Meet the real-life Pinocchio: With 19 cm, this 18th-century man had the longest nose in history

Thomas Wedders had no idea he would become an internet sensation of sorts, nearly 300 years after his death.

The circus performer who lived in England in the 18th century is now going viral on social media for his extraordinarily long nose. Netizens can’t get enough of Wedder’s rather noticeable nose.

Despite having a nose (pun intended!) for the performing arts, Wedders is best known for having the world’s longest nose (19 cm!).

A picture of Wedder started doing the rounds on the Internet when a Twitter-based meme account named Historic Vids shared the pic on their handle on November 12. They wrote, “ Thomas Wadhouse (Wedder’s stage name) was an English circus performer who lived in the 18th century. He is most famously known for having the world's longest nose, which measured 7.5 inches (19 cm) long." The tweet has collected 119,839 likes and has been retweeted by over 7,200 users, since then.
Soon after the post was shared, Twitterati had a gala time poking fun at Wedder’s nose. Some joked that with a nose so humongous, Wadder’s sense of smell would have been nothing short of epic. “ It’s been historically documented that he was, in fact, the only one who *could* smell what The Rock was cooking." “He could literally smell a scam from a mile away," a user wrote. “I mean... This is what makes Twitter so wacky & wonderful. Tweets like this. Thank you," another user wrote. While another wrote, “This cannot be real."

Guinness World Records (GWR) cites that Wedders lived in England during the 1770s and was part of travelling freak circus troupe. Wedders was posthumously given the title of the man with the longest nose. As per GWR records, a Turkish individual named Mehmet Ozyurek has the longest nose on a living person - 8.80 cm.