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What's up with competitive eating? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: find out more. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: Josh Clark. With me as always this Charles W. Chuck
0:35
Speaker 1: Chucker's chuckle Head, Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Bryant. You
0:39
Speaker 1: can just call me Kobayashi. No, okay, good, that was
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Speaker 1: a great set of Chuck. Let's talk about a competitive
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Speaker 1: eating go. Wow, you had something better than that plan out, didn't,
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Speaker 1: you know? Not really? Okay against talking about like, oh
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Speaker 1: I'm awful. I remember in high school, back when I
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Speaker 1: was a younger man. Uh, there was this place. Do
0:59
Speaker 1: you remember Buffalo is the chain? I don't think it's
1:01
Speaker 1: around anymore. I think I think the Wings Cafe or whatever. Yeah. Um,
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Speaker 1: they used to have like a like an ongoing um
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Speaker 1: hall of Fame or whatever wall of fame. It was
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Speaker 1: a plaque with people's names on it. They would like,
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Speaker 1: eat an X number of wings. And I had a
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Speaker 1: couple of friends on there at the one by Sprayberry
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Speaker 1: High School, Mary Georgia. I don't think fifty or more
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Speaker 1: gute on there. Did you got Sprayberry? Yeah? I went Sprayberry.
1:27
Speaker 1: Did not know that? Did you know anybody who went
1:30
Speaker 1: to Sprayberry besides Travis Tritt and some guy who was
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Speaker 1: on some reality show? No, no, I did not realize
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Speaker 1: that they went there. Yeah, I've got let me see.
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Speaker 1: I think you had a cup. Chris Kardaki went to
1:41
Speaker 1: my school. He was an NFL punter, and um, where'd
1:45
Speaker 1: you go? I went to read Ann oh Over in
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Speaker 1: the cab. Yeah. Yeah. Is it possible that I'm the
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Speaker 1: most famous person that went to my high school? Holy cow?
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Speaker 1: How cool would that be? Chuck, Well, Chuck, what's the
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Speaker 1: most you've ever eaten? I have no idea. It had
2:00
Speaker 1: to be some like Chinese food buffet or something. I'll
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Speaker 1: just say, yeah, yeah, those things will kill you, especially
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Speaker 1: the big ones. I have like seven buffets in one restaurant.
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Speaker 1: One of my friends had to be helped out. I
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Speaker 1: had to help him out with hi hippie justin Okay,
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Speaker 1: yeah close? Really wow, yeah that was close. Yeah. I
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Speaker 1: I don't do the buffet thing anymore. That's I learned
2:23
Speaker 1: that from my dad, you know, how to master the
2:25
Speaker 1: buffet when I was very young. But I get your
2:27
Speaker 1: money's worth. Yeah, yeah, and I have since learned. You know,
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Speaker 1: my dad was busy gorging himself. My mom was stuffing
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Speaker 1: things in her purse. This is like how things were
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Speaker 1: in the seventies when he went to a buffet. Yeah. Well,
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Speaker 1: buffets have come a long way since then. And why
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Speaker 1: does anyone go to any cafeteria style restaurant, especially there's
2:46
Speaker 1: usually a buffet across the street. It's like all you
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Speaker 1: can eat or very tiny portions for the same exact price.
2:51
Speaker 1: I'll tell you where I'm going, buddy. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: the place where people with oxygen tanks and rascals who
2:57
Speaker 1: are sweating grease are coming out of the doors. That's
3:00
Speaker 1: where I'm going, because that's where you're going to get
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Speaker 1: your money for agreed, So buffet's. We've both eaten too
3:05
Speaker 1: much at buffet's. That's our setup. Really Yeah, but no
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Speaker 1: more let's let's talk about competitive eating. There's nothing competitive
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Speaker 1: about a buffet except vying for the white meat. That's
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Speaker 1: the only competitive that's your thing. Yeah. Yeah, So there
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Speaker 1: are people out there, as as you may have guessed
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Speaker 1: by now, um, that eat competitively. A lot of people.
3:25
Speaker 1: You've got rugby, you have highly poker, dolphin glass owing,
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Speaker 1: and competitive eating. Yeah, those are pretty much the top
3:35
Speaker 1: four or five sports. I don't remember how many I
3:37
Speaker 1: just said. Okay, yeah, yeah, I would agree. I can't
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Speaker 1: think of any other sport that would that would top those. No,
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Speaker 1: I would put highlight in the first position, though, would
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Speaker 1: you really? So you should? I guess we should just
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Speaker 1: go ahead and say that there is an actual federation
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Speaker 1: called the International Federation of Competitive Eating. It's since been
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Speaker 1: retitled Major League Eating. Did you know that there? We'reization
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Speaker 1: really I think they still go by uh the I
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Speaker 1: f O c E, but they also go by competitive
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Speaker 1: Major League Eating. Yeah, this sounds more official the other way.
