Was JFK one of the fastest random speaker that many people could have ever come across? While Eminem holds the Guinness world record for most words in a hit song, which means that he spat them out rather quickly, the main difference between the two is preparedness. Rap God, written by Eminem was precisely that, written and prepared. Whereas it’s been cited that JFK was the fastest random speaker, it was all random words, but with meaning and comprehension. In other words, he was able to form meaningful sentences, without any notes, but at a very fast rate.
It has to be observed that most public speakers take their time when talking to the public. I can recall myself being told to talk at half the rate that I would feel was normal so that I could be understood. This certainly seems the case with most public speakers, especially politicians. But just listen to a recording of the late president and you will find that he speaks rather calmly, even slowly. This is definitely at odds with the claim, and we will get to the problem shortly. But that is when he is talking to the public. Who would vote for someone they couldn’t understand? (I guess all of us really. Politicians rarely speak our language). So how many random words could he apparently speak a minute?
According to reports JFK was fast, very fast. To tell you the truth he may even be as fast, or possibly even faster than someone that I personally know. It has been said that JFK was the fastest random speaker at a whopping 350 words a minute. Holy crap, right? That’s about three times faster than a normal person talks. Could you imagine trying to listen to that and comprehend what was actually being said? I guess that you would have no option but to, as the person that I know says, “listen quick.” But was he?
Looking at the evidence available we would have to say that this a bogus claim. In fact, even his inauguration speech, which is claimed as evidence of how fast he speaks, was the second slowest on record. Kinda not that quick is it? Even among his fastest recorded speeches he doesn’t seem to be able to exceed even half of the stated speed. There just isn’t enough evidence to back up the claim. So where did it all begin?
America seems to have a bit of a fondness for their assassinated presidents. A life cut short, and a popular leader are a recipe for grand myths. But this one seemed to appear before he was killed.
White House stenographer Jack Romagna was the source of this popular claim. Towards the end of 1961 he was involved in an interview with Time magazine. It was in this interview that he apparently started the rumor. It hasn’t been ascertained whether or not he actually said that, or if the reporter just made it up. but it did appear in the magazine, and then morphed into something even more tremendous.
Regardless whether or not this fact is true or false, he had a truly great mind.
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