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When dieting, the cravings for unhealthy food can hit hard. You’re stuck eating a salad, but you really want that leftover fried chicken your roommate has in the fridge. The next time you find yourself pining over an unhealthy treat, why not pay a virtual snacker to eat it for you? According to an April 13th report from the South China Morning Post, people in China are paying others to upload videos of themselves eating in order to live vicariously through them. Um… what?
“I will honestly eat and drink on your behalf! I will help you eat whatever you want! Don’t worry about getting fat, diabetes, high cholesterol, high pressure — I will take all the risks for you!” the Post reports one online listing claims. “If you order, I will eat it. I can take a video and guarantee it will be like you’re right beside me, otherwise I will eat the same thing again!”
Laurie Chen, who authored the report, tried the service out. She called it “underwhelming,” as the person she hired had actually listed his service as a joke.
I paid a random guy on Taobao 2 yuan to drink bubble tea on my behalf to "save calories" (allegedly the latest internet fad in China...). Needless to say, it was kinda underwhelming https://t.co/gI5CS7Sbpe
— Laurie Chen (@lauriechenwords) April 14, 2019
The trend reportedly started in early April when people began posting their services on popular Chinese e-commerce sites. But so far, the proof that this trend is taking off/working has yet to be seen.
Mukbang, a mashup term made from the Korean words for eating (muk-ja) and broadcasting (bang-song), has expanded outside of South Korea, and many Western mukbang creators have popped up on Instagram and YouTube.
Some mukbang videos try to tap into the ASMR experience — that being the tingles some people experience when they hear certain sounds. These videos tend to lack dialogue and are focused around the eating noises.
There are also strange mukbang subtopics. Scrolling through Instagram, you’ll see mukbang creators who only eat seafood boils — the messier the sauce, the better.
YouTuber Stephanie Soo, who specializes in mukbang videos, has just over 800,000 subscribers. People cannot get enough of other people eating.
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWwJG_RxtX8"]It’s all a bit too sketchy for us. We’d rather just imagine the flavors in our head than pay someone else to describe them for us.
We’re anxious to see if the vicarious eating trend really kicks off in China. If mukbang can become a viral sensation, then there’s no reason why vicarious eating can’t become the same.
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