Man sets new Guinness World Record for farthest eyeball pop

There's a new Guinness World Record holder and this time it's for the world's greatest eyeball popper.

With over 53,000 world records, there are all sorts of things people have done to make it into that hallowed book.

It stands to reason that being able to pop your eyes out of your head further than anyone else would be a pretty cool claim to fame and now there's going to be a new name in the book as the old eye popping record has been smashed.

The lucky legend is Sidney de Carvalho Mesquita, though his friends sometimes call him Uncle Fester because of his resemblance to the character from The Addams Family.

He lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil and has been making funny faces since he was nine years old, though his family first thought his talent for pushing his eyes so far out of his head was a sign he was sick.

Luckily they soon learned that far from a sign of illness, it was a mark of talent and a marketable one at that.

Twitter/@GWR

One person who took a while to learn he had this talent was Sidney's wife Egly, who didn't realise he possessed the amazing ability until after they got engaged and a friend asked him to pop his eyeballs.

He told Guinness World Records his ability to pop his eyes was 'pure skill'.

He said: "My skill is definitely a gift. It came from my father, my mother and the creator, too."

Sidney's eyeball popping distance of 0.71 inches (1.8 cm) is an incredible achievement and a significant distance further than previous record holder Kim Goodman, who could pop her eyes 0.47 inches (1.19 cm) out of their sockets.

Guinness World Records

The actual scientific term for being able to eyeball pop is 'globe luxation', and measuring the pop is a tricky task which needs to be done by an optometrist using a special device called a proptometer.

Obviously you want to get the measurements just right to make sure the record is spot on and to make it as difficult as possible for anyone else to beat it.

While he can pop his eyes out for up to 30 seconds there are a few drawbacks to being able to stick your eyes so far out of your head.

Sidney explained that he loses his sight for a few seconds when he performs his party trick but it always comes back again.

Although Sidney can pop his eyes further than anyone else, there is someone who can hold the trick for longer.

Kevin Smith was able to hold the eyeball pop pose for a whopping 53 seconds.