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Speaker 1: I like. I like the first one more two. Just
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Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and say it. Did you know it
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Speaker 1: was founded by Nathan's Hot Dogs publicity wing. It does
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Speaker 1: not surprise me. I didn't know that though the rumor
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Speaker 1: has it that the Nathan's, the famous Nathan's hot dog
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Speaker 1: stand in Coney Island, started uh competitive eating in nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixteen with four friends who sat down together and challenge
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Speaker 1: each other too too out eat hot dogs two and
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Speaker 1: whoever ate the most was the better patriot. So if
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Speaker 1: you can eat more hot dogs, you are better patriot. Yeah.
4:42
Speaker 1: It was I think Fourth of July right that they
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Speaker 1: did it. I think so. And then they I think
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Speaker 1: one of like thirteen hot dogs and he was the
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Speaker 1: better patriot. And since then it's been a thing, which
4:51
Speaker 1: is it's peanuts, it's measily. Can I stop doing an
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Speaker 1: accent now? No, I'd like you to continue for the
4:56
Speaker 1: rest of the podcast. How wouldn't that be great? Yeah?
4:59
Speaker 1: Are you going to? No? It sounds very Coney Island show,
5:03
Speaker 1: very Coney Island nineteen sixteen. I mean you nailed it. Um. So,
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Speaker 1: I think Nathan's continued this for all Fourth of July's
5:10
Speaker 1: after that, or probably the vast majority. Probably not during
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Speaker 1: World War two. Nobody did anything during World War Two.
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Speaker 1: The thing is is people were still just kind of
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Speaker 1: um eating twelve thirteen, sixteen hot dogs, right, which is
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Speaker 1: nothing compared to what they do now, right, And there
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Speaker 1: were there were other eating competitions. There was this one
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Speaker 1: between a guy who played outfield I think for the Yankees,
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Speaker 1: Ping Body, that was an Italian American and Uh in
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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, he engaged in a spaghetti eating contest with
5:43
Speaker 1: an Ostrich. I challenge you Ostrich, yep, the but I
5:48
Speaker 1: think that's exactly how it went down too, and the
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Speaker 1: Ostrich just is like, what's spaghetti? The Ostrich just ate
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Speaker 1: whatever was based in front of it, eleven bowls. Apparently, Uh,
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Speaker 1: Ping Body was declared the winner because apparently the Ostrich
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Speaker 1: either fainted or died on its eleven pole, depending on
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Speaker 1: who you ask, the proud tradition of the Yankees exactly
6:09
Speaker 1: the dark and Ping just probably ate the the unconscious
6:14
Speaker 1: Ostrich and then smoked five cigars right afterwards, exactly. And
6:17
Speaker 1: then did you gotten a drinking contest with Babe Ruth?
6:20
Speaker 1: That's probably how that went down. Yeah. So uh, there's
6:23
Speaker 1: also painting contests, a staple of country fairs. Yeah, back
6:27
Speaker 1: in the day. I think they in the article at
6:29
Speaker 1: Leasta said that that was more along the lines of, hey,
6:32
Speaker 1: let's like tie your hands behind your back, not necessarily
6:35
Speaker 1: see how many pies you can eat. It was a
6:37
Speaker 1: little more I wouldn't say challenging, but I think the
6:40
Speaker 1: fund yeah more gross chuck. We have been organically and
6:46
Speaker 1: um irresistibly led right back to standby man, you're going
6:50
Speaker 1: to say that, how could I not the great great
6:52
Speaker 1: story that young Will Wheaton says about the that he
6:55
Speaker 1: makes up as the young writer the painting contest, large
7:00
Speaker 1: wide load, fantastic scene. Um. But yes, so that was
7:04
Speaker 1: a county fair pie eating contest. It's just kind of
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Speaker 1: goes willy nilly all over the place. Anybody who wanted
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Speaker 1: to get fifty people or so to their um store
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Speaker 1: will the eating contest. Well. In the nineties, as we
7:17
Speaker 1: were saying, I think, um, George and Richard Shay, who
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Speaker 1: I think may still run publicity for Nathan's Famous Hotdogs,
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Speaker 1: took this old concept and really drummed it up. They
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Speaker 1: took it to the next level and then some and
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Speaker 1: they were answered by some people who have dedicated their
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Speaker 1: free time at least to competitive eating. Like I don't
7:40
Speaker 1: know exactly how this symbiotic relationship came about, but these
7:44
Speaker 1: guys put the call out there and some people answered it.
