Wait, what? Pulling crazy faces is a world championship sport
Kids usually pull funny faces to make people laugh, but these rubber-faced adults do so for a grand prize.
The World Gurning Championships 2024 has crowned a new winner. The face-pulling competition is held annually in the English town of Egremont, Cumbria.
During the town's popular Crab Fair, which dates back to 1267, dozens of men and women participate in a quirky competition that involves contestants pulling their craziest, most ridiculous faces ever. This is known as "gurning" in England.
They have to make silly faces while wearing a wooden horse collar! Some contestants reportedly train for hours to contort their faces into exaggerated expressions.
Toothless men seem to have a bit of an advantage in the competition.
Tommy Mattinson claimed the top prize for the 19th time, and Claire Lister won the women's category for the eighth year.
Claire's daughter Kendal won the children's division.
Here are the man’s and woman’s champions at the 2024 World Gurning Championships, Tommy Mattinson and Claire Lister. The event took place at Cumbria’s annual Egremont crab fair - I suspect the competition wasn’t particularly international ! pic.twitter.com/L1kMI70QGp
— SteveWilson #BLM #FreePalestine (@stevewil94) September 23, 2024
Tommy told Guinness World Records officials in 2023 that a snarling canid inspired his winning look, which he calls 'The Wolf'.
He holds the record for most wins.
"I started gurning when I was a little boy. My dad used to come home, most years, with this big trophy. As I got older, I asked him what it was for, and he said it was for gurning. So, I decided, as a young lad, I am going to try and follow in my father's footsteps," he said.
Tommy entered the fair's first-ever junior competition when he was 11 and won! He hopes to continue the family tradition. Tommy started teaching his grandson how to "gurn" when he was six. His granddaughter is also a gurning champion in training.
Tommy is crossing his fingers that the little ones will be the next champions of the family.
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Main image credit: iStock/Andrii Iemelyanenko