The scene

In this chapter we explain how the seemingly mundane activity of everyday eating, whether alone or with others, at home or in public, can be transformed into spectacle. We open with an overview of what makes mukbang distinct from other food media, emphasising its aesthetics, temporality, and common plotlines that make eating more dramatic. We outline how different dramatic tropes, from conquering nature to creating nostalgia through the romanticisation of cooking, populate the medium. Mukbang generates and maintains multidirectional relationships between mukbangers, audiences, and foods that are constantly shifting. Using examples of different subgenres of mukbang, we tie together how settings – the scene – influence how mukbang is performed and in turn, how the form of performance shapes how we view and interact with foods as well as what we expect from them.