7:49
Speaker 1: What are they called chuck gurgitators, gurgetators. That's right, it is.
7:54
Speaker 1: It is gross because you slap ran there and you're
7:57
Speaker 1: talking about someone who pukes, and we'll we'll get into
7:59
Speaker 1: the thing, and I know I can't wait, just to
8:01
Speaker 1: warn people it is coming. Yeah. Um, so since the
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Speaker 1: since the late nineties, actually since the century, because I
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Speaker 1: think for a few years it took a few years
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Speaker 1: to catch on and people were still just really phoning
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Speaker 1: it in eating thirteen fifteen eighteen hot dogs, and then,
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Speaker 1: like I think, starting in about two thousand two, a
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Speaker 1: little fella, I think a hundred and sixty pounds out
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Speaker 1: of Japan named Takaro Kobayashi, which is why you said,
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Speaker 1: called me Kobayashi. Not to be confused, um with the
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Speaker 1: attorney in um the usual suspects it Okay, die hard,
8:39
Speaker 1: I'm an idiot, die Hard Kobayashi, the usual sub suspects. Yeah,
8:43
Speaker 1: that's not to me. Yeah, not tell me, tower's what
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Speaker 1: I was thinking. Yeah, no, I'm talking Kobayashi and the
8:48
Speaker 1: usual suspect. I feel like a heel now. It's because
8:50
Speaker 1: I'm a movie guy. Do you want us to edit
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Speaker 1: this part out? Okay, thanks for leaving it in chuck,
8:55
Speaker 1: I'll be wrong. Um. So, Takiro Kobayashi hits the scene
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Speaker 1: hundred sixty pounds sucking red hair. Uh can eat fifty
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Speaker 1: sixty hot dogs in like eight minutes, ten minutes. So
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, all these guys who were you know,
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Speaker 1: just like, oh, check me out a eighteen hot dogs
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Speaker 1: in ten minutes. These they're they're weeping at home and
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Speaker 1: their garages. That's it. They're done, they're over, their careers
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Speaker 1: are done. Kobayashi rocks the competitive eating world, and he
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Speaker 1: attracts more and more people big time. He owned it
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Speaker 1: for many years, he did and actually lost only because
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Speaker 1: of a jaw injury. Really yeah, we'll get to that
9:32
Speaker 1: in a few okay, um but so yeah, he's he's
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Speaker 1: at the Nathan's hot Dog Fourth of July hot Dog
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Speaker 1: eating contest, and that's the biggest one. There's all kinds
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Speaker 1: of eating contests, which we'll get into that too. We
9:42
Speaker 1: keep teasing, we're not going to get around to any
9:45
Speaker 1: of this, but the Nathan's hot Dog Contest is is
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Speaker 1: easily the most famous, and I mean it's the world
9:52
Speaker 1: series of the Super Bowl of Yeah, it's broadcast on ESPN.
9:55
Speaker 1: Have you actually actually watched it in full? I wish
9:58
Speaker 1: you wouldn't ask me that, because as I did a
10:00
Speaker 1: few years ago. I don't remember why I was in
10:03
Speaker 1: front of my television at the time, but I did,
10:06
Speaker 1: and uh, it was disgusting. It was really really gross
10:10
Speaker 1: and hard to watch. You know. I've I've read um
10:12
Speaker 1: and actually I've got to source this openly and honestly,
10:16
Speaker 1: I've read this on cracked dot com. But there's this
10:19
Speaker 1: stuff called side food and the stuff that comes out
10:22
Speaker 1: the sides of the mouth that's kind of half chewed,
10:24
Speaker 1: and man, I guess just through physics, you know, yea
10:28
Speaker 1: to two objects can't occupy the same space at the
10:30
Speaker 1: same time, so I think the rest of that law
10:34
Speaker 1: ends with so some of that stuff comes out of
10:36
Speaker 1: your mouth kind of chewed up the sides of your mouth,
10:39
Speaker 1: I guess. Um. So yeah, I understand it is very gross. Yeah,
10:43
Speaker 1: I had a hard time watching it. Yeah, you didn't
10:46
Speaker 1: make it through the whole thing. No. I watched it
10:47
Speaker 1: because I wanted to see if it was the big
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Speaker 1: matchup between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Okay, so we've arrived
10:54
Speaker 1: at Joey Chestnuts that that must have been two thousand seven, Buddy,
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Speaker 1: I think it was the first year he won, which
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Speaker 1: was two thousand seven. That was the year that kobey
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Speaker 1: Ashi had a jaw injury that supposedly field um And
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Speaker 1: apparently during the competition, Chestnut beat Kobayashi sixty six to
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Speaker 1: sixty three, and kobey Ashi says, no, no, I had
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Speaker 1: a jaw injury, and Chestnut says, eat it, buddy, I
11:18
Speaker 1: beat you and I'm now the champion in Kobe. She said,
11:21
Speaker 1: don't get in some water and I will eat it. Yeah,
11:24
Speaker 1: because that is a technique that many competitive eaters used.
