Poll of the Day > Anyone here a fan of mukbang? If so, can you explain it?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just don't get the appeal of watching random people eat large quantities of food. Some of the mukbang channels masquerade as ASMR so once in a while I'll get recommended a vid, but I am very much not into most mouth sounds, especially eating sounds. What's weird to me is that the most popular ASMR channels are mukbang themed ones, yet if you go into any ASMR community or forum, you will find the vast majority of posters are not into these videos. So the traffic has to be coming primarily from people who watch it for the mukbang aspect. But what's the appeal??

JigsawTDC posted...

But what's the appeal??

Sounds like Muk-banging, which also sounds like a niche-type of internet porn, which considering rule 34...

eh I'm not interested
in my interpretation or yours

ASMR mouth chowing sounds? With all the slime and mush galore? Grosssss.

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I'm not a fan of it, but I know the appeal of it.

1) It gives a streamer a chance to talk to their fans, moreso than if they were playing a game or w/e. It gives fans a chance to get to know the streamer more on a personal level.

2) The streamer is supposed to get food that's supposed to be very good from their local area(so not a stupid chain like Pizza Hut or w/e), so the viewers can see how the food looks like, get some opinions from the streamers, so they can see if they'd like to try the food one day for themselves.

At least that's how it's supposed to work, and how it works in Korea. I've seen American streamers do Mukbang with McDonald's and stupid shit like that, which defeats the purpose.
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Soup_or_Science posted...

Sounds like Muk-banging, which also sounds like a niche-type of internet porn, which considering rule 34...

eh I'm not interested
in my interpretation or yours

ASMR mouth chowing sounds? With all the slime and mush galore? Grosssss.

Muk means food or eating, and bang(closer to bong in pronounciation) means room in Korean, where the thing originated from. No porn or anything, you gross-ass, lol.
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https://youtu.be/whceteDJKK0?t=13

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i don't get asmr either and from my understanding mukbang is a fetish within asmr

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I've been anorexic twice and when I'm deep in it I watch mukbang in a vicarious way.

They have to be a normal BMI though (otherwise I felt bad, again disordered brain when I was in this) and I don't like the crazy like 10k calorie challenges. I just liked seeing people eat interesting foods. Like street food stalls were my favorite.

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A lot of ED people watch them btw

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lihlih posted...

Muk means food or eating, and bang(closer to bong in pronounciation) means room in Korean, where the thing originated from. No porn or anything, you gross-ass, lol.

It's also the pokaymahn

It's just Muks bangin' man chill out

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grimhilde00 posted...

vicarious

Here's your answer, TC.

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isn't it just pot luck?

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Soup_or_Science posted...

It's also the pokaymahn

It's just Muks bangin' man chill out

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I have the wisdom to know there is an audience for literally every subject matter in the world, however that is one I can never understand. And to be honest it pisses me off some times as if you are looking up some types of food to get more information on or how to cook them, you get buried in videos of that instead.

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Oh so I never watched it this way but another side of the coin that I'm aware of is some people watch it as meanspo, like watching overweight people eat a bunch of pizza or fried chicken, to trigger them into not eating or to avoid a binge

I never watched them in that capacity, not a fan of meanspo. But it's a thing.

Different kinds of ways people watch mukbangs..

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Thank you to all those who responded with insightful answers. I actually do feel like I've got a better understanding of the appeal of mukbang from this.

Wanded posted...

i don't get asmr either and from my understanding mukbang is a fetish within asmr

ASMR is a literal response some people's bodies have to certain sounds or "triggers". Not everyone experiences it, and even for those that do what can trigger a response varies wildly from individual to individual.

Idk if it was them, but I remember seeing some chick eat a shit-ton of food. It's was kind of like a train wreck, and I couldn't look away...
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Nicacadoavocado needs therapy

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lihlih posted...

I'm not a fan of it, but I know the appeal of it.

1) It gives a streamer a chance to talk to their fans, moreso than if they were playing a game or w/e. It gives fans a chance to get to know the streamer more on a personal level.

2) The streamer is supposed to get food that's supposed to be very good from their local area(so not a stupid chain like Pizza Hut or w/e), so the viewers can see how the food looks like, get some opinions from the streamers, so they can see if they'd like to try the food one day for themselves.

At least that's how it's supposed to work, and how it works in Korea. I've seen American streamers do Mukbang with McDonald's and stupid shit like that, which defeats the purpose.

i dont know anything about mukbangs but im pretty sure everything you just said is not true

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Smarkil posted...

i dont know anything about mukbangs but im pretty sure everything you just said is not true

What makes you pretty sure it's not true? I can vouch that I've for sure seen American mukbang of fast food and chain restaurants, and the rest of the post doesn't seem like any outlandish claim or analysis...

lihlih posted...

1) It gives a streamer a chance to talk to their fans, moreso than if they were playing a game or w/e. It gives fans a chance to get to know the streamer more on a personal level.

