The Hungry Todd Rungy Show!

Captain America never ate like this man.

Sometimes competitive eating
can make you want to throw up.

Now, stop and think for a minute:
There's an actual sport called
"competitive eating" on this planet.

You knew this.
You've heard about this.
You've seen some YouTubes, some TV shows.

In this world with so many people
dying from lack of sufficient food,
people literally starving to death …
… there's an increasingly popular
subsection of the professional sports realm
within more privileged populations,
where aspiring humans battle to see
who can eat the most food the fastest.

Can you deal with that at all?

Great, then let's not fuck around. Let's go with it.
Let's take this already ridiculous thing beyond Thunderdome, baby.

Hungry Todd Rungy isn't fucking around.
Hungry Todd Rungy is eating, and he's eating for America.

He's from right here in the ATX, he's been on the Cooking Channel's Eat St.,
he's broken the World Cupcake Speed-Eating Record (six in 58.9 seconds),
and he's a more or less official mascot/pimp/spokeseater for Torchy's Tacos.

(Spokeseater. So that's a word, now?
And can you do that sort of thing with your mouth full
and dripping half-masticated gobbets of whatever's edible?)

He's got a goal, this Rungy:
He wants to compete against reigning champion Joey Chestnut
in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island,
in the righteously hipster-riddled borough of Brooklyn,
in the Knickerbocker-ghosted megalopolis of New York City.

And he wants to do this for America? For freedom?

"USA!" says Hungry Todd Rungy.

He's been working toward this goal for a while now:
Training with a coach named Redbeard, who he found via Craigslist.
Eating just about everything he can get his mouth around.
Competing against anyone who dares challenge him,
or against that wiliest veteran of all: The ticking stopwatch.

Hungry Todd isn't alone in his quest.
Besides Coach Redbeard, he's got a cousin, his cousin Dick
~ "Richard Rungy," is the name on the man's GED certificate ~
who provides the relentless gastrojock with advice (dubious)
and support (moral) and beer (Lone Star).

(Gastrojock. So that's a word, now?
And can you do that sort of thing without busting a gut?
Not in laughter, but literally? With your stomach rupturing
and your innards flooded with bile and whatever you just swallowed?)

All of this is documented, naturally.

Rungy, a born-and-bred American who's never shy in the face of publicity,
who's already at least shaken hands with that Joey Chestnut
and the how-does-such-a-scrawny-guy-eat-like-that Kobayashi,
is also the subject of a 12-episode series directed by
Joshua Riehl (producer of Frontline's "Death by Fire").

Riehl intends to continue documenting Rungy's quest,
to follow the hungry hungry hip-bro all the way to the top,
if only funding will allow.

(Most recently? Kickstarter says YES.)

Maybe you want to follow the excitement, citizen?

Because there's little more thrilling than the contentious gobbling of food?
Because you're a fierce redwhite&blue patriot who believes in this great country of ours?
Because you know how funny excess can be when it's really excessive?

Yeah, we can see that.
Just … Jesus, bring along a few extra napkins, okay?

A moist towelette.

Something.