MELBOURNE, Australia — Joseph McGrail-Bateup, a professional air conditioner cleaner from Canberra who also serves as an honorary town crier, has been recognised by Guinness World Records for producing the loudest shout ever recorded by an individual.
McGrail-Bateup, 58, reached 122.4 decibels by shouting the word “now,” surpassing a record set in 1994 by Annalisa Flanagan, a schoolteacher from Northern Ireland, who reached 121.7 decibels with the word “quiet.”
The sound level placed McGrail-Bateup’s shout in a range associated with a chainsaw, a jet aircraft taking off and an ambulance siren at close distance.
The attempt took place on May 2, 2026, in a Canberra radio studio, where a professional acoustic engineer recorded the shout in the presence of witnesses.
The files were submitted to Guinness World Records, which announced the record on Friday.
McGrail-Bateup said on Tuesday that the feat was not one he could properly rehearse.
“There’s no way that you can actually practice for it. You have to just keep it for the day, especially with the world record attempt,” McGrail-Bateup said.
“It took me seven attempts just for one word, which was the word ‘now,’ and my voice was shot for the next couple of days as well. It was husky. It was terrible. So no, you can’t really practice for it. But it’s a lot of fun when you’re doing it,” he added.
From Town Crying to a World Record
McGrail-Bateup said he preferred to regard himself as the world’s loudest man, rather than the world’s loudest person, because Flanagan’s record remained significant to him.
“I’m pleased that she (Flanagan) gets to keep her record. So she’s still the loudest woman in the world and I’m the loudest male in the world,” McGrail-Bateup said.
He said he first found Flanagan’s record while searching Guinness World Records for achievements connected to town crying.
McGrail-Bateup became Canberra’s official town crier in 2017, an honorary, part-time position created by the local government. He uses the town crier name Lord Joseph and makes announcements at community events, school fetes and car shows.
The role also brought him into the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Australian Town Criers, a professional organisation that seeks to preserve the ceremonial tradition of town crying.
In 2024, McGrail-Bateup won a guild competition by delivering “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez” at 98 decibels. The phrase is used by Australian town criers to call for silence and attention before a proclamation.
Before settling on “now” for the Guinness attempt, McGrail-Bateup tried several other words.
A Second Guinness Record
The shouting record is McGrail-Bateup’s second entry in Guinness World Records.
In 2019, he set a speed record for an archer shooting 10 arrows, completing the feat in 60.03 seconds. The mark beat a record that had stood since 2015, but it lasted only nine months before a 7-year-old boy improved on it by 11.4 seconds.
McGrail-Bateup said he had no plans to reclaim the archery record and was not concerned about whether his shouting record would last.
“If someone beats me, that’s fantastic,” he said. “Records are meant to be broken.”