I feel like that's not true. They are like constantly eating... At least the ones I saw. I feel I could talk to my fans more if I wasn't also trying to eat constantly...

lihlih posted...

2) The streamer is supposed to get food that's supposed to be very good from their local area(so not a stupid chain like Pizza Hut or w/e), so the viewers can see how the food looks like, get some opinions from the streamers, so they can see if they'd like to try the food one day for themselves.

Doesn't that depends on the streamer and food, though? They could also have large quantities of unhealthy food, as well... Also, being good from their local area doesn't really mean healthy or anything...
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Smarkil posted...

i dont know anything about mukbangs but im pretty sure everything you just said is not true

That's how they originated, and how they work in Korea(where they originated). Not my fault disgusting western streamers are tainting it with their weirdness.

LinkPizza posted...

I feel like that's not true. They are like constantly eating... At least the ones I saw. I feel I could talk to my fans more if I wasn't also trying to eat constantly...

Doesn't that depends on the streamer and food, though? They could also have large quantities of unhealthy food, as well... Also, being good from their local area doesn't really mean healthy or anything...

See my response to the other dude in the same post.
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lihlih posted...

See my response to the other dude in the same post.

That only answers barely a part of what I mentioned, though... Especially since I was basing mine off of a Korea girl who was eat foreign food. What I said had nothing to do with Westerners on their own other than they have also done the same...
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Jen0125 posted...

Nicacadoavocado needs therapy

yup I never watch people like that. It's really uncomfortable.

what's her name too. Tracey?

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Smarkil posted...

i dont know anything about mukbangs but im pretty sure everything you just said is not true

definitely depends on the streamer. It did start as a trend for Korea and was more that at the beginning.

https://www.today.com/food/what-mukbang-inside-viral-korean-food-phenomenon-t123251

> In Korea, its not common for people to go out to eat by themselves, Stawski told TODAY Food in 2018. Dining is a social activity, and you dont sit and eat alone. For those that cant eat with others, theyll more than likely stay home to eat alone, but theyll still have the urge to socialize while eating, which is what I think mukbangers replicate.

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grimhilde00 posted...

yup I never watch people like that. It's really uncomfortable.

what's her name too. Tracey?

trisha not tracey

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lihlih posted...

That's how they originated, and how they work in Korea(where they originated). Not my fault disgusting western streamers are tainting it with their weirdness.

Ah yes the traditional korean mukbang as shown here where its purpose is totally to interact with their audience and talk to them (despite not a single word being said)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0AEDFRZcis

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Smarkil posted...

Ah yes the traditional korean mukbang as shown here where its purpose is totally to interact with their audience and talk to them (despite not a single word being said)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0AEDFRZcis

Did you not see that the title say: ASMR Mukbang? Can you read?
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Here's a proper Korean Mukbang(you can tell it's actually Korean and not some dumbass Korean American because the video title is in Korean, and he speaks Korean through it all):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mHE3GrgItb8

He talks about the food, and answers viewers' questions about his past experiences as a Broodwar pro(he was on Samsung Khan as their go to Terran player, and put up some good numbers even when he went into the Airforce Broodwar team).
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My video has like 4 million views. Yours has barely 100k. I win and your video loses.

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Smarkil posted...

My video has like 4 million views. Yours has barely 100k. I win and your video loses.

You're confusing popularity for origins. As I mentioned in the OP, mukbang videos are also the most popular ASMR videos, but I can guarantee that's not the origins of ASMR.

grimhilde00 posted...

definitely depends on the streamer. It did start as a trend for Korea and was more that at the beginning.

https://www.today.com/food/what-mukbang-inside-viral-korean-food-phenomenon-t123251

> In Korea, its not common for people to go out to eat by themselves, Stawski told TODAY Food in 2018. Dining is a social activity, and you dont sit and eat alone. For those that cant eat with others, theyll more than likely stay home to eat alone, but theyll still have the urge to socialize while eating, which is what I think mukbangers replicate.

The article you posted lists videos that are the opposite of what that paragraph says. The titular video is a korean woman doing weird asmr eating shit without saying a word. Or at least I assume she's not saying anything because I can't stand to watch the video for more than 5 seconds before wanting to vomit.

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Smarkil posted...

The article you posted lists videos that are the opposite of what that paragraph says. The titular video is a korean woman doing weird asmr eating shit without saying a word. Or at least I assume she's not saying anything because I can't stand to watch the video for more than 5 seconds before wanting to vomit.

well yeah I think the article was lazy and picked whatever videos. The part I quoted was about origins is all.

Other articles, they again talk about origins but highlight what it's become

https://www.eater.com/2017/4/19/15349568/mukbang-videos-korean-youtube

https://www.mashed.com/182485/the-untold-truth-of-mukbang/

I never said it's stayed that way and it definitely hasn't. I was just bringing up how it started. someone else linked to a korean vid.

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I'm only familiar with it because of it's association with asmr, and I only follow a few channels that specialize in it.

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This is the only mukbang ASMR I will accept:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lk-Br9AVVXU