Crying While Eating (2005)

added Sep 09, 2009 at 08:58PM UTC

part of a series on Single Topic Blogs

About

Crying While Eating is a contagious media website project featuring voluntarily submitted videos of people crying while they eat something. Originally put together in 2005 as a contest submission for Contagious Media Showdown, Crying While Eating was quickly picked up by online media outlets like BoingBoing and MetaFilter within the first 48 hours of its launch. Examples and iterations of CWE videos can be found on its official concept blog CryingWhileEating.com as well as on YouTube.

Contagious Media Showdown & Bored-at-work Network

Contagious Media Showdown was a viral media contest held in May 2005 and organized by Jonah Peretti, the co-founder of Buzzfeed and Huffington Post. Originally conceived by Peretti as an experimental project to study the dynamics of what he referred to as “bored at work network”, the competition paved the way for several viral startup projects including Crying While Eating, Forget me Not Panties, Blogebrity, and Ringtone Dancer.

How to Create Your Own Crying-While-Eating Video

1. State your first name.
2. State your choice of food.
3. State your reason for crying.
4. Record & upload yourself crying while eating.

Responses / Examples

Ryan
What he’s eating: Whipped Cream
What he’s crying about: Missed a great opportunity
Jesus
What he’s eating: Potatoes and Ketchup
What he’s crying about: The wasted promise of youth
Aaron
What he’s eating: Pringles and 22oz Presidente
What he’s crying about: His girlfriend is making him go to therapy
Kayleah
What she’s eating: A head of lettuce
What she’s crying about: Not comfortable with human contact
Ben H
What he’s eating: Brie cheese, lettuce and tomato on a baguette
What he’s crying about: The elephant in the room
Christopher
What he’s eating: Chicken tenders, spicy ranch dressing
What he’s crying about: Global warming
Byl
What he’s eating: Fresh mozzarella
What he’s crying about: Parenthood like being pecked to death by small chickens

YouTube response videos (embed disabled)

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vexxzdu6zPA

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14 Comments

Jamie Dubs
Sep 09, 2009 at 09:14PM UTC , Jamie Dubs wrote:

this was one of a number of projects by Mr. Jonah Peretti, who would later go on to found BuzzFeed

Jamie Dubs
Sep 09, 2009 at 09:17PM UTC , Jamie Dubs wrote:

Jonah’s Contagious Media Showdown contest also spawned Forget Me Not Panties. That contest was also a big inspiration for my Internet Famous class :)

Brad Kim
Sep 09, 2009 at 09:30PM UTC , Brad Kim wrote:

hehe that’s awesome! this is def. one of my favorite lulz ever. btw, i watched your non-motivational videos about the class on tumblr, what a TOTAL WIN

Provie
Sep 09, 2009 at 11:07PM UTC , Provie wrote:

Wow this is ridiculous.

And also awesome ;)

Chris Menning
Sep 09, 2009 at 11:07PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

HA!
I remember seeing this a few years back. I love these!
Awesome to know that this was started by a Buzzfeed founder.

Jostin Asuncion
Sep 11, 2009 at 03:30AM UTC , Jostin Asuncion wrote:

The QuickTime videos don’t appear to work for me. Is anyone else experiencing this problem as well?

Chris Menning
Sep 11, 2009 at 12:30PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

They work fine for me.

Brad Kim
Sep 12, 2009 at 01:49AM UTC , Brad Kim wrote:

I’ll upload some YouTubes!

Shadowfury
Sep 12, 2009 at 08:53AM UTC , Shadowfury wrote:

QuickTime doesn’t like to work for Windows users. Especially embedded.

Captain Blubber
Sep 12, 2009 at 04:11PM UTC , Captain Blubber wrote:

Quicktime works fine for me and I use Windows.

Brad Kim
Sep 12, 2009 at 09:21PM UTC , Brad Kim wrote:

argg, too bad lots of youtube videos are subpar in comparison to the original quicktimes… for window users, might want to try going to cryingwhileeating.com directly.

elliothtz
Sep 12, 2009 at 09:31PM UTC , elliothtz wrote:

Let us not forget about James Franco as Saul, crying while eating a burger, while a small asian girl in a swimsuit watches in Pineapple Express.

rafi
Nov 07, 2009 at 04:09AM UTC , rafi wrote:

Just to correct what Jamie Dubs had said, this wasn’t created by Jonah Peretti. It was created for the Contagious Media contest but conceived and created by Dan Engber and Casimir Nozkowski.

Nozkowski has had further viral success with his “First” video about first commenters, and as the director of the Internets Celebrities (Ghetto Big Mac, Bodega, Checkmate).

Jake
Jan 27, 2010 at 04:46AM UTC , Jake wrote:

WHY?! WHY QUICKTIMES?! The only thing worse would be gasp .avi’s!

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