Thursday, January 15, 2009
You're insulting them and you're embarrassing me
This strip is based on a true story from October 2008, in which a 21-year-old Pennsylvania man ate a hamburger weighing in at 20.2 pounds... just to see if he could.
I have my doubts about gluttony being a healthy or valid source of pride.
Sure, it's amusing that these challenges exist, and it'd probably be an oddly entertaining spectacle to behold. But if a hungry person were standing there watching, would you still go through with it? Suppose you're aware that people are starving somewhere, but you can't see them and they can't see you? Should that make a difference? Regardless, it does. I'm definitely not saying we should stop enjoying occasional nice big meals. I just hope we all recognize what a silly luxury an all-you-can-eat buffet really is, and how lucky we are that eat-til-you're-sick is a joke to us while to others in the world it's just a sick joke.
Buzzkill.
Anyway, it's funny who these champion eaters turn out to be. Instead of some gigantic sumo-looking fatties, there's the slimly athletic Japanese guy who raced a giant bear at eating hot dogs, and in this case a burger-beater reminiscent of Casey Affleck. Or is that just me.
If you don't recognize the references in the second frame and the strip title, you need to catch up on the classics 
This strip also makes a subtle reference to One Laptop per Child, a program that aims to educate poor children worldwide.
