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Arts and Culture

Everything Wrong With America on Display at Hot Dog Contest

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Posted on Jul 5, 2010
Flickr / audrey_sel (CC-BY-SA)

Competitive eating (aka food contests) is enough of a cultural phenomenon that the annual Nathan’s hot dog chokedown is broadcast on ESPN. This weekend Joey Chestnut took the honors, but his greatest threat (and some would argue the “sport’s” true champion), Japanese phenom Takeru Kobayashi, was barred from participating.

We don’t normally busy ourselves with this kind of lowbrow entertainment, but something foul is at work here and it deserves a moment of derision.

You see, something called Major League Eating wouldn’t let the great Kobayashi participate unless he agreed to sign a contract forcing him to eat exclusively for the “league.” Kobayashi refused, but showed up anyway. He was arrested while attempting to take the stage—even though he had the good manners to wait until the contest was over and the crowd was chanting “Let him eat!”

Is this really the message America needs to be sending on our national birthday? Not only do we eat competitively, but monopolistically, and we arrest anyone who gets in the way.

Happy birthday, America. Live fat or die.  —PZS

The Guardian:

A former hotdog-eating champion has been arrested after trying to crash the stage of the annual event in Coney Island, New York.

Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, of Japan, was in jail yesterday after the 4 July contest.

Earlier in the day, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate his way to a fourth consecutive championship. But he was upstaged by the appearance of his biggest rival, Kobayashi, who crashed the eating platform after Chestnut’s win and wrestled with police.

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By SGater, July 20, 2010 at 8:41 am Link to this comment

Pathetic!

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By Inherit The Wind, July 11, 2010 at 5:33 am Link to this comment

PatrickHenry, July 10 at 11:20 pm #

Inherit, and my favorite definition.

“In modern usage, Uncyclopedia is essentially a web enabled vomitorium. People gather in order to spew their worst ideas out upon the internet, and the admins take on the role of those who are puked upon and have to clean everything up”.
********************************

I think I may make that my favorite too!

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By PatrickHenry, July 10, 2010 at 7:20 pm Link to this comment

Inherit, and my favorite definition.

“In modern usage, Uncyclopedia is essentially a web enabled vomitorium. People gather in order to spew their worst ideas out upon the internet, and the admins take on the role of those who are puked upon and have to clean everything up”.

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By Inherit The Wind, July 10, 2010 at 7:07 pm Link to this comment

PatrickHenry, July 10 at 3:07 pm #

Inherit, I concur.

Sport overeating is nothing new. The Romans were first noted for building “vomitoriums.”

LOL!

(Actually, “vomitoriums” is a misnomer.  It actually refers the the special entrance halls under theaters through which actors were “vomited” onto the stage.  To this day, those kinds of halls in theaters are referred to as “voms”)

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moonraven's avatar

By moonraven, July 10, 2010 at 11:56 am Link to this comment

Right patrick patriot:  Precisely who died and made YOU The Decider?!

That’s all we needed—a megalomaniac loose on the thread like a rabid squirrel.

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By PatrickHenry, July 10, 2010 at 11:42 am Link to this comment

When the cholas take over the world, you are free to round up the gringo, Al Qaeda and any other non-indio (give the mixed race indios a pass) hot dog eaters and send them to Guantanamo once you give it back to Fidel.

Until then wish away.

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By moonraven, July 10, 2010 at 11:30 am Link to this comment

Al Qaeda?

Al Qaeda is neither a person nor an ethnic group.

Duh.

Besides, Al Qaeda was a creation of the CIA—could be anybody.

Even this poster.

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By PatrickHenry, July 10, 2010 at 11:26 am Link to this comment

Kobayashi doesn’t look like a gringo to me.  He looks like Al Qaeda, surrounded by security.

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By moonraven, July 10, 2010 at 11:10 am Link to this comment

PH:

Of course the Roman Empire is the one you live in, right?

Good model for the flushing of the gringos.  Right along with their vomit.

