Binge eating, the video game
Posted at 6:00 PM Aug 04, 2008
By Bonnie Ruberg
As a "sport," competitive eating has always baffled me. It's not that it doesn't look hard. Fitting that many hot dogs into your digestive system in 15 minutes flat takes skill, I'm sure. It's just that, as a girl, I've always been taught to eat slowly, eat sparingly, and eat with lady-like modesty (legs crossed, pinkie in the air?). So the idea of being rewarded for shoveling down food: where was that the last time I found myself home alone with a box of Oreos?
Bizarrely enough, someone has gone and turned this binge sport into a video game, Major League Eating, for the Nintendo Wii. Featuring a number of "stars" from real-life eating events, the game lets you pretend to get in on the action by faux-shoveling your mouth full of food with your Wii-mote.
Grossly enough, the game incorporates burping, vomiting, and even stomach wiggling -- to make room for more food, of course. While there is one female character in Major League Eating, I can't for the life of me imagine a woman sitting down and playing this game at a party, the way lots of girls pick up Wii Sports. It's not that I'm squeamish about icky body humor, it's just that.. well, maybe that I'm squeamish about icky body humor.
Ooh, hey, next we could have Binging and Purging: the Game. Just insert your Wii-mote into your esophagus...
