As one of the most influential social media personas of the 2010s, Nikocado Avocado, otherwise known as Nicholas Perry, created YouTube videos that garnered tens of millions of views at his prime. His speciality? Doing mukbangs — in other words, eating tons of food — while talking about his day-to-day life.
Despite the absurdity of the concept of a mukbang, the 32-year-old developed a loyal fanbase who tuned into all his videos.
Unfortunately, one of the main side effects of doing daily mukbangs is weight gain, which Nikocado greatly fell victim to. While he weighed a healthy 155 lbs in 2016, his weight skyrocketed to an astounding 411 lbs at its peak in 2022. His dramatic weight gain came along with having to use a sleep apnea machine and several broken ribs, suffering that he endured for “entertainment.”
Although he has an extremely loyal fanbase, Nikocado also faced extreme backlash. His videos spurred controversy because he was deliberately gaining weight in order to garner views, which promotes unhealthy eating habits. Amid the obesity epidemic, where more than 1 in 5 people in each U.S. state are obese, critics contend his behavior sets a dangerous precedent, especially for young viewers.
Aside from genuinely concerned viewers, many people were just blatantly fatphobic toward Nikocado. Comments such as “Never have I felt more in shape” and “When I’m feeling fat or bloated, I just watch this. It helps a lot” were constantly made on his videos, most of which were created with malicious intent instead of genuine concern for the creator’s health.
Recently, Nikocado took a 7-month break from appearing on YouTube. Then he returned to the internet. The catch? He again weighs 155 lbs, appearing to have lost nearly a decade’s worth of weight gain in that time. In a video titled “Two Steps Ahead,” which currently has over 48 million views, Nikocado debuted his new look, which is almost identical to how he appeared when he first started making videos.
Sporting his pet parrot on his shoulder, he explained how he pre-filmed two years worth of videos so that he could quietly lose the hundreds of pounds he’s amassed over the years. In the video, he said, “People are the most messed up creatures on the entire planet and yet I’ve still managed to stay two steps ahead of everyone.” And while this sounded extremely over-dramatic coming from a bald man who was shoving pounds of ramen down his throat, there is also overwhelming truth in his words.
Through Nikocado’s social experiment, he proved one thing right: People are too involved in parasocial relationships. Whether it’s with our favorite content creators or with Nikocado himself, most people develop unhealthy relationships with creators online — despite not knowing them personally — and take everything they see online as the gospel truth.
Nikocado deceived the entire internet community with just a few pre-filmed videos, and made waves on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. This begs the question — in what ways are our favorite creators deceiving us too?
