‘It is impossible to lick your elbow’
The inclusion of this ‘fact’ within the e-mail circulated fact lists seems to be as much about the joy of making people try it for themselves as it is about anything else (and I bet you have a go whilst reading this!).
It is, of course, pretty tricky (as you’ll find), but by no means impossible. If you have a long tongue, or just flexible arms (or more grimly, a dislocated shoulder), you may just be able to manage it. There’s even plenty of videos on YouTube doing just such a demonstration:
The Guinness World Records organisation have even had the following statement on their website before:
Contrary to popular urban legend, it is quite possible to lick your own elbow. Guinness World Records receives about five claims a day for this and we would like to stress the following point: being able to lick your own elbow is not, in any sense, a world record.
If you’re one of the admittedly rare few who can lick your elbow, save it for the water cooler. Please don’t email us!
Of course, if you have a super-long tongue � longer than the current tongue world record � then we’ll be happy to get our tape measure out!
(The page is no longer on their website, but you can see an archived version of it from Jan 2006.)
Amusingly, this seems to be quite a popular internet topic. At the time of writing, Google estimates 369,000 results for lick own elbow…
If you can do it (or if you tried and failed), post your amusing story below. (Oh and I’m not responsible for any injuries you might sustain whilst attempting it).