McDonald's Mukbangs Are The Cringey Yet Satisfying Trend Taking Over TikTok

People have consumed vast quantities of food in single sittings from time immemorial, whether as part of hedonistic ancient Roman feasts or at competitive eating contests for cash prizes across America. The genre of mukbang, though, is a relatively new invention in comparison — first appearing online around the early 2010s in South Korea. In fact, the term "mukbang" itself comes from Korean — it is a portmanteau of the words "meokbang" (eating), and "bangsong" (broadcast). Mukbang videos arguably first achieved international attention on YouTube, and involve creators filming themselves eating as much food as possible in a short amount of time. Usually, but not always, these videos focus on specific fast food chains or restaurants — and their influence can be seen across the wider genre of fast food YouTube content like The Try Guys' "Eat the Menu", and Insider's "Food Wars" series.

Of course, TikTok is also a natural home for mukbangs and mass-eating videos, and one chain, in particular, has taken over our feeds recently. Searches for Mcdonald's mukbangs have amassed over 127.7 million views on the app, where videos typically involve creators consuming cheeseburgers, McNuggets, Big Macs, and other fast food favorites in front of the camera. Some creators, like @ggflavor (who has 4.3 million likes across her videos), film daily mukbang content, many of which involve items from Mcdonald's — further tying the trend in with other popular food trends on the app, like "What I eat in a day" style videos.