Mukbang: Why do we watch them?

A scene from our highly acclaimed mukbang video.

Ramen, ASMR, mountains of food and an unhealthy obsession with cheese — three reasons why mukbangs have become so popular.

Recently, mukbangs — videos of people eating often large quantities of food — have sprung up online. To find out why they’re so popular, we decided to investigate the trend. We took a video of ourselves eating an illustrious school lunch: a rich marinara sauce spaghetti with a side of a delectable, salty Caesar salad. After this experience, we’ve gathered three definitive reasons the bizarre videos have become so popular.

#1: It’s ASMR

One crucial aspect of our recording was to ensure that our audio was pitch perfect — pun intended — because ASMR is half of a mukbang video. Scientifically proven to release oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, ASMR creates feelings of relaxation and happiness. When we finally stopped laughing during our filming session, we observed that the sound of chewing was oddly relaxing and, with the results of our scientifically sound experimentation, concluded that the positive mental health benefits of mukbang.

#2: Monkey see, monkey taste

Personally, we watch mukbangs when we’re hungry to fool ourselves into believing we’re enjoying the same food at the same time. All those chocolate-coated ice creams, spicy ramen and stretchy cheeses satiate our craving for unhealthy foods (especially during the ungodly hours of 2 a.m.).

From “SPICY FRIED CHICKEN WITH STRETCHY CHEESE” to “CHEETOS MOZZARELLA CORN DOGS,” mukbangers squeeze a bunch of food-related keywords such as “cheesy,” “sweet,” “fluffy,” or “spicy” in their all-caps titles because people (like us) look for specific tastes to fantasize about. Can’t order food right now? No problem! The search bar is your waiter that fulfills your craving for all kinds of foods. Trust us, it works like a charm when you don’t have sushi lying around.

Our classmates who watched our mukbang reportedly could taste the food we were eating too. It’s the magic of mukbang!

Or maybe it’s because we all eat the same school lunches.

#3: It cures you of your boredom

Just like any old YouTube video, mukbangs can keep you occupied when you don’t have anything to do, or eat. After fighting back the urge to burst out laughing (rather unsuccessfully for an entire lunch period), we found that the concept of mukbangs is pretty weird. But they are surprisingly entertaining, and understandably so.

In conclusion, many popular mukbang channels have an audience of millions. Each video has a consistently high number of views. The makers rake in thousands of dollars per month just for eating. After our video received tons of positive reviews from our peers, we started to see a future as YouTube mukbangers ourselves. So if you see us as the next #1 trending on YouTube — don’t be too surprised.

Remember to like, comment and subscribe (to the Falcon’s weekly newsletter) and don’t forget to turn on the bell for notifications! Until next time!