EAT LIKE SNAKE

There's been a lot of speculation on Eat Feats and some Asian blogs about Kobayashi's participation in the upcoming Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Competition on Coney Island. Some say the Tsunami is taking a sabbatical following the March death of his mother. Others think Joey's obliteration of Koby's world hot dog record has made the six time champ nervous and on the verge of sitting this July 4th out. That's right, for the first time this century, Takeru Kobayashi might not be kicking ass and taking names on the corner of Surf and Stillwell. (ABC News article here)

I'm actually very afraid of that scenario. Not so much for my own entertainment reasons. I'm intimately familiar with all the eaters, so I know that I personally would still enjoy the show, but 99.9 percent of the American populous only knows competitive eating through Kobayashi. Without him, well, who knows. It'd be like that first Van Halen concert without David Lee Roth. Or showing up for a Bulls game in 1993 after Michael Jordan's first retirement. Both shows sucked at first, and sure, they bounced back (both would regain their front men only to lose them again), but the fans were less than enthusiastic during those periods.

Speaking of Asian speed eating, this video is hilarious. It's the work of Burger King's U.S. ad shop, Crispin Porter Bogusky, an agency known for pushing the comedic boundaries of advertising (you may remember their BK office lunch break gang spots and, of course, breathing new life into the now infamously creepy King).