Web Video / Wreckless Eating

"Watch a bunch of friends eat weird stuff!"

—Wreckless Eating's YouTube Channel

Wreckless Eating is a channel on YouTube that was started in 2010. The host and creator of the show is Matt Zion, but the star of the channel is a guy by the name of Chris Wreckless. However, lots of his friends also get involved in the various shows that appear on the channel.

The primary show, Wreckless Eating, showcases Matt, Chris and several of their friends, such as A 3 K, Jeff Fu, Chuck Roland, Deathtoll, A-Roc, Hobo Brown, Sean, Havik trying weird food items.

Wreckless Eating Challenge shows the crew trying (and often failing) to top competitive eaters at weird tasks.

WE Shorts samples new or foreign food items.

CarBS (pronounced like "carbs") shows one of the guys, usually Matt, trying out a food item in his car (usually fast food items, but not always).

UpChuck Ketchup and Peanut Better? are the same concept: Will ketchup or peanut butter (respectively) make a food item better? As suggested by the title, Chuck usually leads the former.

Alcoholics Hippopotamus and Wreckless Vineyards are alcohol-centric shows.

Soduh is about weird soft drinks.

Is It Expired? demonstrates what happens if you eat food that is expired.

Russian Roulette features the WE crew eating the same food, with one of them getting slipped an unpleasant surprise.

Nuke It samples frozen and other microwave-centric foods, starring "Old Man Tom".

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This video series provides examples of:

• Abstract Scale: Food items are typically rated on a five-point scale, with 1 being "barely suitable for sustenance during a zombie apocalypse" and 5 being "something worth going out of your way for". Matt adds a seal of approval for his absolute favorites. There's also the "F-U" (not worth it even for survival, but maybe to get a cheap vomit alert), and "5 out of 5 F-U's" (we are never touching this s*** again).
• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Frequently used as a Running Gag when Matt attempts to pronounce the names of foreign foods. Matt often does know how to pronounce the name correctly but does this anyway for Rule of Funny,
• Arch-Enemy: The group really don't like "Fermented Bean Curd Chunk (stinky tofu)", "fish sauce" or "salty licorice", so naturally people send them different types of them all the time. To their credit, they will often still eat them.
  • French toast puree will make Chuck throw up faster than you can say "French toast puree".
• Aside Glance: Rudy does this during the "Mad Dog 357 Plutonium" episode when Matt and Chris start talking about their experiences in the aftermath of their Sugarless Gummy Bears challenge.
• Big Eater
• Bizarre Taste in Food
  • Perfect example would be the can of French Toast Puree. In "Don't Do That Chris", it made Chuck instantly throw up due to its weird texture, while Chris loved it. Chuch gave it an F-U, while Chris gave it a positive 4 out of 5. They re-visited it in "Up-Chuck Ketchup", eating it with ketchup, and Chuck threw up even faster. Chuck gave it 5 out of 5 F-U's, while Chris lowered his rating to a 3 out of 5.
• Black-Hole Belly
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce
• Bragging Rights Reward
• Butt-Monkey: All of them are Butt Monkeys at some point or another, but A3k gets a special mention as his tendency to vomit and bow out quicker than the rest make him a subject of (playful) derision among his friends.
• Catchphrase:
  "Oh God." - Matt Zion says this instinctively when he tries something he doesn't like, combined with contorted faces.
  "There it is." - When somebody throws up.
  "And if you really believed that's our main event, then you're completely wrong." - Whenever Matt has decided to hide the main event item for whatever reason, normally to annoy Chris.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Chris Wreckless
• Contagious Laughter: Once Matt Zion and/or Chris Wreckless begin their high-pitch maniacal laughter, others in the video (as well as the video viewers) may begin laughing uncontrollably as well.
  • Matt always laughs the second A 3 K throws up or almost does so. This is because A 3 K has a really weak gag reflex and has been known to throw up just when the name of a food is mentioned.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef
• The Determinator
• The Ditz / Fat Idiot: Chris Wreckless
• Drinking Contest
• Eating Contest
• Eat That
• Extreme Omnivore: All of them to varying degrees, but A-Roc and Naader(see below) are notable for being the ONLY persons in the Wreckless Eating cast who could keep down the virtually-inedible Surströmming, Nadder downing the foul-smelling fermented fish in a single gulp while A-Roc actually chewed it several times before gulping it.
  Naader: "That is the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life."
  • A-Roc is also the only cast member who was able to swallow the beef bile without vomiting.
• Fat Best Friend: Chris Wreckless is Type C to Matt Zion and the rest of the Wreckless cast.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: Out of all the weird and gross things team Wreckless has eaten, there has only been one "food" that sent a member to the hospital. And that was when Deathtoll ate cat food in a sandwich.
  • From another episode, the Limestone Paste With Turmeric actually gave the cast burns on their tongues due to its acidity.
• Foreign Queasine
• Four-Point Scale: Averted. None of the cast members have any problem giving vile foods an "F-You" or "Five F-Yous" to exceptionally vile foods.
• Hidden Depths: In stark contrast to anything food related, A 3 K can really hold his liquor and frequently he and Matt will be the last two standing in any alcohol based challenge.
• It Tastes Like Feet: This is the reaction to many of the gross foods tried. Among the descriptions given include "it tastes like my grandma" and "it smells like my dog."
• Kayfabe: Considering their notable interest in Professional Wrestling (and being former backyard wrestlers), a lot of the more "out there" things mentioned about the cast's personal lives might be this. Chris for instance seems intent on acting racist in their videos, despite not being so in real life. As of Jan. 30, 2014, they are subscribed to a channel called "Drowning in Kayfabe."