11:27
Speaker 1: It is and um actually almost all of them. Ed Grabanowski,
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Speaker 1: the grabster who wrote this article and actually for this
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Speaker 1: article went to uh An eating constant in Buffalo. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he describes it clearly. He didn't read the last two pages,
11:42
Speaker 1: didn't um. He describes this visit to it, and you
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Speaker 1: know several people are there. Sonya Thomas, the black widow,
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Speaker 1: hundred pounds dude, hundred pounds of Korean ancestry ancestry fury.
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Speaker 1: Can we just go ahead and mention a couple of
11:55
Speaker 1: records she holds because she is littered over the I
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Speaker 1: fo c E Record Book. Sonya Thomas has eaten thirty
12:02
Speaker 1: five brought worse in ten minutes. She's eating a hundred
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Speaker 1: and sixty seven chicken wings in thirty two minutes. She's
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Speaker 1: eating four pounds of fruit cake in ten minutes. Can
12:16
Speaker 1: I say my favorite? Yeah, She's eaten eight point three
12:19
Speaker 1: one pounds of armored Vienna sausage in ten minutes. Wow,
12:23
Speaker 1: all right, and I'm gonna go with this final one
12:25
Speaker 1: unless you have one. She ate forty four forty four
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Speaker 1: main lobsters, dude in twelve minutes. And that's the meat
12:33
Speaker 1: obviously only, which is that was eleven pounds of meat.
12:36
Speaker 1: She also you left out probably your most famous one,
12:39
Speaker 1: which is that? So have you seen cool hand Luke Well, yeah,
12:42
Speaker 1: you know the hard boiled egg eating cont so cool
12:45
Speaker 1: hand Luke Tift. She ate sixty five hard boiled eggs
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Speaker 1: in six minutes for seconds. Hundred pounds of woman. Yeah,
12:55
Speaker 1: stuff in this food down to throat. Yeah. She eats
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Speaker 1: um once a day, one large meal a day, usually
13:00
Speaker 1: from a buffet. In the article, she's shown helping herself
13:03
Speaker 1: to some sushi um and uh, yeah, she's a hundred pounds.
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Speaker 1: She's she lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and she dominates right
13:11
Speaker 1: now as of what's the date today, Chuck, the thirty
13:14
Speaker 1: one of July. She is number six in the i
13:17
Speaker 1: fo c E rankings. I bet she's the top female
13:20
Speaker 1: in g Yes. I imagine she destroys the female competition. Yeah,
13:25
Speaker 1: it's good for her, right and again, like you said,
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Speaker 1: she's a hundred pounds, she's it's awesome and she goes
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Speaker 1: by the black Widow. So it doesn't get cooler than
13:31
Speaker 1: that right now, not any core. Um. We talked about
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Speaker 1: Kobe Ashi, who for I think from like two thousand
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Speaker 1: to two thousand and seven held all the major records. Uh,
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Speaker 1: he just could not be stopped and so competitive eating.
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Speaker 1: He's from Japan. The Japanese just dominated competitive eating until
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Speaker 1: two thousand seven Joey Chestnut shows up. Joey, this guy
13:55
Speaker 1: has put the smack down on absolutely everybody everyone. He
14:00
Speaker 1: hold some crazy, crazy records. Uh. He ate a hundred
14:03
Speaker 1: and three Crystal Burghers, which, for our friends in the
14:06
Speaker 1: Northeast are the same thing as White Castle pretty much sliders,
14:10
Speaker 1: uh and I don't know what they would be out west,
14:12
Speaker 1: any clue? Are Jack in the Box small and square.