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By PatrickHenry, July 10, 2010 at 11:07 am Link to this comment

Inherit, I concur.

Sport overeating is nothing new. The Romans were first noted for building “vomitoriums.”

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By Inherit The Wind, July 8, 2010 at 9:22 pm Link to this comment

PatrickHenry, July 8 at 9:13 pm #

Just like bullfighting, a cultural phenomena where those outside that culture tend to cringe.

Genocide and slavery? Apartheid?  WTF does that have to do with Hot Dogs?

You got the Gump part right.
********************************

PH: Do you find Gump as annoying as I do? 

So a bunch of yahoos want to stuff their faces with hot dogs and another bunch of yahoos wants to watch.  I’m betting that watching is a helluva lot smarter than participating, but Hey! WHY is this anybody else’s business?

I’m convinced that 75% of the world’s troubles are caused by people thinking they have a right to tell others how to live their lives.  The other 25% are caused by those who don’t give a shit who they shit all over (Ex: BP).

But whether or not we should have hot dog eating contests is NOT what I consider the Great Moral Issue of the day.

(and they didn’t even show some guy puking up 25 or 30 weiners who didn’t know when to stop.  At least THAT might have given it some class! )

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By PatrickHenry, July 8, 2010 at 5:13 pm Link to this comment

Just like bullfighting, a cultural phenomena where those outside that culture tend to cringe.

Genocide and slavery? Apartheid?  WTF does that have to do with Hot Dogs?

You got the Gump part right.

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By moonraven, July 8, 2010 at 12:46 pm Link to this comment

RAE:

They SHOULD feel inferior—like the scum of the earth should feel inferior.

After all, their rogue state was founded on genocide and slavery—both of which they still support actively with their system of aopartheid reservations and their sweatshops and nightclubs with “workers” supplied by white slavers and polleros.

Inferior is as inferior does.

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By RAE, July 8, 2010 at 12:39 pm Link to this comment

“So what if a bunch of morons want to try to be the one who can eat the most hot dogs on the Fourth of July?

It’s just a publicity stunt for N*****’s F*****”

(Sorry… I will not give any added publicity to such a low brow company).

Of COURSE it’s just a publicity stunt… if you look closely almost EVERYTHING an American does in public is linked in some way to the phrase… ‘LOOK AT ME!’

That’s why all the armament… the militarism… the bravado & vigilante attitude… the “Bombs Bursting In Air” mentality…

IT’S ALL A COVER UP FOR A 300-MILLION-PERSON STRONG INFERIORITY COMPLEX.

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By moonraven, July 8, 2010 at 11:34 am Link to this comment

The problem, as I see it, is those morons are the majority—and the are not silent.

But it’s true that they really do not give a shit about anything.

That’s why they are so destructive.

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By Inherit The Wind, July 7, 2010 at 8:24 pm Link to this comment

Why does anybody give a shit about this?

So what if a bunch of morons want to try to be the one who can eat the most hot dogs on the Fourth of July?

It’s just a publicity stunt for Nathan’s Famous. 

Nobody twists anybody’s arm to get them to participate, nobody twists anybody’s arm to force them to watch.  Change the channel, press the “off” button.

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By moonraven, July 7, 2010 at 3:28 pm Link to this comment

The founding fathers were genocidal slaveowners—so let’s not wax lyrical about their nobility being perverted, eh?

USA and Canada OUT of North America NOW!

Pack up your hot dogs and “git”.

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By RAE, July 7, 2010 at 3:13 pm Link to this comment

“But according to the neo-cons the World hates us for our freedoms.”

No, poonckie, not for your “freedoms.”

The world hates you for what you DO with your freedoms. How you treat them as situational variables - invoke or deny them when it suits the political and/or financial goals of the day.

I believe the founding fathers incorporated those freedoms on the belief and expectation that Americans would use them as they SHOULD. They thought that by including them in the Constitution they would be held sacrosanct.

They sure didn’t count on the hubris, cunning and outright dishonestly, born of greed, that is now a systemic and chronic infection of America.