  • Matt Zion really does have one testicle due to cancer - it's mentioned in an episode of Random Ramblings, and discussed at length in its own video. This happened a few years after the show had been going.

• Laughing Mad: Chris Wreckless, who is also quite uncomfortable from drinking a large quantity of milk, breaks into uncontrollable high pitch laughter once A3K begins vomiting violently during the Gallon Milk Challenge (violent vomiting begins at 10:27 mark).
• Masochist's Meal
• Mess on a Plate: Some of the weird foreign foods look like this once removed from their containers. And the Skank concoctions will always look like this.
• Neat Freak: Guest host LA Beast will always clean up his messes he makes and won't accept any help, according to Matt.
• Older Than They Look: Chuck Roland is four years older than the other main cast, but doesn't look it. The running joke about him is his age, the cast once joked that he is 55. He isn't, but it managed to fool some people.
• Once an Episode: Every main show the various food items will include a hot sauce of the highest scoville rating they can find. Typically they will have to order these online from small companies which he makes sure to give a link to, helping them get more business.
  • Also, they will often try varieties of 'fermented bean curd' aka 'stinky tofu' specifically because it's their Stock "Yuck!" and they have never found one they like. Amusingly this has led to them becoming connoisseurs on the food, saying one is not as bad as other varieties of it, but that they still hate it.
• Race Against the Clock: The challenges often entail consuming a large amount of food or drink within a certain time limit.
• The Rival: Team Wreckless to Cult Moo, another group on YouTube that makes videos of trying weird foods or eating large quantities of foods in challenges. They occasionally invite the Cult Moo members Senor Guerro, Herr Pink and Loafy onto the show to do challenges with them, and on occasion, they have guest hosted shows as well. However, they are always the Butt Monkeys purely because of being the Rivals.
  • They are also friends with other popular eaters such as Matt Stonie, LA Beast, La Fenix, Louis (of Food For Louis) and have participated in challenges with all of them.
• Rule of Funny: A large amount of the show revolves around stupid ideas precisely for this trope. For instance, when they initially tried Fish Sauce they were unaware it was meant to be served diluted, and found it extremely salty and offputting. They found this so funny that, rather than learning from this mistake and preparing it properly, they specifically made sure to try more fish sauces in exactly the same manner. Later on they made this obvious by trying such things as stock cubes.
• Running Gag
• Schmuck Bait: Something foreign and weird looking is bound to be disgusting. They still try it anyway.
  • In Episode 77, the group tries Limestone Paste with Turmeric, which undiluted is acidic and burns their tongues. Matt Zion tries washing it down with vodka which makes it much worse, and tells the rest of the group not to do so...of course they all do.
• Screaming at Squick: This is how Matt Zion commonly reacts to the container of a weird gross food being opened.
• Self-Deprecation: As Kayfabe states above, Chris Wreckless being racist on the shows, specially against Asians. He's half Filipino.
• Shout-Out: They occasionally use videogame music over sped-up footage, such as when the Limburger vodka is made about 2 thirds of the way into this episode. This is a shoutout to Botchamania, the cast being noted wrestling fans.
• Softspoken Sadist: Jeff Fu is quite a camp sounding Korean American with a lisp (hence his nickname of Panda Bear), but he seems to really enjoy giving the rest of the WE cast Asian foods he knows they won't like, just to see their reactions. The majority of the time he eats the same food and appears to enjoy it, but often notes it could be better if it had [some item they don't have].
• Spit Take: If a gross food doesn't make someone vomit, they will at least spit it out immediately. A 3 K has a tendency to do this before he's even tried something he thinks will be disgusting.
• Stock "Yuck!": Anything involving bean curd or durian, especially if they are fermented. The cast really does not like black licorice either, especially the salty kind of from northern Europe. In a more surprising case, Matt has also professed a dislike of ginger, though he can at least tolerate it. The most surprising is A-Rock, the same man who was able to eat Surströmming and drink beef bile without vomiting, absolutely loathes peanut butter, and so far has been unable to eat anything with it.
• Sweet Tooth: Semi-regular Naader(who has his own channel, we might add) is fond of professing his love for sugar. Chris Wreckless also appears to favor sweet foods.
• Vomit Chain Reaction: During the Surströmming episode, once the can of Surströmming was punctured by the can opener everyone in the backyard began vomiting or gagging violently to the food's mere stench.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Considering all the Foreign Queasine sampled in this show, this is very common; that's what the "Vomit Alert" label in the video titles are for. Here's a video compiling all the vomiting moments that team Wreckless has experienced for viewers to erm, enjoy.

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