PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!
Another sweet food, another win for Pat Bertoletti. The captain of the Hungry Hooligans put away 42 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in 10 minutes in Buena Park, CA yesterday. Tim Janus finished right behind him at 37.5.Pat won $1,500, Tim got $1,000 and I'm assuming Rich Lefevre took home $500 because the IFOCE website (the main one, not the other four) said total prize money was $3,000. Another payout to third place. What a surprise. Would it kill them to start paying out to fifth place? Seriously, would it? A little green backs for a table ender now and then? It worked in shoofly.
Does anyone know why the IFOCE won't do that? I do. (Actually I'm not quite sure, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.) In the meantime, enjoy this Family Guy clip. Yes, it's peanut butter jelly time.
posted by Dave S. at 7:58 AM
8 Comments:
I thought YOU were the captain of the Hooligans?!? Are you abdicating? IFOCE won't filter the money down any further because then the people who invariably win these things (the same top twelve eaters, in rotation) would get less money for winning. And then maybe they wouldn't show up. Which wouldn't be a bad thing for us table enders, now would it?
1:41 PM
I agree with what you are saying about the top eaters not showing up for less money, but I don't think that is a good reason not to widen the payouts. This sport is primarily a 10 minute distraction for whatever event is going on that sponsors pay for advertisement at. It really doesn't matter to them who is eating at the contest. They still pay for the "freak show" as many have referred to this sport as.
3:34 PM
I see myself as more of the manager of the Hooligans. Sort of like Joe Torre is manager of the Yankees and Derek Jeter is the Captain.
Good points about taking money out of the mouths of top-ranked eaters. That's sort of where I was leaning too. Not sure if cutting a few hundred off the top is going to make the big guys stop eating though.
The top ranked guys might not be happy when payouts slip from $2,500 to $2,000 (just so that measley $500 can be spread out to #4 and #5), but what are they going to do? Stop competing? I don't think so. But I don't think IFOCE wants to ruffle their feathers either.
I disagree with you a little bit Carey. I do believe crowds (and the media) recognize Joey Chestnut and other eaters and there's value in that to sponsors. There's only a handful of those types of eaters though. Hence the rewarding payouts.
10:30 PM
So then, you are saying that people showed up to the PB and J to see Bertoletti, or the rib eating contest to see Joey? No. I think not. Outside of family and friends, there were probably only three or four people who went to specifically see them. The rest are there anyways, and stopped by to see the "freak show" that was going to go on. I am going to keep using that term until everybody hates me. It is my new persona :)
9:05 AM
You're right, I think the value in the big names comes after the event (in media reports and word-of-mouth) and in the huge numbers they put up. The crowd is just there to see an eating contest or just happened to be walking by.
2:36 PM
Dave you mentioned about third place prize money in PB&J. I finished third in IFOCE events five times in my career and go zilch for it. zero!. The five contests were cheesecake, corned beef, pasta, watermelon, shoe fly pie. Regardless of whether it was the early days of the organization or the sponsors decided to pay out first place or no money at all, i think i was ripped off . On that note my heart cannot bleed for eaters that dont get a dime for finishing 4th 5th or beyond. On the ice cream blog , did you know breyers just came out with bubble gum flavor with bits of gum included?
11:21 AM
I saw the bubble gum ice cream. That sounds crazy. Turkey Hill has a "Party Cake" flavor that's pretty good too. It's really sweet and reminds me of the "Cake Batter" flavor from Maggie Moos.
7:59 PM
nothing beats WaWa's sticky cinnamon bun flavor. That stuff is goooooood!
3:33 PM
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