大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Mukbang goes McBang: can you palette this Scottish attempt at the South Korean phenomenon of filming yourself eating?

Mukbang goes McBang: can you palette this Scottish attempt at the South Korean phenomenon of filming yourself eating?

20 July 2018

A quarter of the South Korean population live on their own, yet eating alone has, until recently, been a taboo in Korean society.

Their fast-paced lifestyles mean they often have little time to find a dining companion, so the next best thing has risen in popularity: watching videos of other people eating.

Mukbang – a portmanteu of the Korean words for ‘eating’ and ‘broadcast’ – is big business. Some of the more successful ‘Broadcast Jockeys’ (BJs) are able to earn hundreds of pounds an hour.

Banzz is one of them; millions of South Koreans watch him.

He claims his videos are “for people who are on diets or fitness programs who can watch me eat the food they can’t.”

His view is echoed by vlogger Kasper Lee: “A lot of people diet in Korea, so they watch [Mukbang videos] to satisfy their hunger.”

But feasting on such gargantuan meals for the entertainment of others comes at a cost: Banzz must exercise for up to 12 hours each day to burn off the calories he consumes making his videos.

Dazza from 大象传媒 The Social wanted to see if this South Korean phenomenon could translate itself into Scottish cuisine.

Dazza's First Mukbang!

Dazza eats some stuff. That's literally it...

A large proportion of Mukbang audiences are young women for whom the Broadcast Jockeys a source of advice and counsel.

BJ Lee Chang Hyun said, “Most of my audience are teenagers and women up to their 30s. I think they like to watch me because I sometimes act as their counsellor, listening to their grievences.”

Mukbang has also spawned a host of similar video styles. Another popular strand is students filming themselves while they study — another example of the demand for remote, web-based companionship in South Korea.