{"id":207,"date":"2011-11-10T01:38:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T01:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/?page_id=207"},"modified":"2011-11-14T22:57:07","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T22:57:07","slug":"epic-meal-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/november-15th-2011-issue\/opinion-and-humour\/epic-meal-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic Meal Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janine Borger<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have you ever been intrigued by something disgusting? You know that it\u2019s wrong, but you just can\u2019t look away? I know it has happened to me. I\u2019ve been hooked on a YouTube show for the past several days. It\u2019s a show you\u2019ve heard of: Epic Meal Time.<\/p>\n

For the few of you that have never heard of it, Epic Meal Time is a group of college guys who take the concept of the unhealthy diet to a whole new level. It\u2019s a horrible excuse for a cooking show. Ninety percent of the food is made up of, wrapped in, covered in, cooked in, and\/or flavoured with bacon. The other 10 percent consists of processed cheeses, pork, fries, fat, candy, and, of course, Jack Daniel\u2019s…<\/p>\n

I have but one question: why do people watch the crew of Epic Meal Time cook these gross \u201cmeals\u201d (the burger they made in one video had over 100,000 calories\u2014enough to last the average person 50 days)? Moreover, why do people stay to watch the same guys stuff their faces with the stuff afterward?<\/p>\n

My theories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Seeing this kind of food being eaten makes people feel better about their own diets. Imagine eating two burgers, a large side of fries, a huge Coke, and washing it all down with a Dairy Queen Blizzard. This isn\u2019t uncommon in today\u2019s society (I\u2019ve witnessed it too many times myself). The agony you suffer after such a meal can be alleviated with a simple click on your smartphone. Just watch the guys from Epic Meal Time (EMT) stuff their mouths full of grease and bacon! Comparatively, your junk food feast was a tiny snack. Suddenly, you\u2019re feeling great again.<\/li>\n
  2. People are bored. They have nothing better to do than to watch other people harm themselves by consuming garbage. Apparently, Epic Meal Time is wildly entertaining compared to doing something actually productive. People love to be entertained, especially by the grotesque. Watching shows like this satisfies our vicarious need for \u201ctrashtainment\u201d. Our love of trashy TV has even sustained the Jerry Springer Show into its twenty-first season, despite it having been named the \u201cWorst Show Ever\u201d by TV Guide.<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. There are people out there sick enough to actually eat the things Epic Meal Time cooks. \u00a0I don\u2019t have an explanation for this one.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0Check out Epic Meal Time\u2019s channel on YouTube. It is solidly entertaining for about three videos, at which point I start to think, \u201cIsn\u2019t there something better <\/em>I could be doing right now?\u201d There is a huge list of things I could be doing, the first of which is to watch the other <\/em>new YouTube show I\u2019ve just heard of\u2026<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Janine Borger   Have you ever been intrigued by something disgusting? You know that it\u2019s wrong, but you just can\u2019t look away? I know it has happened to me. I\u2019ve been hooked on a YouTube show for the past several … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":43,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-207","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406,"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207\/revisions\/406"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graffiti.ntci.on.ca\/2011-12\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}