Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), is also known as “brain massage,” is a phenomenon in which certain sounds like whispers, crunching sounds, and tapping cause a tingling, pleasurable sensation. Mukbang, on the other hand, is when a person eats large quantities of food for an audience. 

ASMRs and mukbangs are quite popular, especially on YouTube, and while ASMR can be done in many different forms like simply mic tapping or unpacking boxes and packages, food ASMRs are very popular. Food ASMRs typically show a person eating food, usually, food that produces different types of sounds, like chips, candy, honeycomb, and dishes with a side of some sort of sauce that produces slurpy sounds. The sound produced from the eating is magnified or exaggerated to create ASMR sounds. Such ASMR videos have either no talking or minimal talking in the form of whispers. 

Content creators on YouTube often combine ASMRs and mukbangs together for their audience; an example of that would be eating large quantities of chips and magnifying the chewing sounds produced by the eating, etc. 

Due to its immense popularity, mukbangers and ASMRs have their whole separate fan base. And like any other fandom, the mukbang fandom can get pretty toxic and weird, not only from the content creator’s side, but also from the audience’s side, and it is really problematic because it physically and mentally hurts the creator. 

For example, Nicholas Perry, a YouTuber who goes by the name of Nikocado Avocado, started off as a normal mukbanger about five years ago. However, the YouTuber who now has close to 3 million subscribers has changed drastically over the years. The YouTuber who used to be vegan when he first started, is now obese and disabled. Perry, 29, has been involved in a lot of drama, most prominently with another YouTuber called Stephanie Soo, and his former partner, Orlin Home. 

However, it wasn’t only his weight and followers that increased; along with that, his uploading of weird videos as well as hateful comments towards him also increased. Perry often uploads videos where he treats food disgustingly or tries to act funny by doing disgusting things. He’s also famous for breaking up and then getting back together with his partner. Naturally, this gets him a lot of hate. Most people make fun of his weight or mock him. 

Personally, I think that the YouTuber is just seeking attention at this point. He feeds off of the hate comments he gets; he loves the attention he gets out of the drama he’s involved in, even if it’s negative. As much as Perry disgusts me, I still find it wrong to mock him. The YouTuber does not seem to be in a good place mentally, and all these comments just make it worse. It is toxic, and it’s hurting Perry both physically and mentally as it is visible in his videos.

Next up is a YouTuber called Kate Yup. The supposedly French YouTuber made videos of her eating large amounts of raw seafood while blindfolded. When she first started making videos, everything was normal, but soon enough, fans started speculating that she was actually a kidnapped woman who was being forced to eat large amounts of food for the money. This theory was triggered by supposed scars and bruises on Yup’s arms and lips which fans theorized were marks from the supposed abuse inflicted upon her. Despite Yup clarifying that it was a skin condition called Herpes Labialis, the theories about her kidnapping just spiraled from there.

In my opinion, I think all these theories are just over exaggerating and possibly even fueling what could be just an eating disorder. Many people say that they hear phrases like “I will kill you” and other such disturbing phrases in her videos, and they often see part of another figure in the video as well as see her eat faster at times as if prompted to. But it is worth noting that the “weirdness” of Yup’s video, like supposed SOS signals and “HELP” signs and cryptic and suspicious posts from her account only became more prominent when people started speculating theories about her. It may very well be that she suffers from some sort of mental and eating disorder, and it can possibly be said that the comments about her so-called kidnapping just fueled her need for more attention from her audience.

Yup stopped making videos a few months ago, and people have even said that she is dead, when she might have gotten the help she needed to aid in her mental health.

In both Perry and Yup’s case, the creators just started adapting themselves to the attention they were receiving, despite the attention being negative. In both of their cases, the audience played a huge part in worsening the situation of the creators.

Mukbangs and food ASMRs are not worth it. Hurting yourself physically and mentally for money and attention is not okay. 

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