Bizarre, Sexy, Lethal

Let’s start with the last part—lethal. Earlier this year, after Filipino mukbanger Dongz Apatan died of stroke on June 14, the day after shooting another video doing what he loved and what he was good at, Philippine Health Secretary Dr Teodoro Herbosa briefly considered banning mukbang in the country.

“…you are promoting unhealthy behaviour to the Filipinos. So I can ban it locally. I can propose… banning mukbang locally. …

I can even ask the DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology] to stop those sites because it is basically food pornography. They are making people eat like gluttons.”

Dr Teodoro Herbosa, Philippine Department of Health Secretary

Soon enough, he realized that banning videos of people eating is actually not that simple if you live in a democratic society and not in a dictatorship like China (by the way, despite the ban, a Chinese mukbanger died while streaming just a few weeks ago .

Dr Herbosa then went on to suggest that mukbangers eat the so called Pinggang Pinoy (‘A Pinoy Plate’), a healthy food plate guide developed by the Philippine Food and Nutrition Research Institute. As if anyone would want to watch that.

But let’s talk about the word mukbang itself. Despite its brief history, by now it has been fully assimilated into the Tagalog language and has already undergone some interesting semantic changes—some obvious and others not so much.

Mukbang in Tagalog

Mukbang is a Korean word derived from moekda ‘eat’ and bangsong ‘broadcast’ referring to the genre of videos, especially live-streamed, of people eating food—usually ungodly amounts of it—while manifesting how much they are enjoying it—through facial expressions and sounds they make. Reportedly, it appeared around 2010 when people started streaming themselves while eating to fight loneliness, because eating is a social activity in SoKor—as South Korea is called in the Philippines (I guess in North Korea then, eating is a collective action). Since then, mukbang has taken over the world, and some people jumped at the opportunity to pick it up as a career, like the two mukbangers mentioned above who perished at work.

According to Google Ngram Viewer, the word mukbang started appearing in English books in 2012, and its occurrence has been on a steady rise ever since.

The same is likely true about Tagalog as well. Mukbang, just like anything related to the Korean wave, is highly popular in the Philippines. And sometimes, takes some unusual manifestations (as if mukbang by itself weren’t bizarre enough). Such as pagpag mukbang, with the mukbanger eating pagpag chicken—leftovers scavenged from garbage.

Or, this dude chowing down hollow blocks with some margarine on them, as well as soap, coals, live crabs, and muriatic acid (supposedly)—for the opportunity to earn additional $70 a month.

Pagpag and hollow blocks—how about ’em socio-economic realities, Dr Herbosa?

These days, Tagalog has a whole paradigm of forms derived from the root mukbang. First of all, it’s the verb. Just like nearly any other Tagalog verb, ‘to do mukbang’ can be used in a variety of different voice forms.

The actor voice form of the verb is derived with the prefixal complex mag-—magmukbang, like almost any other borrowed verb root in Tagalog. Nothing fancy or unexpected.

(1) Nagmukbang ng 6 na balut at 6 na energy drinks.
    ‘[A vlogger] did mukbang with 6 baluts and 6 energy drinks.’

As you can see from example (1), mukbang can be done not just with food but also with drinks.

There are two patient voice forms of the verb (without any difference in meaning, as far as I can tell): one with the suffix -in—mukbangin in example (2) —and another with the prefix i-—imukbang in example (3). In a very broad and not very technical definition, patient voice is when the object of the action is the subject of the sentence.

(2) …shuta ano ‘to mumukbangin ko?
   ‘…damn what’s this am I supposed to do mukbang with it?’

(3) Fried chicken ang imumukbang natin guys.
    ‘We are going to do mukbang with fried chicken, guys.’

And there is at least another voice form of this verb—instrumental, with the prefixal complex ipang-—ipangmukbang.

(4) PangParty ba?? PangBarkada… o kahit ipangMukbang mo lang.
    ‘For a party?? For a group of friends… or even just use it for  mukbang.’

Similarly to most other actor and patient voice verbs in Tagalog, mukbang also has the involuntary/abilitative forms derived with maka-/ma-:

(5) Lowcarb diet pero nakakapagmukbang.
    ‘On a low-carb diet but still able to do mukbang.’

Second, there is the noun mukbangan ‘a place of mukbang’ or ‘the action of mukbang’.

Third, there is the noun mukbang-mukbangan ‘not a genuine mukbang’.

And finally my favorite, the noun with the Spanish suffix -ero—mukbangero ‘mukbanger’. I mean, just look at this word—such a beauty.

Semantic Extension 1: Mukbang with No Video

The first semantic change that happened with mukbang in Tagalog (probably, not in the chronological sense, as I don’t have any evidence to support that) is mukbang without shooting any video or broadcast. That is, just eating—either copious amounts of food, or with great gusto. It doesn’t even have to be done by humans, like in the following example where neither the frogs, nor the humans make any online streams and only engage in eating a lot:

(6) Mga palaka na magmu-mukbang sa mga gamu-gamo, minukbang naman ng mga tao.
   ‘Frogs doing mukbang with moths end up getting mukbanged by humans.’

