Major League Eating: The Game

June 28, 2008 9:53 PM

Major League Eating: The Game.Coming soon to a Wii near you! I was first made aware of this game during an interview with Bill Shwartz of Mastiff games (mp3 audio download) during an episode of Relentless, a weekly show on Hardcore Sports Radio. Relentless has decided to protest the Beijing Olympics by covering sport eating during any time the Olympics would normally be discussed. The show is featured on satellite radio, and it's definitely NSFW.
posted by Dark Messiah (22 comments total)

Relentless has decided to protest the Beijing Olympics by covering sport eating during any time the Olympics would normally be discussed.

Are sport eaters gonna be pissed that their avocation is thereby slighted? They're aware that competitive eating is kind of a ridiculous activity, right? How can you be serious when your game has this disclaimer on it?

Real life speed eating contests approved by Major League Eating and the International Federation of Competitive Eating are held only in a controlled environment with appropriate rules and with an emergency medical technician present.

posted by breath at 10:05 PM on June 28, 2008

Name a competitive sport where that disclaimer doesn't apply.
posted by anifinder at 10:17 PM on June 28, 2008

I love competitive eating. More things should be protested in this fashion.
posted by Jilder at 10:28 PM on June 28, 2008

Competitive Eating makes me sick.

That's not a ha-ha funny postironic comment. I'm serious. It's disgusting. What's next, Competitive Setting Money On Fire? Our excesses in the so-called First World are obscene enough; why does the conspicuous wasting of food get so much air time?

Insert something about some guy fiddling while somewhere else burns.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:35 PM on June 28, 2008

You can have burp blast fights in the video game. It also seems like they try to make it like Madden Football or something with actual rosters from the competitive eating circuit. Strange. That said, I look forward to the day when competitive eating goes extreme and you see people literally cutting open their stomachs in mid-competition to make additional room.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:39 PM on June 28, 2008

dnab: it's ok, hot dogs would just give starving Africans heartburn anyways.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:40 PM on June 28, 2008

Oh, and? The Game: you just lost it
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:44 PM on June 28, 2008

Previous posts on competitive eating

I listened to all twenty one retarded minutes of that mp3 to find out why they are protesting the Olympic Games. They didn't say. Dark Messiah, any more info on that?
posted by nudar at 10:46 PM on June 28, 2008

To my knowledge, their protest is largely related to the gag order on athletes from being able to speak about human rights violations.
posted by Dark Messiah at 10:58 PM on June 28, 2008

why does the conspicuous wasting of food get so much air time?

That's a weird thing to say. I work for Spike, the TV network that actually airs MLE, and it barely gets any airtime. In fact, we're not even promoting it right now on our website. I think if you're going to complain about something, you should at least do a little bit of research before launching into your rant about it. Jeez.
posted by dhammond at 11:05 PM on June 28, 2008

Uh, no?

The fact that it gets any airtime is too much.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:33 PM on June 28, 2008

The fact that it gets any airtime is too much.

And the difference between sport eating and doling out huge sums of money for winning trivia games is what? I consider both to be vehicles for my own entertainment; then again, I like watching people degrade themselves and revel in their own gluttony and greed.

Suit yourself, however.
posted by Dark Messiah at 11:45 PM on June 28, 2008

And the difference between sport eating and doling out huge sums of money for winning trivia games is what?

Huge sums of money is an abstract thing. Actual physical food, being scarfed down for no other reason than a competition? Sick.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:50 PM on June 28, 2008

Huge sums of money is an abstract thing. Actual physical food, being scarfed down for no other reason than a competition? Sick.

How is that an abstract thing? The money is real, you know...

The world's food problem is not quantity, it's getting it to the right places. If we weren't going to send it to starving people, what the Hell does it matter what we do with it; it's not like the organizers of these events are robbing food banks and orphanages to provide fodder for contestants.

If your gripe is with the fact that there are starving people in the world, getting angry with MLE is a really fruitless avenue for solving the problem. There is no causality between eating competitions and world hunger, so mellow out. You don't like the topic, move along; your convoluted outrage has been duly noted.
posted by Dark Messiah at 12:00 AM on June 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Major League Eating: The Game. Coming soon to a Wii near you!

No. Just no. Eating in video games is supposed to have a happy fun connotation. Remember the joy we've had with hungry characters such as Pac-Man, Kirby, and Yoshi? They eat to bring about positive results. Eating just for the sake of cramming food in your undignified pie hole as quickly as possible doesn't do anything good for anyone. Get this kind of lowbrow junk out of our industry. Do not bring your evil here!
posted by Servo5678 at 4:29 AM on June 29, 2008

Competitive eating—finally, a video game that fat Americans can really sink their teeth into. Might even outsell the Wii Fit.
posted by emelenjr at 7:23 AM on June 29, 2008

Well, I don't know why they're doing it, and I don't really care enough to listen to the damn thing to find out. But the idea is easily the most appropriate response to the Olympics I've ever heard of.

To refuse to talk about them, and instead talk solely about people jamming as much food down their gullets as fast as they possibly can for no purpose at all, as if it's the most important thing in the world? Genius.

It fits right alongside the best visual metaphor for the Olympics I've ever seen.
posted by Naberius at 9:32 AM on June 29, 2008

dirtynumbangelboy: You gotta learn to pick your causes, man.
posted by cmoj at 11:30 AM on June 29, 2008

Competitive racecar driving makes me sick.

That's not a ha-ha funny postironic comment. I'm serious. It's disgusting. What's next, Competitive Setting Money On Fire? Our excesses in the so-called First World are obscene enough; why does the conspicuous wasting of gasoline get so much air time?
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:13 PM on June 29, 2008

I love postirony... Except when I get the joke too late.
posted by Dark Messiah at 5:32 PM on June 29, 2008

Next up on Wide World of American Sports: Competitive Shitting. Tune in to the best in major league competition as these top athletes battle to be America's next top shitmonger! Thrills, spills, colorectal chills!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:53 PM on June 29, 2008

There were no fat characters in that game. VERY DISAPPOINTED!
posted by joelf at 11:01 PM on June 29, 2008