Mukbang

What is a mukbang?

Eating show

A mukbang (sometimes spelled meokbang) is an online broadcast in which a streamer eats food while talking with their audience. Mukbang is a Korean word (먹방) that is a portmanteau of the Korean words for eating (먹다) and broadcast (방송).

What is the origin of mukbang?

As you'd expect given the word's roots, the mukbang phenomenon started in South Korea. The first mukbangs appeared on Korean Internet TV service AfreecaTV in 2009. In those (very cheap to produce) shows, attractive hosts prepared and ate food while chatting with viewers in an online chat room.

Because mukbangs are easy to put on, streamers on Twitch, YouTube, and other streaming services quickly began broadcasting mukbangs of their own. On Twitch, mukbangs grew so popular that the company introduced a new video category, Social Eating, specifically to group mukbang channels.

Criticisms of mukbangs

In many mukbangs, streamers purposefully overeat or chew food and then spit it out. These wasteful eating practices have led some to criticize mukbangs for promoting gluttony and food waste.

Example

Sometimes I cook dinner then sit down with a mukbang, to make it feel like I'm having dinner with friends
Users also post mukbang videos to Twitter, IG, and other social media platforms
Users also post mukbang videos to Twitter, IG, and other social media platforms

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Updated February 3, 2022

Mukbang definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Mukbang" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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