Duckface is now an official sport, according to Guinness

The world champion of gurning, otherwise known as duck face, is finally getting the recognition she deserves: the Guinness Book of Records. Anne Woods has reportedly been crowned the world champ of "making one's face look as unattractive as possible" a startling 27 times, yet she's never been acknowledge by Guinness... until now.

Woods won this year's competition in Cumbria, U.K., although the act of distorting her appearance was so strenuous, she later collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. She now says she may retire from the grueling sport of turning guys off.

Just in case you think I'm kidding, gurning is a real sport. At over 700 years, it's also one of our oldest, dating back to the time of King Henry III, when being able to contort one's face may have been part of the repertoire of many a great court jester.

If that's not amusing enough, check out this piece of gurning history:

Peter Jackman became England's best-known gurner, winning the world championship four times, beginning in 1998 with a face called the "Bela Lugosi." He had his teeth removed in 2000 to make his features easier to manoeuvre. Three years later, he died playing golf in Spain when a cliff face collapsed underneath him. '

Rubber Faced' Grant Owens then took the vacant crown by performing the unprecedented, and rarely seen, treble gurn. Owens states the reason for this is his extra large bottom lip which he used to be able to nestle polos in when he was a child. [Wikipedia]

While most people like to say gurning is a comic art and is meant to poke fun at flirtatious, alluring faces, thousands show up to carefully observe these anti-beauty events.

So, next time you're making fun of someone using too much "duckface" on their Facebook profile pictures, just remember, they may be keeping up a noble tradition. Seriously.