One of my goto commentators Sydney Watson recently commented on food eating content on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. Being a consumer of subcategories of such content, I wanted to share my thoughts.
The majority of Sydney’s commentary focuses on her disgust with mukbangs, a subcategory of eating videos where the host simply eats in front of a camera without a particular goal. I agree. From what I know of mukbangs–which, admittedly, mostly come through Sydney’s video–mukbangs are boring and disgusting. My exposure to mukbangs prior to Sydney’s video was through Nikocado Avocado, who appeared as a guest on another channel I watch and then pulled an extreme weight loss stunt. I watched a couple of his videos after this stunt and, yeah, was mostly bored and disgusted by him and his guest Hungry Fat Chick. If Sydney’s montage of mukbang videos is any indication of what the subgenre is like, I have no interest in it. She somewhat lumps mukbangs into the same category as food challenge videos though, and here is where I have some disagreement.
Despite mukbangs and food challenges appearing to contain the same content, from what I see, they target different audiences and the creators employ different strategies. Some mukbangs focus on the hosts chatting with their audience or among themselves over a table of food that may or may not be entirely consumed. For example, the hosts may sample a fast food menu while hanging out with guests or the audience. These could be considered the wholesome type of mukbangs, bringing lonely people together over food. The more popular mukbangs, however, focus on extreme behaviors: eating large quantities of unhealthy food, lip smacking and chewing ASMR, moaning and excited reactions to the taste of food, eating messy food or eating messily, obese people shamelessly showing off their obesity, etc. These creators perhaps gain attention through shock value, appealing to food fetishes or ASMR niches, or affirming their viewers’ obesity.
In contrast, food challenge videos follow a common saying: “Shut up and eat.” Viewers generally aren’t interested in food reviews, chatting, long introductions, or long outros. Videos are often overlaid with music or narration to drown out the eater’s chewing sounds aside from the eater occasionally sharing satisfying crunches and “Mmm!”‘s. Even then, eaters often apologize for sharing crunching noises or showing off dripping food to the camera. While there are messy competitive eaters out there–and sometimes it’s necessary to meet a time limit–it’s actually not a recommended strategy to eat food messily. This can cause a disgust reaction and curb appetite. Viewers have also been known to criticize eaters for leaving so much as crumbs behind. Additionally, because organs can’t shift as easily when surrounded by fat, overweight eaters don’t have as large a capacity as eaters at a healthy weight. Most popular competitive eaters maintain their physique, creating an overlap between competitive eating and exercise enthusiasts rather than obesity advocates. Eaters often emphasize to their viewers that they maintain a strict exercise routine to maintain their weight but also encourage and model to their viewers not to be afraid of food. Even excessive eating can be worked or dieted off with discipline.
Sydney does briefly mention that she recognizes a difference between mukbangs and food challenges but goes on to complain that food challenges are still a waste of food. Even if someone successfully eats an impressive amount of food, no one needs to eat that much. This neglects that eaters who maintain their weight often eat less than they normally would in the days, weeks, and even months following challenges, ultimately canceling out the excess. These eaters also often enjoy exercise, sports, or weightlifting and need to consume more than the average 2,000 calories per day to maintain their performance anyway. I suppose you could consider their lifestyle or hobbies a waste, but its certainly healthier than the obese mukbangers Sydney criticizes for eating an excessive amount of food to feed their obesity.
Overall, I agree with Sydney’s assessment of mukbangs though with one other caveat…
Erik the Electric‘s significant other Kristie Barker technically makes mukbangs, and they’re great. She used to make fun shorts where, for example, she bought all the Crumbl Cookie flavors for the week or an assortment of candy from foreign countries, took a bite or two of each, and rated them. Her long form content usually features her and Erik sampling a variety of food and hanging out together in a fun place, Disney most often. Her mukbangs embody the feeling of hanging out and having fun. Kristie is a personal trainer and former bikini competitor. She’s highly disciplined with her normal, daily food consumption as demonstrated in her videos on the subject, but for viewers wanting to attain similar goals or physique as her, she advocates for also making healthy use of cheat days or cheat meals and practicing indulging in favorite foods with restraint. She’s often seen taking only a bite or two of tasty food or taking viewers along for her indulgent cheat days to demonstrate these ideals herself. Her bird-like eating in most videos might be considered a waste, but Erik is also often shown devouring the rest.