A Nigerian man who made himself cry for a whole week said that he went blind for a short time.
Tembu Ebere tried to set a Guinness World Record by crying nonstop for 24 hours. This gave him headaches, puffy eyes, and a swollen face.
But the BBC says that he lost some sight for 45 minutes.
Ebere, who says he is a comedian, advertised his work on TikTok and told his fans, under the username @237_towncryer, “Send me your problems, and I’ll cry for you.”
He was crying and holding his head while sitting next to a live timer that said 2 hours and 7 minutes.
People on TikTok all over the world have watched Ebere’s video 5.3 million times, and some have even cheered him on. One said: ‘Go man, you can do it.’
Others made jokes like, “Honestly, I think I’ve cried longer,” and “Nope, I still hold that record.”
The “town cryer” told the BBC, “I had to change my plan and cry less,” but he was still determined to cry his way to his goal.
The BBC did not say why he lost his sight for a while. But this feeling can also be caused by headaches and a buildup of pressure in the eye.
Even though he has had trouble, he hasn’t actually applied to Guinness World Records, so it was said that his attempt won’t count.
Even though he said on social media that it was a real try, this is what happened.
There have been a lot of efforts to break records in Nigeria. This was caused by a chef’s four-day cooking marathon, which got a lot of attention.
Hilda Baci tried to cook for 100 hours straight, and so many people watched that the official Guinness World Records website crashed for two days.
As she worked to “put Nigerian food on the map,” the people, celebrities, and even Nigeria’s vice president cheered her on.
The 26-year-old lasted 93 hours and 11 minutes, which broke the 2019 record for the longest cooking marathon, which was set in India.
People started kiss-a-thons, sang-a-thons, and prayed-a-thons after she was successful at what she did.
John Obot, a teacher from Nigeria, told the BBC that in September 2023, he would try to spend 140 hours reading great books out loud.
He said that he picked a meaningful record, and he added, “The goal is to get more people in Nigeria to read.”
Other attempts have been met with anger because they were rude. In Ekiti state, a plan to try to break the world record for kissing was banned, and organizers were told they would go to jail if the plan went ahead.
“The “kiss-a-thon” as an event is not only silly, wrong, and unhealthy, but it can also hurt Ekiti’s reputation,” the culture ministry said in a statement.
While this was going on, a masseuse who was trying to do a 72-hour massage-a-thon passed out during a live show. The young woman made it 53 hours before she passed out on her client and had to be helped back to life by an assistant.
Guinness World Records has told people who want to break records to be careful and talk to the organization, or they risk being banned.
The organization wrote on social media, “Please, no more record-a-thons.”
Some Nigerians were upset by the comments and asked if the record company was “tired” of their country. This made the record company say that it was open to “applications from all over the world.”