World Gurning Champ Retains Title

A gurn is a funny distorted face, and gurning is what we often refer to as "making faces." In England there is a tradition of gurning competitions, the most famous being the contest at the Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria. That competition, held this past Saturday, is considered the World Championship of gurning. Tommy Mattinson held off all comers to win the title and retain his crown as the world's best gurner for the 15th straight year.

Mr Mattinson, from Aspatria, also holds the Guinness World Record for gurning, and has beaten his father's ten-time record as world champion.

In 2008, he gurned in front of the Queen during a visit to Cumbria.

He described his expression as "a cross between an alien and a wolf man".

"That said, this year in particular I really, really tried hard," he said.

"I put in a lot of effort, and now have a sore head and all the muscles in my neck ache."

Link -via Arbroath


In my radio youth in L.A., Gary Owens (Laugh-In announcer, original Space Ghost, Powdered Toast Man, voiceover on a million commercials, and L.A.'s most entertaining Afternoon DJ for over 20 years) staged the first ever Gurning Contest in Los Angeles (and one of the few ever sponsored by and live broadcast on a RADIO station). I think it was an offshoot of his efforts to champion every nonsense-sounding word in the English language and invent a few of his own. (He used "fnork" before anyone used "fnord")
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