After a brief hiatus I resume my correspondence with all the wonderful Guinness World Records fans and it is fitting that I recommence my virtual communication with one of the more memorable records I have seen in quite some time.

What's round, made of meat, and goes rather well with some pasta al dente and a bottle of the most readily available Cab?

A meatball.

That's exactly right.  but not any ordinary meatball, no.  If it's me writing about it and it's on this website you can bet your Valpolicella it's gonna have to be the largest meatball in the world, oh yes.

So we received word from Jimmy Kimmel that he was rather incensed at Mexico being awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest meatball (weighing in at the red, white and green corner at 109 lb).

"Enough!" said Jimmy and he started his own pet project to make the world's largest meatball himself and bringing it back to Italy.  Well, actually, the Italian American community in Los Angeles, California which looks a little bit like this:

What made the ocassion even more historic was that the meatball was to be unveiled in honor of the Festival of San Gennaro, that wonderful celebration of everything Italian.  So the stage was most definitely set to reveal the absolutely-positively-beyond-any-shadow-of-doubt largest meatball ever. 

In fact here IS the stage:

But wait, along the way I had to say hello to a few friends.  There's not many opportunities to meet the guy who has wrestled with Borat in a most unforgettable way so when I spotted him I had to say hello.  Meet Borat Sagdiyev's agent, Azamat Bagatov...better known as actor Ken Davitian:

On my way to makeup I had to give my regards to my friend Guillermo.  Not a lot of people know this but I've actually seen Guillermo in his underpants.  Actually in 100 pairs of underpants to be exact when he set the record on the show about two years ago.  He was very impressed with the Guinness World Record logo on my blazer and I had to fight him off with a bread stick or he would have had it for sure.  Hello again fully-clothed Guillermo!

But enough hobnobbing and let's get down to business.  109 lb was the weight to beat and Jimmy & Team Meatball USA were committed.  Just in case anything went wrong three meatballs were prepared which were closely watched to prevent any interference from potential Mexican spies:

Jimmy emerged from the studio with Los Angeles Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda who had been nominated the official taster.  A frenzy ensued, no-one had ever seen such a large meatball before - Dios Mio!  But first Tommy had to taste it to make sure it was edible per the guidelines. 

"It's great!" he declared.  The crowd roared its approval.

The stomach trembling meatball weighed in at a ridiculous 152 lb, 43 pounds heavier than its Mexican predecessor -  A new Guinness World Record!! 

But wait, Jimmy had a surprise. This wasn't the largest meatball. There was another.  The crowd parted as four men brought out the monster meatball and slowly lowered it onto the scales.  No way!  NO WAY!  One-hundred-and-ninety-eight-pounds.  Yes, 100 and 98 pounds of pure Italian meatball...ANOTHER GUINNESS WORLD RECORD!!

Good grief, I don't know if this has ever happened to you but I was, to say the least, all...ahem...meatballed out.  There's no way I can look at another meatball ever again in the same way.

You can watch the whole segment here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ilVDDVDUk

Many thanks to all at Jimmy Kimmel Live!, always a pleasure to work with those guys, see you soon. 

Congratulazioni per il tuo sforzo stupendo!  Mi hai impressionato!