World Series of Gluttony
Earlier this week, I had the day off from work. So while I was waiting for the cable man to arrive and fix my connection, I was flipping channels and came across ESPN's broadcast of the World Series of Competitive Eating. In other words, a bunch of fat American guys and one or two diminutive yet exceedingly insane Asian guys stuffing their faces with as much food as possible. It was very very strange... almost like watching one of those extraordinarily crappy reality shows. You know it's crap, yet you're drawn into watching it.
Among the usual suspects there were Takeru Kobayashi, Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas (She and Kobayashi are the two crazy Asians), "Cookie" Jarvis, and the rest of the fat cats. You can read a lot more about the event here.
The strangest thing about this 'sporting' event is that the commentators were taking it seriously. I know that these sports commentators must have been forcing themselves to speak with straight faces. There's no way in hell they could not see humor in the idiocy of the entire thing. For example, from the article linked above:
You've got to be kidding me. I know that other 'sports' that have become popular on ESPN are not all that traditional, and are quite literally stretching the definition of the word 'sport.' Case in point is the World Series of Poker, of which I admit I am an avid fan. But there's nothing idiotic about Poker, with the bluffing strategies, the stresses you know the contenders are feeling (which most of us have felt on a far smaller level when we go all in during our $5 or $10 buy in games), and the sheer suspense aspect of it all. Even autosports carries with it the possibility of crashes, the need for extremely skilled drivers, and most simply, super high speeds. But competitive eating? I honestly believe that everyone watches it for the sheer irony and strangeness of it all. Quite different from the 'sports' mentioned above.
The one thing that weirds me out about Kobayashi and Thomas is that they're small people. Kobayashi put away something like 13 lbs of spaghetti. Hell, I eat less than 6 ounces of spaghetti in one meal and my pants start to feel tight. Yet this loon is smaller than I am and weighs only 140 lbs. How the hell does he do that? At the Nathan's 4th of July hot dog eating contest, the dude has put away between 48 and 53 hot dogs consistently for the past several years. Yet year to year, he's still the same small crazy dude. Either he's bulemic or just plain unhuman.
Leave it to the Japanese to take a good old American idea, make it better, take it over, and wind up outdoing the Americans. Happened with the automobile industry and technology, and now, the one thing we thought he had monopolized, being gluttonous, has been taken away by the Japanese... and that without the added obesity problem that almost always goes with it.
Among the usual suspects there were Takeru Kobayashi, Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas (She and Kobayashi are the two crazy Asians), "Cookie" Jarvis, and the rest of the fat cats. You can read a lot more about the event here.
The strangest thing about this 'sporting' event is that the commentators were taking it seriously. I know that these sports commentators must have been forcing themselves to speak with straight faces. There's no way in hell they could not see humor in the idiocy of the entire thing. For example, from the article linked above:
Fans of competitive eating know the keys to victory include such critical components as jaw strength, hand speed and tummy capacity. But when a "gustatory gladiator" (as Shea calls them) such as Kobayashi is at work, the particulars of his craft recede in the greater glory of his sense of the moment.
You've got to be kidding me. I know that other 'sports' that have become popular on ESPN are not all that traditional, and are quite literally stretching the definition of the word 'sport.' Case in point is the World Series of Poker, of which I admit I am an avid fan. But there's nothing idiotic about Poker, with the bluffing strategies, the stresses you know the contenders are feeling (which most of us have felt on a far smaller level when we go all in during our $5 or $10 buy in games), and the sheer suspense aspect of it all. Even autosports carries with it the possibility of crashes, the need for extremely skilled drivers, and most simply, super high speeds. But competitive eating? I honestly believe that everyone watches it for the sheer irony and strangeness of it all. Quite different from the 'sports' mentioned above.
The one thing that weirds me out about Kobayashi and Thomas is that they're small people. Kobayashi put away something like 13 lbs of spaghetti. Hell, I eat less than 6 ounces of spaghetti in one meal and my pants start to feel tight. Yet this loon is smaller than I am and weighs only 140 lbs. How the hell does he do that? At the Nathan's 4th of July hot dog eating contest, the dude has put away between 48 and 53 hot dogs consistently for the past several years. Yet year to year, he's still the same small crazy dude. Either he's bulemic or just plain unhuman.
Leave it to the Japanese to take a good old American idea, make it better, take it over, and wind up outdoing the Americans. Happened with the automobile industry and technology, and now, the one thing we thought he had monopolized, being gluttonous, has been taken away by the Japanese... and that without the added obesity problem that almost always goes with it.
1 Comments:
good observations, good post.
By
Anonymous, at 8/05/2005 6:19 PM
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