In 1996, a 29-year-old man from Transylvania named Stefan Sigmond attempted something that sounds almost impossible — and dangerously absurd.
He built a wheel-shaped device, loaded it with 800 cigarettes, lit them all at once, and inhaled through a single tube — finishing the entire stunt in under six minutes.
It wasn’t even his first attempt.
A year earlier, he had reportedly done the same with 750 cigarettes, and this time, he was determined to break his own record.
What happened after?
According to accounts, Sigmond said he felt dizzy, had a headache, and was left with a terrible taste in his mouth — but believed the effects would pass.
Despite witnesses claiming the stunt was real, Guinness World Records refused to recognize it.
Not because it didn’t happen — but because by that time, Guinness had already stopped accepting records they considered too dangerous or related to excessive consumption.
This wasn’t his only extreme attempt either.
Sigmond had also tried:
- Diving from a 40-meter cliff into a lake
- Eating 29 hard-boiled eggs in just four minutes
Both were rejected as well.
So what remains is a strange piece of history — a man who may have broken a world record that was never officially recorded, performing one of the most extreme smoking stunts ever witnessed.
A crowd reportedly watched the entire thing unfold on a cold street in Romania.
And somehow… he walked away.