We reached out to Matt Zion, the creator of Wreckless Eating, to hear about the journey of the account, and he told us the Facebook page is a relatively recent addition. "I've done a YouTube version of this for over a decade, so it was a natural extension," Matt said. He also added that it's "fun seeing people enjoy the content". Next we wanted to know what the best and worst things he's ever tried for Wreckless Eating were. According the Matt, the "best was probably deep dish pizza while in Chicago", and the worst was surströmming. If you're not familiar, surströmming is an "infamous Swedish delicacy made of fermented Baltic sea herring" that is notorious for being one of the smelliest foods in the world.
Lastly, we asked Matt what the best part about doing Wreckless Eating is. "It's cool making a living doing something you enjoy," he told Bored Panda. "That's my favorite part. Overall, when you're your own boss and can make it all work that's a win."
Our fascination with extreme and bizarre food challenges is nothing new. Wreckless Eating’s Youtube channel has been around for 11 years, originally posting videos like “5lb King Burrito Challenge”, “6lb OMG Burger Challenge” and “6lb Godzilla Roll Challenge”. 2012 was also the peak of the “cinnamon challenge” on Youtube, where thousands of participants filmed themselves attempting to eat a spoonful of cinnamon in less than 60 seconds without drinking anything. While this challenge was known to induce vomiting, throat irritation, coughing and gagging, as well as pose a risk of pneumonia or a collapsed lung, it spread like wildfire across the internet.
Other food challenges popular online around the same time were the banana Sprite challenge, which included quickly eating two bananas then chugging Sprite; the gallon challenge, which included attempting to chug a gallon of milk; and the saltine challenge, which included eating six saltine crackers within 60 seconds without drinking anything.
These types of food challenge videos weren’t just a passing fad. They’re still popular online, they’ve just adapted over time. More recently, the 10,000 calorie challenge has trended, featuring videos of Youtubers attempting to eat at least 10,000 calories in one day. Though the participants are often complaining about how painful the challenge is and how sick they feel throughout the entire video, they refuse to give up. Other food challenges on Youtube include less painful endeavors like “Only Eating Blue Foods for 24 Hours” or “Eating All Of The Food From The Movie Encanto”. Some Youtube channels even feature videos of creators trying every item on the menu at various food chains in one sitting.
We tend to be obsessed with interesting food combinations as well. You never know what combo will end up being your cup of tea! But a common trend is mixing popular snack foods with fast food menu items. Bryan Lufkin wrote an article for Worklife examining the “bizarre rise of fast food fused with snack foods” including the Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell, the Cheez-It calzone from Pizza Hut, and the KFC sandwich stuffed with Cheetos. While these combinations may sound ridiculous at first, there is a comforting level of familiarity in them, according to Adam Chandler. “All of these bizarro crossover and mash-up items might sound a bit dystopian, but for fast food chains, there are few things more effective than new products that are both somehow familiar and new at the same time.”
These crazy, often limited-time only fast food offers are a way for businesses to get customers in the door. If there’s always something new to try, patrons need to come get it now before it’s gone! The internet, particularly through Instagram and Youtube reviews, is also a great way for these products to go viral. One of the most successful snack slash fast food combinations of all time is the Doritos Locos Taco. Taco Bell sold more than a billion of these babies after their initial launch in 2012, requiring the chain to hire about 15,000 additional employees to keep up with the demand.
"The idea sounds really simple, but it has to deliver on two fronts: the classic Taco Bell taste and the distinctive Doritos experience," Taco Bell product developer Steven Gomez told Business Insider. "Unlike a tortilla chip, taco shells can't break, and have to properly hold the taco ingredients."
The Doritos Locos Taco sparked an era of these interesting food combinations and has been featured in at least 5 Wreckless Eating videos over the past 10 years. The idea for the menu item came from a Facebook page that went viral titled “Taco Shells Made From Doritos Movement”. Taco Bell even flew the creator of the Facebook movement out to a test kitchen in 2012 to try the product for the first time. This famous collaboration also did wonders in turning around Taco Bell’s reputation. The Mexican fast food chain was struggling before the release of the Doritos Locos Taco, but the launch of their most popular product of all time came just when they needed it.
Food channels have long been popular on Youtube. From eating shows like mukbangs, a Korean word meaning a video that features a person eating a large quantity of food and addressing the audience, to cooking challenges like “Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies Without a Recipe”, audiences are hungry for delicious content. Aside from Wreckless Eating, some other popular food-based channels are Furious Pete, who holds various Guinness World Records for eating stunts including the fastest time to eat 15 Ferrero Rochers and a whole 12-inch pizza, and Matt Stonie, who has eaten over 60 pizza rolls in one minute and 25 Big Macs in one sitting.
Have you ever been to a restaurant that advertises the chance to win a free meal if you can eat a massive plate of nachos within 30 minutes, for example? While the incentive for a free meal or your photo on the wall may be tempting, the guarantee of a stomach ache turns off most customers from these challenges. But to understand why restaurant owners would want to host these dares, FoodChallenges.com blog wrote a piece breaking down the purpose of them. One reason is definitely for the publicity. Customers are likely to share photos of the menu items on Instagram or detail their experience on Facebook and review sites like Yelp. The challenge menu item is also often something symbolic of the restaurant, embodying the theme or attitude of the establishment. Plus, food challenges are a fun hobby for some eaters, who will go out of their way to find as many as they can around the country.
Even more intense than the food challenges at restaurants is the sport of competitive eating. While the sport has been around to varying degrees for centuries, the world’s most famous eating competition, Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, began in 1916. This competition has since been held on every 4th of July for over 100 years. But if you’re interested in something other than hot dogs, have no fear. The US is also home to pie eating contests, pizza eating contests, pasta eating contests and more. At the moment, the top competitive eater in the world is Joey Chestnut, who has received 43 world records and once impressively demolished 182 chicken wings in 30 minutes flat.