14:16
Speaker 1: Uh no, okay, I don't remember. I don't actually remember
14:20
Speaker 1: ever seeing any little sliders out there. I'm sure they
14:22
Speaker 1: have them though. Uh. If you go onto the I
14:25
Speaker 1: f o C website, click on Joey Chestnut if you
14:28
Speaker 1: dare everything that comes up. He's just got this laundry
14:32
Speaker 1: list records that he holds. Right, he's a champion eater
14:35
Speaker 1: for sure, and he has Kobe Ashi's but uh in
14:39
Speaker 1: oh seven oh eight and then just a month or
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Speaker 1: like not even a month ago and O nine Yeah,
14:43
Speaker 1: instead of new world record, right that jaw injury. Um
14:47
Speaker 1: excuse only goes so far. Sixty eight hot dogs is
14:51
Speaker 1: what Joey Chestnut eight this year and that's including buns.
14:53
Speaker 1: And let's talk about some of these people do this. Um,
14:56
Speaker 1: you talked about dunking and water. Almost everybody uses mostly water,
15:00
Speaker 1: but you're allowed to with any dip your food in
15:04
Speaker 1: a drinks. It makes it you would get so full everywhere. Um,
15:11
Speaker 1: have a Roman incident? Is that what you mean? That's
15:13
Speaker 1: what the FOC calls it. That's right, Yeah, they call
15:15
Speaker 1: it a Roman incident. If you vomit, and I believe
15:17
Speaker 1: if you vomit on the table or on the food,
15:20
Speaker 1: then you're disqualified. But um, apparently, from what I understand,
15:25
Speaker 1: if you puke uh and it doesn't touch the table
15:28
Speaker 1: or whatever, um, you can proceed, I guess. But at
15:32
Speaker 1: the same time, like they probably count that as eaten.
15:35
Speaker 1: I think in two thousand two, Kobayashi um had a
15:39
Speaker 1: little controversy where he vomited some up and it was
15:43
Speaker 1: counted as eating. He held most of it back though, right, Yeah,
15:46
Speaker 1: he put his hand and see that's what's so gross, man.
15:48
Speaker 1: And these guys and ladies are eating the stuff and
15:51
Speaker 1: they're just stuffing in in their mouths and you can
15:52
Speaker 1: see this like look on their face like they're gonna die.
15:56
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden you see one of them
15:57
Speaker 1: like yeah, and they put their hands over their mouth,
16:01
Speaker 1: and you know what's happening. Kind of tell you a
16:03
Speaker 1: little story, yeah, God, a little little story from my path.
16:07
Speaker 1: Let so imagine Josh Clark age one on July. Okay,
16:12
Speaker 1: sleep in a in a field behind a home depot.
16:15
Speaker 1: That would have been U. I'm in Athens, Georgia, go dogs, right, uh,
16:21
Speaker 1: And I'm at what was the I guess the Half
16:23
Speaker 1: Moon Pub. Yeah, it was downstairs. Yeah, I had friends
16:26
Speaker 1: at work there downstairs from the Athens Coffee House, I
16:29
Speaker 1: think so it was. Um, So, I'm down at half
16:32
Speaker 1: Moon hanging out with some friends and I see a
16:34
Speaker 1: guy who i'm I have I'm mutual friends with or
16:38
Speaker 1: we have mutual friends. I'm sorry, but he and I
16:40
Speaker 1: don't really like each other. He comes over and he goes, hey, here,
16:44
Speaker 1: it's your birthday. Let me buy you a shot. I'm like, sure,
16:47
Speaker 1: no problem. So he buys me a shot of two
16:50
Speaker 1: fifty two. What is that? Baccardi? Are you ready? It's
16:55
Speaker 1: a shot of bacartie and wild turkey one oh one.
17:00
Speaker 1: There is no reason for the shot to exist in
17:02
Speaker 1: the universe, right, So the guy buys me the shot.
17:06
Speaker 1: I take it, you know, not wanting to to look
17:08
Speaker 1: like a coward and already kind of ripped. Um. I
17:11
Speaker 1: take the shot and I feel it immediately start to
17:14
Speaker 1: come back up, and not just that, everything everything start
17:17
Speaker 1: to come back up. I throw my hand in front
17:19
Speaker 1: of my mouth and stop it just before it comes
17:21
Speaker 1: back up, wipe my mouth, put the shot glass down,
17:25
Speaker 1: look the guy in the eye and say thanks for
17:27
Speaker 1: the shot, and turn around and walk away. Because he
17:29
Speaker 1: was trying to get me the puke, right, I showed him.
17:32
Speaker 1: That's what happened in my head. You wanna hear what
17:34
Speaker 1: happened in reality. The guy buys me the shot, I
17:37
Speaker 1: take it, throw my hand up to my hand, to
17:40
Speaker 1: my mouth, puke everywhere, including the bar, on the guy,
17:44
Speaker 1: on myself, put the shot glass down, look him in
17:47
Speaker 1: the eye and say thanks for the shot, and turned
17:49
Speaker 1: around and walked away. You're kidding, and you were disqualified.
