For a review course on the revolting cultural phenomenon of eating as much as possible for no good reason, we suggest one or more of a number of previous Childhood Obesity News posts about mukbang. Why? Because there are two newsworthy updates, and anyone who has managed to escape the knowledge of the mukbang fad up to this point will require orientation.

Okay, ready? So, a young fella who calls himself Nikocado Avocado has become famous in the mukbang sector of YouTube for — what else? Eating enormous amounts of food and weighing a ton. Just a few days ago, Nicholas Perry astonished his world by revealing that he secretly lost 250 pounds while fooling everybody into thinking he was still mukbanging away.

The pertinent video garnered 26 million views over one weekend, with Avocado/Perry saying, among other things:

And just yesterday, people were calling me fat and sick and boring and irrelevant. People are the most messed-up creatures on the entire planet, and yet I’ve still managed to stay two steps ahead of everyone. The joke’s on you.

Having attained the weight of 411 pounds a couple of years ago, Perry stealthily got down to 158, all the while publishing pre-made videos of his customary mukbang sessions, cleverly staged to avoid looking dated. It was a carefully plotted long con that only a few fellow content creators knew about, and they all kept the secret.

The first step in the performer’s deception was to make what must have been the painful sacrifice of shaving his head to avoid public recognition as his pounds disappeared. In the revelatory speech, Perry compared the viewers who care about his long-term prank to “ants on an ant farm,” as they unwittingly participated in “the greatest social experiment of my entire life.”

One of his philosophical aims is to point out how people tend to see things in black-and-white terms, while another is to remind us all “not to take the internet so seriously.” Angela Yang’s reportage for NBCNews.com contains many more fascinating details of this sociological/psychological saga, including Perry’s statement:

That is where a deeper level of over-consumption lies — and it’s the parallel I wanted to make.

Meanwhile, a more melancholy headline summarizes its own whole story:

Horror as extreme eater, 24, dies during livestream after 10-hour food binge.

The self-created victim was Pan Xiaoting of China, a country very unhappy with its increasingly overweight image. Having progressed from the dull field of food service to the rarefied atmosphere populated by social media “influencers,” the carefully made-up young woman would chat with fans and stare seductively into the camera lens while shoveling in mouthfuls of food.

Neither the threat of fines levied by the government, nor public disapproval, nor medical crises could impel her to stop.

Reporter Kelly Williams quoted critics who said,

I’ll never understand why anyone would want to watch someone eat.

That’s terrible. Why do people try and glorify obesity these days?

When you think that there are people dying of hunger… it’s maddening.

Pan Xiaoting customarily entertained her public with eating sessions that would last as long as 10 hours and encompass more than 20 pounds of groceries. It is not clear why an autopsy was even performed, but the procedure revealed a grotesquely deformed stomach full of undigested food.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “YouTuber Nikocado Avocado bamboozles viewers with secret weight loss transformation,” NBCNews, 09/08/24
Source: “Horror as extreme eater, 24, dies during livestream after 10-hour food binge,” DailyStar.co.uk, 07/22/24
Image by Republic of Korea/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic