In mukbang videos, audiences turn on streams of people eating way too much food in order to, we guess, live vicariously through the taste buds and gullets of others. While the trend doesn’t make a ton of sense to us, it seems harmless. That is, it seems harmless as long as the food isn’t wasted and it’s performed in a safe and responsible way that doesn’t result in anybody barfing all over their webcam or, as has somehow happened to YouTuber Tasty Hoon, being assaulted by whipping tendrils of melted cheese.
First things first: Tasty Hoon doesn’t just do mukbang. He does ASMR mukbang, which is stomach-churning to listen to unless you somehow enjoy amplified sounds of food being bitten, chewed, and swallowed. For everyone else, we strongly suggest muting the video after the two minute point. Fortunately, in those 120 seconds or so prior to when Tasty Hoon gets to loudly, deliberately scarfing up a bunch of fried chicken, we get a moment of internet absurdity bound to live on in infamy… for at least another couple of months.
Tasty Hoon has melted a bunch of cheese prior to recording and when the video starts, he begins scraping it into a chocolate fountain. Because this is ASMR, every sound of what follows is heightened. Tasty Hoon turns on the fountain and it whirs away, the cheese cooled enough that it transforms the machine into a sort of deranged octopus. Cheese tentacles whip the air, smacking Tasty Hoon for his hubris. There’s no background music to distract from his fear of the unholy cheese-weapon he’s created. Eventually it stops and, a true professional, he theatrically sobs but still gets to work, loudly eating the food he’s laid out.
As much as we enjoy seeing someone shrink in terror from a cheese assault, the video is much too stressful to enjoy in full. As an alternative, we suggest the far more soothing mukbang ASMR of this turtle eating watermelons, apples, and crickets.
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