The Popcorn Stand: Bringing a new meaning to being heads up

He could literally be a numb skull.

I’ve written before about the Vietnamese duo who smashed the world record for “dual” stair climbing with one of the men balancing the other guy on his head while climbing 86 stairs. Originally I thought it would’ve taken just climbing one stair to break this world record, but evidently that wasn’t enough. Still, 86 stairs was considerably more than enough to smash the record.

This next chapter in stair climbing keeps reminding me of how I have no idea why the human skull, brain, or whatever, comes up with these ideas of what human beings should do. It also reminded me of one of my favorite television commercials I watched growing up as a kid in Central California.

I can’t remember the car salesman’s name, but his trademark saying was “I’ll stand on my head to make you a deal.” At the end of the commercial a cartoon character of the salesman would then be turned upside down to show him standing on his head.

I don’t know if China-based athlete Li Longlong sells cars but apparently he really likes to stand on his head. This video http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/li-longlong-guinness-climb-stairs-head_us_58c2fac8e4b054a0ea6a8a5c?section=us_weird-news shows Longlong trying to break the Guiness World Record for climbing stairs — on his head.

Yes, you guessed it, I wouldn’t have thought there was a record to begin with. And I would’ve thought the record for doing this stunt would be one. But it’s 34 stairs — and it’s Lonlong’s record, so he was seeking to break his own record. Go figure.

Watching this numb skull, er, sorry, couldn’t resist, this guy’s crazy, although he is wearing some kind of pad on the top of his head. He hops up each stair on his head. The video is from the Guiness World Records Italian Show, so I have a hard time understanding, but apparently there are actually two judges there conferring to decide if he actually broke the record.

He also comes back a week later to try to break the record, but fails — because he touches one of the stairs with his hand. Apparently, though, Longlong goes onto break his own record, but not just one, but two stairs, extending the mark to 36.

He sure brings a new meaning to the term heads up.

— Charles Whisnand