Nikocado Avocado–the mukbang Youtuber clocking in at over 400lbs–is interested in neither weight loss nor body positivity. Instead, the ex-violinist practices self-deprecation and online humiliation. One could very much classify all six of the Youtuber’s channels as a form of publicized self-harm. The sight is not pretty. And it’s not meant to be.
Nikocado Avocado, otherwise known as Nicholas Perry, began his online career as a vegan Youtuber. Once a fruitarian (a person who only eats fruit), he transitioned into making mukbang videos in 2016 after severely restricting his diet for years. In a video titled “*BIG BITES* Flamin’ Hot *SPICY CHEETOS* Cheesy Puffs Instant Ramen Noodles *SOFT SPOKEN* MUKBANG”–one of Perry’s most-viewed–he states that he “ran straight towards the junk” after several years of experimenting with vegan diets that left him underweight and without several key nutrients.
Initially restrained and soft-spoken on camera, today a typical Nikocado Avocado video consists of gaffs such as farts, burps, and open-mouth chewing. What makes Perry’s content unique compared to other mukbangers is the mostly unedited one-hour footage of him rolling his eyes back in pleasure, the off-camera fatphobic insults from his partner, and special melodies such as “I love cheese” that he sings whenever gorging copious amounts of the dairy product.
Watch enough videos–which are posted daily–and you will quickly get the hang of the pacing and routine offensive jokes. The swearing, yelling, crying, and screaming fits that ensue after any minor inconvenience Perry encounters, like cheese sauce falling off his burger, eventually diminishes in shock value and quickly turns tiring. It is truly a special, graphic experience that is never not rough around the edges. Oftentimes, it’s simply annoying, but all the same, epitomizes the slow degradation of Perry’s mental health.
Over the course of his transition to Mukbang Youtube, Nick’s on-screen personality has morphed from sweet to sour, as the energy of his videos is tainted by episodes of aggression and chaos. A once calm demeanor was slowly replaced by misplaced rage alongside a gradual and very public weight gain–more than 250 pounds to be exact. Watch an Avocado video, and you will likely leave feeling if not concerned for Nick himself, drained by the emotional masochism which he both puts himself through and endures.
It only takes one or two videos to understand that Perry is actively engaging in a form of self-harm every time he turns on the camera. For the last 6 years, he has recorded himself eating substantial amounts of fast food every day. The tragedy not only resides in Nick’s declining health, (and this exists outside of the weight gain–Nick confirmed recently that he has Type 2 diabetes and frequently jokes about having a heart attack) but also in the clear incentives which have led him towards this mode of self-destruction; thumbnails with platters of food from Five Guys get a lot more clicks and make a lot more money than mukbangs with greens and smoothies.
Most people would consider Perry’s content disgusting by some measure, whether it be physically, morally, or both. Fatphobia is rampant on the internet and often runs parallel with weight loss propaganda. Roam through any of his comment sections from the last two years and you will find them littered with people thanking Perry for his diligent upload schedule as they use him for their daily workout inspiration. And if not to throw peanuts, his genuine supporters are there to laugh alongside the often classist and transphobic jokes Perry makes.
This cultivates a unique dynamic I have yet to see elsewhere online, where an audience is both enthralled by and partakes in the destruction of a Youtube creator. Neither Perry himself nor a significant portion of his viewers are great people, as the apathy he has towards his physical health leads to projections of his insecurities onto other people, meanwhile, it gives fatphobes permission to be utterly dehumanizing to himself as well as others.
The algorithm is not solely to blame for Perry’s food addiction, but it plays a role nonetheless. To be deep in the throes of a mental illness, yet to know that that illness is what is paying your rent, is not a predicament to take humor in. What we, the viewer, are witnessing when we tune into a Nikocado Avocado video is not a quick hour of lighthearted laughs and giggles but a person incapable of climbing out the hole which they dug; it is the documentation of a helpless person crying for help.
