Who Is the Best Drinker in Modern History?

A new article in Modern Drunkard, a magazine deeply interested in questions like these, posits an intriguing choice:

[He] holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting… during a six-hour period [he] drank 119 of them. It was one of the few times [he] got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel. His companions, quite drunk themselves, couldn’t move the big man. Fearing trouble with cops, they stole a piano cover from the lounge and draped it over [his] inert form.  Think about it: 119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop.

This man lumbered in at 7’5″ and over 500 lbs, and he once told a doctor, “It usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside.”  Who is this so-called man?  

Andre the Giant, big-time wrestler of the ’70s and ’80s. Fifty points to you if you guessed that.  Those points can be redeemed at your local bar or Ruby Tuesday’s for fifty beers or MangoLypso PassionBlast Margaritas, depending on how raw you’re trying to get.  Some more fun claims about Andre’s habits:

Andre the Giant drank 7,000 calories worth of booze every day.

According to Hulk Hogan, Andre drank, at a minimum, a case of tall boys during each bus ride. When he finished a can Andre would belch, crush the can in his dinner-platter-sized hand, and bounce the empty off the back of Hogan’s head. Hogan learned to count each thunk, so he could anticipate when Andre was running low. Whenever the bus stopped, it was Hogan’s job to scamper off to the nearest store, buy as many cases of beer as he could carry.

On one tour, Andre’s Japanese sponsors rewarded him with a case of expensive plum wine. Andre settled down in the back of the bus and started drinking. Four hours later, the bus arrived at the next venue, and Andre was polishing off the last bottle of wine.  Sixteen bottles of wine in four hours is a considerable feat, but it gets better. Andre proceeded straight to the ring and wrestled three matches, including a twenty-man battle royal.

Two more: he ordered and drank forty vodka tonics at a bar once because he was annoyed that the bartender had announced last call.  And his bar tab for the month that he acted as Fezzik in The Princess Diaries was $40,000.

The article’s conclusion is that though Andre knew his giantism would eventually kill him, he never let himself get depressed by that knowledge.  The author’s proof is that Andre “chose instead to pack his days with as much insane, drunken fun as they could hold.”  Which is one way to look at it…  I guess I find myself drinking the most when I’m really happy or really sad.  Or needing to fit in.  Or watching a movie.  Or while swimming in the ocean.  Or a child said a mean thing to me.  Or Scope is on sale and everyone knows that’s the mouthwash that gives you the best drunk.

Source: Modern Drunkard.