17:53
Speaker 1: I was disqualified because it would have gotten on some
17:55
Speaker 1: food or something. Yeah, Tony first birthday. You know I
17:58
Speaker 1: had friends at work there at the time. I bet
18:00
Speaker 1: they remember that night. I'm gonna ask them. You should
18:02
Speaker 1: ask my buddy Clay. Have them send in some listener mail.
18:04
Speaker 1: We'll read it. Alright, So Chuck, let's talk about I
18:07
Speaker 1: think we're going to talk about how people do this, right. Yeah,
18:10
Speaker 1: I think that the water we're on the water thing
18:13
Speaker 1: and we get really sidetracked by vomit. Kobayashi has a
18:16
Speaker 1: little technique called Japanese ng or solemnon ng. Yeah, breaking
18:20
Speaker 1: the wiener in half, separating the weener from the bun,
18:23
Speaker 1: breaking the weener in half, stuffing the winer in his
18:26
Speaker 1: mouth with both hands at the same time, at the
18:29
Speaker 1: same time to to get yeah, to get the hold
18:31
Speaker 1: and then dunking the bun very quickly in the water.
18:34
Speaker 1: And it's at that point in the bun is just
18:36
Speaker 1: like a you know, stoppy mess. It goes down pretty easy, imagine, right.
18:39
Speaker 1: I was doing a little research, dude, and I gotta
18:41
Speaker 1: tell you, Crystals is mixing it up. If they're they're
18:45
Speaker 1: hamburger eating contest into September coming up. Uh, they have
18:50
Speaker 1: a no dunking rule really, and they're introducing their big burgers.
18:55
Speaker 1: Oh wow, So it's gonna it's gonna be all crazy,
18:57
Speaker 1: gonna get messy. Yeah, but yeah, they won't be allowed
18:59
Speaker 1: to which is actually a radical departure from standard rules. Yeah.
19:03
Speaker 1: I'd prefer to see a straight up contest. Yeah, I
19:06
Speaker 1: mean if it's not sixty eight dogs, who cares, what
19:08
Speaker 1: if it's like forty, but it's genuine hot dog eating,
19:12
Speaker 1: no dunking, no water, lots of vomiting. Yeah, that's what
19:16
Speaker 1: we all want, Chuck, we should probably put like a
19:19
Speaker 1: needle coming off of a record at this point. Thank you.
19:22
Speaker 1: We've um gotten kind of all delta force on this,
19:27
Speaker 1: you know, competitive eating, even though I think it's disgusting.
19:30
Speaker 1: Not everybody thinks it's a it's good or great or whatever.
19:35
Speaker 1: A lot of people, including the fine, fine actor star
19:39
Speaker 1: of Van Wilder, Ryan Reynolds, thinks that basically it's a um,
19:43
Speaker 1: it's a real symbol of America's obese wastefulness. And you
19:48
Speaker 1: know what, that's not an argument that's easily defended. No,
19:51
Speaker 1: it really isn't, because you know, you think, well, this
19:54
Speaker 1: guy just eight, um, how many sixty eight hot dogs
19:58
Speaker 1: in eight minutes? How many uh, how many kids died
20:02
Speaker 1: in the eight minutes from starvation? And some of these competitors.
20:06
Speaker 1: You're allowed to make yourself throw the food up afterward, right, Yeah,
20:10
Speaker 1: whatever you do after you after it's done, however you
20:13
Speaker 1: get rid of it, is okay. So that's straight up
20:16
Speaker 1: it is, and that's no one is encouraging that by
20:19
Speaker 1: any means. And it's dangerous. Some of these people too,
20:21
Speaker 1: when they train, they they'll drink like a gallon of
20:24
Speaker 1: water in a minute, and they try and do these
20:26
Speaker 1: things to expand your stomach. That's dangerous too. It is
20:29
Speaker 1: there's actually water intoxication, which can be fatal because it
20:33
Speaker 1: screws with the the dilution of electrolytes in your body,
20:38
Speaker 1: which is bad. That's bad news, dude. Right, and a
20:40
Speaker 1: woman died of fears back from water intoxication from a contest.
