Nikocado Avocado
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Related Explainer: Who Is Nikocado Avocado? The Controversial YouTuber Explained
About
Nikocado Avocado is the nickname of a Ukrainian-American YouTuber Nicholas Perry best known for his mukbang videos and a series of controversies that surrounded the YouTuber since late 2019. In 2020, the channel has been a subject of viral discussions online, with users expressing concerns regarding Perry's mental and physical health.
Online History
Nikocado Avocado[1] has been appearing on his secondary channel for a longer period than his primary channel. The secondary channel, now known as Nikocado Avocado 2, was created by his ex Orlin Home on July 7th, 2012, under the username OmaDesalasOrlin. His first video, ‘Best Mango Farm Florida’, was posted on May 4th, 2013. Nikocado then made his first appearance on the channel on August 7th, 2017, in ‘Nikocado Plays Violin’ (shown below).
Now, the couple exclusively uses the channel to put out mukbang content and has garnered several hundred thousand subscribers and tens of millions of views in total on it. Those videos have become a popular source of memes, YTPs and cringe compilations.
Nikocado set up his main account on May 27th, 2014, and started posting vegan food and lifestyle-related content on it in February 2016. However, he seems to have deleted all the videos he had posted prior to September 2016. The oldest video on the channel, ‘Why I'm No Longer a Vegan Youtuber’, was posted on September 1st. In it, he denounces the vegan community altogether and states that he does not want to be associated with them any longer, accusing its members of being “imbalanced, hostile, militant, and mentally unstable” (shown below).
Soon after, he began to upload vegan mukbangs and ceased to become vegan by January 2017, as shown in his December 2016 video called "I don't want to be vegan anymore" (shown below).
Nikocado gained a significant amount of weight between 2017 and 2021 due to his mukbang videos and the massive quantities of food he eats during them (before and after photo shown below).
Health Concerns
In September 2021, people began expressing increased concern for Nikocado's health after he broke three ribs due to his weight gain and had to go on a ventilator as part of the healing process. During this time, Nikocado continued to upload mukbang videos on his More Nikocado channel using the breathing device and titles about being disabled (shown below, left and right).
Along with criticism for Nikocado allegedly using his health issues as clickbait, many people criticized YouTube for allowing Nikocado to abuse his body by eating extreme amounts of food, especially while recovering from the broken ribs. His ribs broke due to his weight gain. On September 23rd, BowBlax posted to Twitter[2] "This guy is gonna die of obesity on YouTube," along with a screenshot of his ventilator mukbangs, gaining over 32,000 likes and 2,300 retweets in a day (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter[3] user @cacasmiddlename likened Nikocado's situation on YouTube to Eugenia Cooney's, who has an eating disorder and posts content that has historically been seen as self-destructive (shown below, right).
On September 29th, Instagram[4] page juggalofamilyvalues posted a meme depicting Nikocado's latest videos leading up to his "I'm Disabled… Taco Tuesday" upload as the five stages of grief, gaining over 1,300 likes in under a day (shown below).
On September 29th, Cr1TiKaL posted a video about Nikocado titled "This YouTuber Is Slowly Killing Himself for Views" speaking out against Nikocado's willingness to harm himself for the sake of views. He specifically responds to Nikocado's claim that his own viewers are to blame for the state of his health for encouraging him to continue making mukbang videos, saying he agrees with Nikocado to a degree but that it's ultimately Nikocado's choice to keep making videos that harm his wellbeing. He concludes the video by saying Nikocado is essentially filming himself die and that it's sad. The video gained over 2.8 million views in less than 24 hours.
On September 30th, Nikocado responded to Cr1TiKaL's video with a 40-minute-plus video on his More Nikocado YouTube channel (shown below). The video begins with Nikocado asking who Cr1TiKaL is and saying that Cr1TiKaL is denying him his right to live because he's "a little fluffy." He then continues to yell "who is this" at his laptop. He then goes on to say he had mental and physical health issues when he was skinny and vegan and says Cr1TiKaL is hurting his mental health. He reacts to the entirety of the video while eating a Wendy's meal in bed. At one point, he refutes Cr1TiKaL's claim that he usually finishes all the food in his mukbangs, saying he ate only one of eight pizzas shown in one of his latest uploads. Nikocado reiterates that he's happy in his body and that it's okay to be overweight. The video gained over 30,000 views in five hours.
Reputation
His videos have become a very popular source of cringe compilations, YTPs and memes due to Nikocado's mood shifts and fights with husband Orlin.
Criticisms
Personal Life
In a video posted to Perry's channel in December 2019, the YouTuber collaborated with mukbangers Stephanie Soo and Zach Choi. In the clip, the three vloggers joked with each other while consuming a massive quantity of spicy noodles.
Four days after Perry posted the collaboration, Soo posted a video titled "Why I Am Scared Of Nikocado Avocado," in which she described feeling unsafe with Perry in the past and while filming the collaboration. Soo also accused Perry of sending her harassing texts, asking about her home security system (which makes her feel safer as a sexual assault survivor) and taking photos from inside her home when she briefly left the room. Within hours, the video received hundreds of thousands of views (shown below). Nikocado retaliated, accusing her of "trying to start her own little #MeToo moment".
Top Comments
Armchair Psychologist
Sep 26, 2021 at 01:55PM EDT
GenericFellow24
Sep 30, 2021 at 01:10PM EDT