Mukbang / Eatcast

About

Mukbang or Eatcast (먹방), short for "eating broadcast," is a Korean internet slang term used to describe a webcast in which a video blogger livestreams oneself while eating a casual meal, usually alone and at a desk. While styles may vary from one eatcaster or broadcast jockey (commonly referred to as BJs) to another, the main draw of these video is quite similar to that of food porn.

Origin

The "feasting" webcasts first came about in 2008 with AfreecaTV vlogger Tae-Hyun's Muck-Show (Eating Show), a livecast talk show-style program wherein he hangs with his friends over a barbecue on camera. In the following years, Tae-Hyun and his eat-and-show set-up became quite popular within the AfreecaTV community, giving rise to bloggers on the site, most notably Wang-Jew, who has been credited with establishing eating shows (muk-shows) as a mainstream vlog genre.

Etymology

The word Mukbang is a portmanteau of the Korean words for 'eat' (muok-da) and 'broadcast' (bang song).^[2] Therefore, "mukbang" translates to “eatcast." Throughout the world, however, there are different names for it, including "social eating" and "cookbang."^[14]

Spread

Between 2008 and 2010, numerous other AfreecaTV vloggers rose to minor fame through their eating programs, such as Bump, GoalKu and Bi-Ryong. Then in 2011, Korean internet users began using the term "Mukbang" (muck-bong) to praise actor Ha Jeong Woo's performance in eating scenes, which first came to light in the 2010 thriller film The Yellow Sea. By the end of 2011, the meaning of "Mukbang" was expanded to describe mainstream variety TV shows that are heavy in food porn content, often in criticism.

On May 16th, 2010, Italian video blogger Fausto Levantesi began uploading a series of short video clips of himself eating food on camera. However, he has since taken down his videos, according to a Reddit thread.^[10]

Over time, mukbang became incredibly popular in the South Korea. In 2013, there was a drama titled Let's Eat (promo photo shown below) which centered around people brought together by their love of food. The popularity of the show brought fans to actively seek out restaurants featured in the series. Another popular show, Happy Together, has a segment where celebrity guests cook their favorite meals and share them with guests. However, mukbang is still most popular on AfreecaTV, where 5% of its programming is mukbang-related.

International Recognition

On February 16th, 2015, YouTube channel Munchies released a video about mukbang BJs, labeling them as "The Food Porn Superstars of South Korea" (shown below). The video received more than 3.4 million views as of May 2017.

On April 2nd, the Fine Bros released a video titled "YOUTUBERS REACT TO MUKBANG (Eating Shows)" (shown below, left). As of May 2017, the video received more than 6.4 million views. Two weeks later, on April 15th, they released a follow-up, with celebrities reacting to mukbang (shown below, right).

On March 26th, 2017, YouTube channel This Exists compared the phenomenon to YouTube's malt liquor drinking community (shown below). The video received more than 59,000 views.

Cookbang

Mukbang brought with it the revival of TV cooking shows from the 1980s and 1990s, which were traditionally hosted by and catered towards stay-at-home moms and housewives. Today, the new wave of cooking shows resemble mukbang format, tailored to busy and modern twentysomethings: simple ingredients, quick recipes and lots of food porn. "Cookbang" is the combination of the two, bridging the gap between traditional cooking shows and modern mukbang-style.

The trend of mukbang, cookbang, and food porn in general, has ultimately transformed the activity cooking into a fashionable 21st century hobby among the millennials and men.^[4]

Media Coverage

Over the past few years, American news outlets began covering not just the rising trend of mukbang videos, but also how much money the stars of these videos were making. On March 24th, 2015, NPR published an article looking at the life of mukbang celebrity Rachel Ahn.^[3] On January 16th, 2016, qz published an article "Why some Koreans make $10,000 a month to eat on camera", which examined the popularity of the phenomenon and how it could connect to the social situations of Koreans, specifically their loneliness and their desire to not eat alone.^[2]

Mukbang has also been covered by Eater,^[11] Fusion,^[12] CNN,^[13] CNBC and more.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References