"neighbors inviting themselves over for dinner"
June 30, 2016 1:02 PM Subscribe
Twitch has just added a social eating category. It's not as unprecedented as it sounds: watching other people eat has been popular in Korea and China for years. "Some viewers tune in for feats of extraordinary eating, others for vicarious gratification during diets. Most commonly, viewers and observers of the phenomenon say that streaming mukbang during mealtime alleviates the melancholy and discomfort of eating alone in a society where shared meals are the fundamental unit of social life."
No, Twitch has been airing stuff like talk shows/live podcasts (albeit usually video game related), app-based tabletop RPG games, poker, Mafia games etc. for a while now. Video games make up a great majority of the stuff they stream, though.
posted by griphus at 1:15 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 1:15 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
what fresh hell is this
I cannot stand watching other people eat. I mean I can dine socially but I am visually tuning out the act of you putting food in your mouth and chewing it. I can watch people get sliced open and have their innards jostled around on those TLC shows all the live long day but if you switch to the Food Network I will jump behind the couch to hide when Guy Fieri lowers a hush puppy into his bleach-bristled maw. this is not for me
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:20 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
I cannot stand watching other people eat. I mean I can dine socially but I am visually tuning out the act of you putting food in your mouth and chewing it. I can watch people get sliced open and have their innards jostled around on those TLC shows all the live long day but if you switch to the Food Network I will jump behind the couch to hide when Guy Fieri lowers a hush puppy into his bleach-bristled maw. this is not for me
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:20 PM on June 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
This is the second time I get to make this comment on Mefi:
So this is what the whole Pretty Patrick Lunchtime thing is about on Bee & Puppycat.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:23 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
So this is what the whole Pretty Patrick Lunchtime thing is about on Bee & Puppycat.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:23 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've found myself both on Twitch and YouTube Gaming more often than I expected to this past year. That being said, I'm not sure this is something I'm interested in watching.
posted by Fizz at 1:24 PM on June 30, 2016
posted by Fizz at 1:24 PM on June 30, 2016
It's not "unprecedented" at all, and pretty lazy look-at-the-weird-asians framing that always gets repeated. Like, have we all forgotten about Epic Meal Time? Or basically any travel show, ever? Watching people eat for entertainment is not new.
posted by danny the boy at 1:39 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by danny the boy at 1:39 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
>It's not "unprecedented" at all, and pretty lazy look-at-the-weird-asians framing that always gets repeated.
Sorry about that, I didn't realize it was insensitive. I meant it in the sense that Twitch is a streaming site, and that in the US, at least, it seems like streaming is mostly associated with gaming and creative pursuits like drawing, so it might seem odd to suddenly add a category specifically for eating if you weren't aware that it was popular elsewhere.
posted by perplexion at 2:02 PM on June 30, 2016
Sorry about that, I didn't realize it was insensitive. I meant it in the sense that Twitch is a streaming site, and that in the US, at least, it seems like streaming is mostly associated with gaming and creative pursuits like drawing, so it might seem odd to suddenly add a category specifically for eating if you weren't aware that it was popular elsewhere.
posted by perplexion at 2:02 PM on June 30, 2016
I'm not calling you out in particular perplexion, so no worries. It's just a framing I've seen in several articles on the subject. The last thread we had here about it was all "Man what a weird thing to do. Those crazy Asians, huh?" when the only difference between that and videos on YouTube of people vlogging themselves trying out the new Mac & Cheetos is... what again?
I mean buzzfeed has an entire series that's just people trying various food they've never tried before.
posted by danny the boy at 4:02 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I mean buzzfeed has an entire series that's just people trying various food they've never tried before.
posted by danny the boy at 4:02 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
If I want to watch people eating I'll watch Ashens eat 30-year-old spaghetti hoops.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:37 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:37 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Previously: The Food Porn Superstars of South Korea
perplexion you could add "mukbang" and "foodporn" to the tags
posted by XMLicious at 4:56 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
perplexion you could add "mukbang" and "foodporn" to the tags
posted by XMLicious at 4:56 PM on June 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
What? No.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:59 PM on June 30, 2016
posted by oneirodynia at 4:59 PM on June 30, 2016
It's actually quite lovely. I moved to South Korea two years ago, and recently decided to check out this mukbang stuff on AfreecaTV.com. I thought it was all silliness and was ready to lol at it. But then I happened to come across the channel of some guy eating five...FIVE! packets of a ramyun I've been meaning to try. So why not check him out, right?
I live alone so it was quite nice to eat dinner "with" someone else. There was no-one else watching the channel, so I would make a comment every so often, and he would say something in response. A+++, would eat with again.
Even the more popular channels are nice to watch. I can kind of get an idea of what new foods I'd like to try, and it's like having dinner with someone new every time, but without the awkwardness of actually having a 1-on-1, getting-to-know-you conversation with a stranger.
posted by Xere at 5:44 PM on June 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
I live alone so it was quite nice to eat dinner "with" someone else. There was no-one else watching the channel, so I would make a comment every so often, and he would say something in response. A+++, would eat with again.
Even the more popular channels are nice to watch. I can kind of get an idea of what new foods I'd like to try, and it's like having dinner with someone new every time, but without the awkwardness of actually having a 1-on-1, getting-to-know-you conversation with a stranger.
posted by Xere at 5:44 PM on June 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
Oh they were just talking about this on the Note to Self podcast.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:15 PM on June 30, 2016
posted by oceanjesse at 7:15 PM on June 30, 2016
Another vision of this brave new future, twitch-style.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:16 AM on July 1, 2016
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:16 AM on July 1, 2016
This gives me an opportunity to post the most ridiculous of these I've seen. It's weirder than you expect.
posted by iffthen at 5:18 AM on July 1, 2016
posted by iffthen at 5:18 AM on July 1, 2016
Next month Twitch will be launching its 24-hour "Watch Denethor Eat" channel.
posted by duffell at 6:43 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by duffell at 6:43 AM on July 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by INFJ at 1:09 PM on June 30, 2016