Culture

Laughing Contest Serves to Improve the Reputation of a Thai City

by Yuliya Talmazan | July 7, 2008 at 09:58 am

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Pattaya, a beautiful coastal city in Thailand, has an unfortunate reputation for high levels of crime, sex trade and pickpocketing. This has had an unfavourable effect on its popularity among tourists. So the citizens of Pattaya have found an original way to restore the reputation of their city by … hosting this year's Ripley’s "Believe It Or Not!" laughing contest this past Saturday.

For quite some time, every year in July, Ripley's Believe It Or Not! has been holding this contest, elsewhere. This year, however, they held the contest in Pattaya, Thailand, and it attracted a great deal of attention and favourable publicity.

The contest turned out to be quite popular, attracting participants from twelve countries, the oldest of whom was 66-years-old and the youngest – 9-years-old!

All the rules are the same as everywhere else the contest is held, the winner has to laugh the longest and the highest and also has to perform a humerous action to go with the laughing.

The winner was a female teacher, Mrs. Jittarat Wongsomboon, 55, (20) who laughed for the longest time: 12.26 minutes, with a decibel loudness rating of 110.

This makes for one giggly teacher.

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