20:44
Speaker 1: I had heard that. Well, not only that, Um, you
20:46
Speaker 1: can actually get gastro pariasis, which is a stomach paralysis. Right,
20:52
Speaker 1: And basically, after your stomach is stretched out enough enough times,
20:57
Speaker 1: it will stop contracting and you won't evacuate your stomach
21:02
Speaker 1: to your small intestine any longer. Yeah, which is not
21:05
Speaker 1: good when that happens. Actually, yeah, so I don't know
21:07
Speaker 1: if you knew that. It's it's not good. The dark
21:09
Speaker 1: side of competitive eating. Uh, you know the people who
21:13
Speaker 1: endorse this or I'm gonna say that, they just have
21:16
Speaker 1: a lot of fun with it. And then it's a
21:17
Speaker 1: tradition and it's kind of a big joke. I know
21:19
Speaker 1: when you see it on TV, they look like they're
21:21
Speaker 1: taking it really seriously. Apparently that's all kind of part
21:24
Speaker 1: of the act and they all think it's kind of funny.
21:27
Speaker 1: But dude, twenty grand on the line. Yeah, there's some
21:30
Speaker 1: serious prose money for for Nathan's hot dogs. It's twenty
21:34
Speaker 1: dollar prize and the mustard Belt. So, um, that's a
21:38
Speaker 1: nice little chunk of change for stuff and down hot dogs. Plus. Also, um,
21:42
Speaker 1: I think the i fo c E does not endorse
21:46
Speaker 1: or support anybody practicing or training for it. But the
21:50
Speaker 1: gurigitators actually do train very hard. Actually, um, I think
21:57
Speaker 1: I was reading about an interview yeah with Joey chest
22:00
Speaker 1: U And dude, he drinks like a gallon of milk
22:03
Speaker 1: in a single sitting to expand his stomach. Um, he
22:08
Speaker 1: eats or no, actually goes several days without eating and
22:12
Speaker 1: just subsist some protein supplements, so his weight will very radically,
22:16
Speaker 1: like in the teens and in low twenties of pounds
22:20
Speaker 1: within you know, a couple of weeks, and then afterwards
22:24
Speaker 1: he gains a lot of it back, because if you
22:26
Speaker 1: eat eight pounds of food, you just gained eight pounds
22:29
Speaker 1: pal Until you pass it, it's there and your stomach
22:33
Speaker 1: is in big trouble. Yeah, I can't imagine. I hate
22:36
Speaker 1: feeling full. For god, that's like overweight. You would think
22:38
Speaker 1: that I'd just gorge myself, But dude, I hate feeling full.
22:42
Speaker 1: It's the worst stupid metaoism. Do you know why you
22:45
Speaker 1: feel full? Uh? Well, I know You've got a little
22:47
Speaker 1: science here. Try and legitimize this real. Um. So when
22:51
Speaker 1: you're hungry, uh, hormone produced in the stomach called growing
22:56
Speaker 1: sends a signal to your brain via the Vargas uh
23:01
Speaker 1: nerve I believe, um. And as you eat, a hormone
23:08
Speaker 1: produced from the same d n A on the same
23:10
Speaker 1: genetic code called opus staton kind of like obese that
23:17
Speaker 1: goes to your brain and says, hey, dude, stop eating. Well,
23:20
Speaker 1: apparently a physiologist who's studying this name is David Mets
23:24
Speaker 1: from the University of Pennsylvania. He has he can't say
23:28
Speaker 1: how they're doing it, but from studying a guy called
23:32
Speaker 1: eater X sexually, UM, he he's figured out that these
23:37
Speaker 1: people have figured out how to block the signal from
23:39
Speaker 1: their brain. Just highly dangerous a k. A. Kobayashi. It's
23:44
Speaker 1: probably not Kobayashi, but I bet he uses those techniques.
23:48
Speaker 1: I think they all do. They have to do. You
23:50
Speaker 1: have to expand your stomach. And actually, you noticed a
23:52
Speaker 1: lot of these people are very small. Uh. And there
23:55
Speaker 1: is a theory that kind of came about that said,
23:57
Speaker 1: the less fat you are, because you think, well, if
24:00
Speaker 1: you're a big bat guy, yeah, yeah, you're gonna be
24:02
Speaker 1: able to just gorge yourself. And there's smaller people like
24:05
Speaker 1: the black widow hundred pounds, right, Um, she can put
24:09
Speaker 1: it away like the red like the best of them.
24:12
Speaker 1: And they think that the reason why is because there's
24:14
Speaker 1: less resistance for the stomach to stretch. It's not pressing
24:17
Speaker 1: up against fat, which doesn't give as much as air.
24:20
Speaker 1: Sort of makes sense. Can I mention the paper that
24:22
Speaker 1: was written by Ed Cratchy, he's a uh, he's a
24:27
Speaker 1: competitive eater himself, and he were a paper called can
24:30
Speaker 1: Abdominal fat act as a restrictive agent on Stomach expansion?
