Joseph McGrail-Bateup, an Australian professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier, has been recognised as the world’s loudest person.Guinness World Records last week acknowledged the 58-year-old Canberra resident recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual. He yelled “now” at 122.4 decibels.That broke the previous record of 121.7 dB set by Northern Ireland teacher Annalisa Flanagan in 1994.She had yelled an ear-piercing “quiet”.That is in the noise range of a chainsaw, a jet aircraft taking off and an ambulance siren at close range.The record attempt was not something McGrail-Bateup could train for, he said on Tuesday.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS97
ENT6
TUE · 2026-06-23 · 15:33 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0623-86776
NSR-2026-0623-86776News Report·EN·Human Interest
Australian town crier crowned as world’s loudest person, at 122.4 decibels
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, a 58-year-old professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier from Canberra, Australia, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's loudest person. Last week, he achieved this title by recording the loudest individual shout ever, reaching 122.4 decibels with the word "now." This surpassed the previous record of 121.7 decibels, set by Annalisa Flanagan in 1994 with the word "quiet." The sound level is comparable to that of a chainsaw or a jet aircraft taking off.
Associated PressSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-06-23 · 15:33 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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1min
Word count
97words
Sources cited
2cited
Entities identified
6entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, a 58-year-old professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier from Canberra, Australia, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's loudest person. Last week, he achieved this title by recording the loudest individual shout ever, reaching 122.4 decibels with the word "now." This surpassed the previous record of 121.7 decibels, set by Annalisa Flanagan in 1994 with the word "quiet." The sound level is comparable to that of a chainsaw or a jet aircraft taking off. McGrail-Bateup stated that this record attempt was not something he could train for.
Confidence 0.85Sources 2Claims 4Entities 6
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Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Human Interest
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.90 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
2
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
The previous record for loudest shout was 121.7 dB set by Annalisa Flanagan in 1994.
statisticGuinness World Records
Confidence
1.00
02
McGrail-Bateup recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual at 122.4 decibels.
statisticGuinness World Records
Confidence
1.00
03
Joseph McGrail-Bateup has been recognised as the world’s loudest person by Guinness World Records.
factualGuinness World Records
Confidence
1.00
04
A shout of 122.4 decibels is in the noise range of a chainsaw or a jet aircraft taking off.
factual
Confidence
0.90
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 97 words§ 05
Entities
6 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations1
§ 06
Keywords & salience
7 termsloudest person
1.00
guinness world records
0.90
decibels
0.80
loudest shout
0.70
record attempt
0.60
town crier
0.50
noise range
0.40
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Topic connections
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