not talking.
• On The Simpsons, Homer first tries to break the Duff record for jumping up and down making goofy noises. When told that the record is three years, he then tried to get everyone to make the world's largest human pyramid but they couldn't hold it for enough seconds. (Although they did hold it for long enough if you count the time it took to explain that they had to hold it for "at least three Mississippis".) They collapsed because Jimbo and Kearny realized their hands were touching and pulled away from each other. As a consolation, they learn that Springfield is the world's fattest city.
• One episode of Garfield and Friends had Garfield try to take the world's longest nap. Just as he's about to make it, the current record-holder wakes him with lasagna so he can preserve his title.