So I am procrastinating on a Sunday morning and aimlessly surfing the web (in other words: pretty much what I do every day of the week). I stumble upon a Wikipedia list called:
One click away is a Wikipedia article entitled:
about an organisation called: International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE). There is a section in this article that states:
Here is my request to my fellow Dopers: For the sake of my mental health, please ensure me that this is a hoax.
I wouldn’t read anything about competitive eating in Japan, then, if I were you.
This seems like an excellent argument against the Simulation Hypothesis, if we’d be in a computer program the shift supervisor would had seen stuff like that, muttered a couple expletives and hit the reset button already.
Seems to be real, lets hope that any sponsor that is funding that realizes that it is running into a mine field.
It has to be noticed that eating and alcohol consumption entries are no longer accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records for reasons that should be obvious, like getting into really unhealthy and deadly situations.
The Glutton Bowl comes around on reruns occasionally, if you’re morbidly fascinated.
Competive Eating is a great American success story, and Nathans is a National Treasure, as are the Shea Bros; I see no reason why millions wouldn’t watch.
Mr. Chesnut only managed 60 this year, in ten minutes; but he has demolished 69 in the past ( and no doubt more off-camera ).
It’s the equivalent of Wimbledon, and just as valid; especially since more Americans can relate to wolfing hot dogs, than dancing around with rackets, in the sun. The sport derived from State Fairs, which I was looking up last week ( the first such gathering was in 1768 in Salford, England and they have only got duller exponentially since: unless staring at tractors thrills you, watching people match food intake bun for bun has to be an improvement ), and has since spread through cultural expansion to Japan, and some Eastern Bloc countries in a meagre way. It remains a very American expression of values and is only despised by the anti-patriotic effete who hate Mom and Apple Pie.
Pie would have been the weapon of choice in 19th century State Fairs, since hot dogs weren’t invented then.
I don’t understand why people have a problem with competitive eating. Philly has The Wing Bowl. The Wing Bowl is entirely privately funded. All money wasted is private money. Philly also has the Eagles. The Eagles, and their current stadium, are partly funded city money. This despite the fact that various experts testified that the Eagles do not bring in net proceeds and that the teams threat to move was a very empty one.
I cannot cite sources at the moment. I’m going by what I saw on the local news, heard on KYW newsradio, and read in the papers.
How about for the sake of society? How long until western civilization goes the way of the Roman Empires with all this depravity and sloth?
The Roman empire didn’t fall due to depravity and sloth. That’s a myth.
It fell due to being too large for the central government to communicate effectively (Note the change to a Tetrarchy).
It fell due to mismanagement of natural resources.
It fell due to absorbing to many cultures and languages.
Plus it didn’t tax enough.
The (Western) Roman Empire fell for 256 different reasons. Some of them contradictory.
Heck, I’m sure someone could make a case for adding “competitive eating” to the list. So, make it 257. Why not?
I’ve sort of considered starting a thread about it. Anyone up for that?
I learned about this years ago when Kobayashi and the Black Widow were really famous. It’s pretty disgusitng. They just dunk hotdogs or whatever in water or mustard to slide it down their throats. :eek:
That what is a hoax? Are you referring specifically to the TV ratings? Note that the comparison is only to other events on ESPN2, which doesn’t show premier college football, basketball, or soccer games. Most events shown on ESPN2 are of secondary or regional interest; it doesn’t surprise me at all that Nathan’s made their top ten.
For purposes of comparison, the men’s World Cup finals on ABC and Univision drew 27 million American viewers.