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By PatrickHenry, July 7, 2010 at 2:39 pm Link to this comment

What’s next, an Olympic event?

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By poonckie, July 7, 2010 at 2:34 pm Link to this comment

Gluttony and Greed are as American as apple pie. We use more oil and produce more pollution, spend more on military and war and we eat and waste more food than any other country. We produce more garbage. We are the fattest country in the World. But according to the neo-cons the World hates us for our freedoms.

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By diman, July 7, 2010 at 12:19 pm Link to this comment

Fuck Kobayashi and all these mindless assholes who participate in such an embarassing activity. Where does this country take its values from? Thousands are starving around the world while these repulsive morons stuff their mouths with hotdogs and by the way fuck the organizers and the sponsors of such an activity. Fuck them and shame on them!

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By RAE, July 7, 2010 at 5:10 am Link to this comment

I’ll bet those millions in many parts of the world who stand in line for a handful of grain just to survive another day would be greatly “entertained” by this disgusting spectacle.

As the author and title suggests… you don’t have to look far or deep to uncover the really, really IDIOTIC side of America. This is SO embarrassing!

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By moonraven, July 6, 2010 at 5:08 pm Link to this comment

Makes me want to puke.

But then, I am not an obese gringo.

Maybe they should make a calendar with swimsuit glossies of the winners and runner-up?

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By PatrickHenry, July 6, 2010 at 2:38 pm Link to this comment

I wonder if the spectators and contestants had to take off their shoes and pass through the X-ray detectors.  (Another source of cancer)

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By Peter Knopfler, July 6, 2010 at 11:08 am Link to this comment

You are what you eat, including the BUN!
Your not only what you eat but what is eating you.
Please search through the net and find out what is
really in those dogs, salchichas, soon to come from
CHINA, where it rains cats and dogs.Food safety
alert. All eating contests are shamefull, when so
many are not eating at all. Butt extreme is American
and Ugly is a condition, remote control replaced
movement, obesity replaced outdoor fun. Virtual
reality, so one can fantasize 100 dogs down the hatch
and out the rear door colon cancer moves swiftly,
that too is our collective future. Cancer loves fat!

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By Sarcasticanuck, July 6, 2010 at 10:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Obviously Kobayashi is a culinary terrorist.He should be sent to Guantanamo and starved until he repents.Then he should beg the nation for forgiveness on Oprah and given American citizenship before next years contest.Bravo America,oh,and God Bless you too…..

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By Xdepcomish, July 6, 2010 at 9:54 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I fail to see what is wrong with a public restaurant [Nathan’s] staging a festival
[Hot Dog Eating Contest] in search of widespread TV publicity. Requiring
participants competing for a $20,000 cash prize to follow entry rules, which
include union membership, does not strike me as unreasonable.

Past-champion Kobayashi was free to decline the contest, so why allow him to
trespass on the main stage because he is a “celebrity?” Can just anyone walk on
stage in NYC, or is reasonable security permitted at the event?

Whether or not hotdog eating promotes gluttony is a matter of “acting in good
taste.” No one who eats 50 or 60 hot dogs at one sitting would be considered
someone of refined tastes. Sure it’s garish and loud and over the top, but so are
July 4th fireworks and chugging a case of beer because it’s a public holiday!

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By Skinny Dog, July 6, 2010 at 1:24 am Link to this comment

Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. So much for being a Christian nation,
huh?

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By Hammond Eggs, July 5, 2010 at 11:41 pm Link to this comment

Hot dog eating will be an Olympic sport within a generation. But Americans will not win a medal. 

Gladitorial sports, in which people kill each other in the arena, will be legal (upheld by the Supreme Court) in the United States within two generations. The television audience for lethal blood sports will dwarf anything ever televised before, including the Olympic Games and the World Cup.  This will happen because of the amount of money potentially involved. Although many nations will object to having these games broadcast in their own nations, the aforementioned amounts of money will easily override any such objections.

“Are you not entertained?”

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