Remarkable eating phenomenon: mukbang
Watching someone slurp down a bowl of noodles or noisily suck the meat out of a gigantic crab leg for half an hour: videos of people stuffing loads of food into their mouths in front of the camera are incredibly popular. A bizarre trend with a sad origin.
Including smacking, slurping and burping
The phenomenon of online videos showing people eating in front of millions of viewers is called mukbang. Mukbang is a combination of the Korean words for eating (muk-ja) and broadcasting (bang-song). Mukbang videos aren’t about innocently eating a neatly buttered sandwich. The food being eaten ranges from generously filled bowls of noodles to a platter full of hamburgers, chicken nuggets, piles of fries and eight different kinds of sauce. And all of it comes with smacking, slurping, burping, crunching and spilling. Not particularly appetizing, then.
Eating together sociably
You may now be wondering why on earth people watch this. The reason is actually rather sad. In the countries where mukbang is a major hit, there are many lonely people. And for those people, dinner is the loneliest moment of the day. By eating online together with thousands of others, they feel less lonely. Viewers find it incredibly sociable, because they can also communicate with one another through emojis and comments. Never seen a mukbang video? This is what it looks like:
Enjoy your meal!
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