“Takeru Kobayashi has defended his title in the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July world hot-dog eating contest, but not without some controversy.
“The slightly built Kobayashi, who set a world record with 50 hot dogs eaten in 12 minutes a year ago, did himself a half-dog better this year with 50
Jeff, I saw this guy win last year’s competition on the Food Channel a couple of weeks ago. The former champ was also Japanese, and they did a retro on him and his training schedule. The guy weighed not much more than a 100 pounds, and he took on these three and four hundred pound monsters. Kobayashi was a complete unknown in the contest, but when it finally started the other Japanese kid, the highly favored champ, immediately fell behind the unknown (who also weighed like 120 pounds). You’ve never seen anybody cram stuff down their throat so fast! When the mustard finally settled, Kobayashi had eaten 50 dogs and buns – breaking the old record by <i>thirty</i>. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
That guy was right. The world is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we <i>can</i> imagine.
I’m teetering on the razor’s edge of puking just thinking about this. Ugh.
Mr. Kobayashi? Wasn’t he Keysor Soze’s assistant?
i’m agreeing with jen. i caught a glimpse of this “competitive eating” on Fox and I was immediately repulsed. Since I have a an iron constitution, I’m actually surprised how I recacted.
Just turn away. ugh.
Yep, I saw that on the Food Network too. Completely killed my appetite. The guy didn’t even chew, he took two dogs at a time and shoved them in, swallowing as he went, and then followed with the buns doubled up the same way.
Yuck.
Fortunately, last week I saw a show that featured Pink’s, down in LA. So I got my appetite for hot dogs back, just in time for the Fourth.
Creating a show around this event was one of the few blunders the Food Network has ever made. Usually I finish watching their programs feeling uplifted, inspired, and generally embiggened (not to mention hungry), but the hot dog eating contest left me feeling ensickened.
You have to wonder about the sanity of any “sport” that requires you to (1) eat cabbage for training and (2) dunk your hot dog buns in water before you cram them down your throat two at a time. Ugh and double-ugh.