Competitive Eating
I was thinking about this thing I saw on TV a couple of weeks ago – the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 4th of July – or thereabouts.
I’d heard about the thing they do and I’d heard that some Japanese guy was the world champion, but I’d never witnessed the competition before. I was flipping around the TV dial and ran into it and was mesmerized (and disgusted) as I watched the 12-minute process.
The two main competitors were an American and the Japanese guy, Kobayashi. This is now a fucking recognized sport called Competitive Eating. They train to expand their stomach to take in incredible amounts of food and to allow their gullets to ingest the food in a short amount of time. They train for this! Well, when I think about it, I guess they’d have to.
So the contest began. And these people, all in a row on a stage in front of hundreds of cheering maniacs began stuffing dogs and buns and liquid down their throats. They rocked back and forth like a young version of a group of old Jews praying – davening – in the synagogue. The more they rocked and stuffed and stuffed and rocked the more disgusting it was. How, I asked myself, could they do this without choking and dying. I still don’t have an answer to that question.
The world record held by Kobayashi was 53½ hot dogs in 12 minutes. He and the American were neck and neck for a while. Then Kobayashi pulled away. Then the American resurged and caught him. Then Kobayashi pulled away again and won. In the process he broke the record by eating 54 (or 54½ - I forget) and then when it was over spent several minutes coughing and choking (maybe now he’ll die I thought) before getting back to normal – or whatever passes for normal for this guy.
Am I out of touch or what? Or are they? Jesus!!
I’d heard about the thing they do and I’d heard that some Japanese guy was the world champion, but I’d never witnessed the competition before. I was flipping around the TV dial and ran into it and was mesmerized (and disgusted) as I watched the 12-minute process.
The two main competitors were an American and the Japanese guy, Kobayashi. This is now a fucking recognized sport called Competitive Eating. They train to expand their stomach to take in incredible amounts of food and to allow their gullets to ingest the food in a short amount of time. They train for this! Well, when I think about it, I guess they’d have to.
So the contest began. And these people, all in a row on a stage in front of hundreds of cheering maniacs began stuffing dogs and buns and liquid down their throats. They rocked back and forth like a young version of a group of old Jews praying – davening – in the synagogue. The more they rocked and stuffed and stuffed and rocked the more disgusting it was. How, I asked myself, could they do this without choking and dying. I still don’t have an answer to that question.
The world record held by Kobayashi was 53½ hot dogs in 12 minutes. He and the American were neck and neck for a while. Then Kobayashi pulled away. Then the American resurged and caught him. Then Kobayashi pulled away again and won. In the process he broke the record by eating 54 (or 54½ - I forget) and then when it was over spent several minutes coughing and choking (maybe now he’ll die I thought) before getting back to normal – or whatever passes for normal for this guy.
Am I out of touch or what? Or are they? Jesus!!
posted by Dan at 8:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home