CANBERRA — Guinness World Records recognized Joseph McGrail-Bateup as the world's loudest person after he recorded a shout of the word "now" at 122.4 decibels. The shout was recorded on May 2 in a Canberra radio studio with a professional acoustic engineer and witnesses present.

McGrail-Bateup, a 58-year-old resident of Canberra who works as a professional air conditioner cleaner, required seven attempts to record the word for the world record attempt. "There's no way that you can actually practice for it. You have to just keep it for the day, especially with the world record attempt," McGrail-Bateup said. "It took me seven attempts just for one word, which was the word 'now,' and my voice was shot for the next couple of days as well. It was husky. It was terrible. So no, you can't really practice for it. But it's a lot of fun when you're doing it."

The previous loudest shout record was 121.7 decibels, set in 1994 by Annalisa Flanagan, a schoolteacher from Northern Ireland, who yelled the word "quiet." "I'm pleased that she gets to keep her record. So she's still the loudest woman in the world and I'm the loudest male in the world," McGrail-Bateup said. He added that records are meant to be broken.

McGrail-Bateup serves as an honorary town crier, a position he was appointed to in 2017. The role of Canberra town crier is an honorary and part-time position established by the local government. His town crier name is Lord Joseph, and he is also a member of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Australian Town Criers. He won a 2024 guild competition with a shout of "Oyez, Oyez, Oyez" at 98 decibels.