Tommy Winkler

About

Tommy Winkler, also known as the King of "Crunch" or @tommywinkler on TikTok, is a Wisconsin-based TikToker known for his "Everything I Eat in A Day" and "Only Eat X for A Whole Day" TikToks. These videos are similar to other #foodtok and food porn content, in general, but are all compilations of him eating different meals throughout the day, outlining his eating habits. Fans often leave comments on his videos suggesting what he should eat next, whether that be a specific meal, a specific food type, or even, a specific food shape.

History

On November 11th, 2019, Winkler posted his first TikTok to the platform. He wouldn't post any #foodtok^[5] content however until July 29th, 2020, which was the first time he posted an "Everything I eat in a day" video.^[1] He had a small following prior to this video due to his early TikTok videos which were mostly run-of-the-mill. But this video (shown below) gained roughly 800,000 views and 200,000 likes in just one week. At the end of the next week, on August 7th, 2020, he posted his second "Everything I eat in a day" video (also shown below) with the caption, "Here you go since y'all really liked the last one 😅 #foryou #food," and it also gained many more views and likes than his prior videos.

Winkler began posting #foodtok content consistently. On August 24th, 2020, his "Everything I eat in a day" video for that day went ultra-viral. Roughly a year later, the TikTok (shown below) has 12.9 million views and 1.7 million likes. From this TikTok, he received many comments on whether or not the cucumbers he ate in the video were, in fact, pickles. He would go on to carry this "cucumbers vs. pickles" theme into his next video which also received over 1 million views (shown below).

On October 4th, 2020, TikTok user @brycelappin commented, "Do a video of just eating an apple 🍎". Winkler did just this, filming a TikTok of him at an apple orchard eating different types of apples (shown below). This TikTok was the first known of him being asked to eat only one thing. It wouldn't be until October 31st, 2020, that Winkler would respond to a comment that asked him to only eat one thing for an entire day, that thing being Halloween candy (also shown below). These two TikToks would receive 3.6 million views and 2.7 million views respectively over roughly one year.

Up until this moment, Winkler ate generally healthy food for his videos. However, after this candy TikTok, his fans began to become more voyeuristic in what they wanted to watch him eat. Similar to the arch of many food content creators like mukbangers, Winkler's videos became more unhealthy. His fans would suggest he eat fast food all day, or want to watch him eat only at a specific restaurant for every meal like it was a miniature version of "Super Size Me."^[2] One of his TikToks, posted by him on January 15th, 2021, featured him eating only Taco Bell for an entire day (shown below). The video received 8.1 million views and 1.2 million likes over roughly 7 months.

His rapid junk food consumption juxtaposed with his unchanging physical condition added to the allure of his page. Comment after comment would suggest he eat junk food all day, so when he would get a healthy request, it became a different nuance for him to exploit. Two examples of these healthy types of TikToks (shown below) focused on eating vegan all day and eating salads all day. Winkler would deem these days, "recovery days."

On February 14th, 2021, for Valentine's Day, TikTok user @itsalltommysmommy would suggest Winkler eat "heart-shaped foods" all day. This would be the start of Winkler's fans becoming more creative with their suggestions. Winkler would go on to eat only "cold food" for a whole day, only "military food" for a whole day, and "different types of pretzel foods" for a whole day. The most viral of them, the "military food" one, posted on March 27th, 2021, would receive 22.5 million views and 3.4 million likes over roughly 5 months (all examples shown below).

Following all this strange, internet fame for just eating food, Winkler would begin to become more meta/self-aware in his content, posting TikToks that joked about his metabolism and the absurdity of the whole situation of his lifestyle (shown below).