Another example of this sort:

(7) Sawa na minukbang ang isang buong kamibng, nakita sa Ilocos Sur.
    ‘A boa that devoured a whole goat seen in Ilocos Sur.’

More forms can be derived from mukbang in this reading, as the original mukbang in the sense of making an online stream hardly can be done accidentally—as in the case of mapamukbang in example (8)—and there is probably not much need to highlight the location where mukbang is happening—as in (ma)pagmukbangan in example (9).

(8) Hindi ako mahilig sa bagoong pero napamukbang ako dito. 
    ‘I am not really into shrimp paste, but I ended up eating a lot of it.’

(9) Meron bang mapagmumukbangan dito sa Sual?
    ‘Is there a place where one can eat a lot here in Sual?’

Semantic Extension 2: Mukbang with No Video and No Food

The second semantic extension, another step further away from the original meaning, is mukbang with no video streaming and even with no food, and not necessarily involving any eating per se, but rather some vigorous chewing—as the examples of this kind mostly involve dogs chewing something valuable:

(10) $4,000, ‘minukbang’ ng alagang aso.
     ‘$4,000, chewed up by a pet dog.’

In this case, the author is probably aware that this is an innovative use of the word, as manifested by the use of the quote marks around minukbang (although, quote marks are often used in the media for ’emphasis’). However, in other cases, it is not marked this way:

(11) Passport ni Kuya Kim, minukbang ng aso niya.
     ‘Kuya Kim’s passport was chewed up by his dog.’

Semantic Extension 3: Mukbang with an Opponent

Similar to the English phrase eat/have someone/something for lunch, your opponents can also be metaphorically devoured in Tagalog. There are numerous instances of the use of mukbang in this sense in social media posts on online gaming:

(12) Minukbang ni Karina mga kalaban.
     ‘Karina ate her opponents for lunch.’

(13) Miya minukbang si Wanwan.
     ‘Miya had Wanwan for lunch.’

I’ve found only one example that has nothing to do with online gaming but seems to be of the same sort. It is about Michelle Dee, the Philippine bet in the 2023 Miss Universe pageant, and how fluent she is in Spanish:

(14) Kabog si Dora, minukbang ang Spanish language!
     ‘Dora slayed, she had the Spanish language for lunch!’

If you’re wondering who’s Dora, apparently Michelle Dee has been nicknamed Dora Dee Explorer, as seen in the screenshot below:

Semantic Extension 4: Mukbang with a Lover

The verb ‘to eat’ in English and Tagalog is used as well to refer to a sexual activity. Same can be said about mukbang.

(15) Paulo Avelino ‘minukbang’ si Kim Chiu.
     'Paulo Avelino did ‘mukbang’ on Kim Chiu.'

Although, it is not what you probably could think of based on the example above. Mukbang here has nothing to do with oral sex, but rather just refers to passionate kissing.

(16) Woo Tae Kyung minukbang ni Noh Shin Woo.
     ‘Noh Shin Woo mukbanged Woo Tae Kyung.’

It is not a simple smack on the lips, but rather suck-face—the sort of kissing that involves a lot of sucking and slurping action (also referred to as higop ‘suck/sip/slurp’ in Tagalog these days).

And, in this meaning, mukbang can form a reciprocal verb—magmukbangan ‘to suck each other’s face’:

(17) Me: after magmukbangan nila Guwon at Sarang.
     ‘Me after Guwon and Sarang kissed.’

But of course, quite predictably, mukbang is also used in the sense of any sex act involving the mouth. Although, in this use, it appears that the object of the mukbang needs to be stated explicitly.

(18) Minukbang ni Mister ang dede ko kaya minukbang ko din burat nya.
     ‘My husband ate my tits, so I ate his dick in return.’

Mukbang entered the Tagalog language less than 15 years ago, but it has already been fully assimilated—as seen in the existence of a variety of derived forms—and undergone semantic change. Nowadays, in addition to the original meaning of shooting a mukbang video, it is used with a number of related meanings:

• ‘Eat a lot of food / with great gusto’
• ‘Chew something up’ (said of dogs)
• ‘Beat an opponent’ (=’eat something/someone for lunch’)
• ‘Kiss passionately’ (=’suck face’)
• ‘Do oral sex’

It remains to be seen if all these meanings will still be there in 10, 20, 30 years from now, or if they will soon disappear. This may happen if, say, the mukbang genre itself goes into decline—after all, it is relatively new, so there is no telling whether it will or won’t fall out of fashion. But what we can say for sure is that language change doesn’t take much time. It can happen in the bat of an eye. And ironically, mukbang in the Philippines—in a sense—is not a solo activity anymore.