It’s a crazy world when you can eat for a living. I don’t mean being a chef or a food critic, I mean eating outrageous amounts of food. There are people who are paid thousands of dollars if they can eat a lot, in a short amount of time. Some are even paid for simply just eating.
In my opinion, this seems like the dream job and it comes in many forms. The two types of extreme eating that I want to explore are mukbang and competitive eating. Let’s find our dream job.
First, mukbang is Korean for ‘eating show’ and it is basically a show in which someone prepares and eats food while talking to their audience. You can find tons of these videos online. This fad started in South Korea and is usually broadcasted live so that the viewers can interact with the host. But most of the hosts are actually hostesses in this case.
One of the highest paid creators is a woman named Park Seo-Yeon who is also known as “the Diva.” She makes between $9,000 to $10,000 a month and broadcasts for several hours each night.
Her viewers, who have a women-to-men ratio of about 60:40, tune in and make requests for her meal, while also chatting up a storm and asking questions. Most mukbang viewers are thought to be lonely but some tune in out of curiosity or for the hosts’ personality.
The Diva admits that she spends about $3,000 a month on food for her broadcasts. But even then, she’s making, at the least, $72,000 a year!
I would quit my actual job for that. In fact, the Diva has made mukbang her day job. But to be fair, she easily eats enough for a family within a span of a few hours. I can hardly finish enough for one in that amount of time. It’s a hard job but I wouldn't mind trying.
Second, is the world of competitive eating. Competitive eating is very similar to mukbang. Except time is against you, you must eat as quickly as you possibly can. And the contestants don’t upload or stream their meals, rather they go to an event or competition. They compete with several other competitive eaters and the more you eat, the more you win.
One competitive eater that you may have heard of is Kobayashi who has a net worth of $3 million. Yes, $3 million. He is well known for participating in the annual Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest. The top prize winner will walk away with $10,000.
Some say this is easy cash but have you ever eaten more than two hotdogs in one sitting, let alone nearly 50 in ten minutes? I can only imagine the stomach aches that come with these competitions. But I think it’s a risk that I am willing to take.
Another well-known professional is Matt Stonie, who recently told CNN in an interview that he makes six figures a year from competitive eating. He also has a YouTube channel where he posts videos of his talent and is able to make money from ad revenue. He got his start in the business with a local competition that promised $1,000 to whoever could eat the most lobster.
As a college student, he couldn’t resist. In his interview, he also addresses a big problem with the world of competitive eating. The waste and gluttony of it all. It’s hard to enjoy watching one person eat enough for 20 people when you are aware of the millions dying of hunger each day. People like Matt Stonie try to counteract this problem by donating to charities when they can.
While competitive eating seems like an amazing job with lots of cash, it’s insane to believe that it is a real job. It goes to show how much we value entertainment over a lot of other issues.
But if Matt Stonie doesn’t participate, someone else will. And those hot dogs he eats won’t be shipped to a starving child if he doesn’t eat them. Those who participate in these careers need to educate themselves about what it means to participate and how they can help others.
Either way, it’s important to know about the good and bad aspects of such an insane job. Despite its issues, it’s hard to deny that competitive eating and mukbang are not fascinating careers.