24:34
Speaker 1: And Exploration of the impact of adipose tissue and competitive eating?
24:40
Speaker 1: So it sounds very intelligent. Unfortunately, the medical community rejected
24:45
Speaker 1: it and it refused to publish it and said go
24:47
Speaker 1: eat your hot dog's buddy and leave the medical journaling
24:50
Speaker 1: to us, right, But Popular Science had an article that
24:54
Speaker 1: supported it in two thousand three. That's the tree this
24:56
Speaker 1: this basically checks out true. So legitimate maybe, but not
24:59
Speaker 1: as far as a medical science is concerned. I do
25:02
Speaker 1: want to talk about one gross thing. Yeah, since it
25:05
Speaker 1: hasn't been gross at all. Old leg Or Zornitsky, he's
25:10
Speaker 1: he's very fashionable apparently he's known for his fashion sense.
25:14
Speaker 1: Ukrainian competitive eater. He this is the worst one to me,
25:17
Speaker 1: chicken wings. I love all that stuff brought worst. Give it,
25:20
Speaker 1: give it, give it up. He ate four thirty two
25:23
Speaker 1: ounce bowls of mayonnaise in eight minutes, and I love mayonnaise,
25:29
Speaker 1: and it makes me not want to eat mayonnaise. Four
25:32
Speaker 1: thirty two ounce bowls of mayonnaise. Can you imagine that? Man?
25:35
Speaker 1: Is definitely something that you should eat in moderation. Okay,
25:39
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling so good now. Did you mention the
25:41
Speaker 1: cow's brains? No, Kobayashi, Kobyashi, he holds the record for
25:45
Speaker 1: eating cow's brains, which was do you know how many? Yeah?
25:47
Speaker 1: I think it was like eighteen pounds of cows brains
25:50
Speaker 1: in fifteen minutes. It was I could not eat one
25:52
Speaker 1: ounce of cow's brain in a lifetime. So koby Ashi
25:56
Speaker 1: has me lick did that one? Especially not with this
25:58
Speaker 1: hoof and mouth thing that they've got going on. Seriously, So,
26:02
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about competitive eating, including
26:05
Speaker 1: Ed Grebanowski's um first person account of what and eating
26:09
Speaker 1: contest is like, you can type in competitive eating appropriately
26:13
Speaker 1: enough in the handy search bar how stuff works dot com?
26:16
Speaker 1: And since I just said handy search bar how stuff
26:18
Speaker 1: works dot Com, that means it's time. Thank god for
26:22
Speaker 1: listener mail. Josh, I'm just gonna call this, um, we
26:29
Speaker 1: are banned in classes? Yeah, I saw this one, you know. Yeah,
26:34
Speaker 1: this from Sarah, and Sarah says, I love the podcast,
26:36
Speaker 1: but I recently got a banned for my AP biology class.
26:39
Speaker 1: And did you take AP classes? You probably did, your
26:42
Speaker 1: smart guy. Really, I took AP English and AP history actually,
26:47
Speaker 1: but science not my thing. She is a senior in
26:50
Speaker 1: high school and for the past year she has spent
26:52
Speaker 1: every day in biology lab poking dead things and staring
26:56
Speaker 1: at cell walls in a microscope. You can imagine gets
26:59
Speaker 1: a little boring, even for a bio fanatic, ignoring the
27:03
Speaker 1: stinch of fetal pigs and memorizing the function of cell organelles.
27:07
Speaker 1: So during study hall, I would take out my iPod
27:09
Speaker 1: and listen to your podcast. Some of the subjects we
27:11
Speaker 1: would cover overlap with podcast episodes I just listened to,
27:14
Speaker 1: so I would mention what I had learned in essays
27:17
Speaker 1: or discussions and even on an AP exam using us. Anyway,
27:23
Speaker 1: my teacher discovered this. She was thrilled that I've been
27:25
Speaker 1: doing research out of class and she asked where I
27:28
Speaker 1: was learning all these odd but accurate facts. When I
27:31
Speaker 1: let her listen to the iPod, she called it a
27:33
Speaker 1: utensil for cheating or a tool of the devil, and
27:37
Speaker 1: subsequently banned it from our classroom. And I really think
27:39
Speaker 1: she was more upset about not being able to answer
27:41
Speaker 1: my questions about alien hand syndrome than she was about
27:44
Speaker 1: my listening to the podcast. But either way, thanks so
27:47
Speaker 1: much for helping me. As her essay questions, you guys
27:50
Speaker 1: are the best. For the record, I never used your
27:52
Speaker 1: podcasts as a utensive to cheating. All the best, Sarah, fantastic.
27:56
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