Today is Guinness World Record Day, the annual event where people across the globe try to set records so their legacies can live forever in Guinness' archival text that sits perched on the back of toilets everywhere. Among the day's slated attempts include the Largest Gathering of People Wearing Underpants, Most People Running in High Heeled Shoes and Most Beer Steins Carried over 40 meters.

If some of these potential achievements sound arbitrary, they are and that's the point. Ridiculousness is part of what makes Guinness fun. So to celebrate this year's World Record Day, we thumbed through the 2009 edition and picked out some of the oddest records they've decided to highlight.


Most Random Guinness World Records

    "Most Rattlesnakes (Bathtub)"Texan Jackie Bibby shared a tub with 87 snakes for 45 minutes. Why didn't he go for 88? We guess that's the exact moment when rattlesnakes in bathtubs get restless.

    Carla Metzler, Guinness World records / AP

    Longest Line of Riverdancers On November 8, 2007, 8,216 dancers from the CLRG Dance School in Leinster Province, Ireland danced in a Riverdance line. Unfortunately, records for the Macarena, the Achy Breaky and other wack fad dances are conspicuously absent from the 2009 edition.

    Georgios Kefalas, AP

    Longest Time to Maintain a Human Flag Canadian Dominic Lacasse posed like a flag from a polr for 39 seconds. It would've been a lot more obvious what he was doing if he had tattooed a giant maple leaf on his stomach.

    Hermann J. Knippertz, AP

    Largest Gathering of Test-Tube Children On September 15, 2007, 1,180 people born from artificial insemination met up at the Assisted Reproduction Centre in Prague, Czech Republic to salute the scientists that engineered them in labs.

    Alastair Grant, AP

    Fastest Half-Marathon Barefoot on Ice/Snow Wim Hof of the Netherlands ran a half marathon barefoot in ice in 2 hours 16 minutes. He also holds the record for ice immersion. Known as "The Iceman," Hof controls his body temperature by the tantric practice of tumo, which is similar to the method used in tantric sex, but far less fun.

    Diane Bondareff, Rubin Museum of Art / AP

    Most People Brushing Teeth (Multiple Venues) 177,003 students from over 350 schools across 23 cities in India brushed their teeth simultaneously on October 9, 2007. The record was organized by Colgate, which probably also ranks it high on the list of record attempts that were actually direct marketing events.

    Manish Swarup, AP

    Largest Pet Spider Aussie Walter Baumgartner owns a Goliath bird-eating spider that weighs 6.17 ounces, and has a 4.7-inch body, 10.2-inch leg-span and a .9-inch mandible. Like Paris Hilton and her tiny dog, we'd like to think Walter lets it peek out his man bag while walking around town.

    Australian Customs Service / AP

    Most Versatile Wire-Free Gadget Charger The name of the record pretty much says it all. WildCharger, by USA company, is a must-have. In fact, it's prominently featured and described with such praise that we're wondering if someone happened to drop off a free case of WildChargers at the Guinness offices.

    physworld.org

    Most Chicken Nuggets Eaten in Three Minutes Brit Mark Kilby is the grand champion of breaded, unidentifiable chicken-part eating having downed 9 oz. of chicken nuggets in three minutes. How many could he eat in five minutes? Hopefully, that will be in the 2010 edition.

    Michael Pugh / McDonalds USA

    Longest Chain of Condoms A group called PSI Romania created a chain of linked condoms that measured 10,726 feet on October 28, 2007. Seeing as Romania has one of the highest rates of STDs in Central Europe, those record-breaking jimmies probably could have been of better use elsewhere.

    Vadim Ghirda, AP