Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see on the internet, something or someone comes along, and changes what you think you know in the weirdest (and sometimes most horrifying) ways. Yeah, the internet is great for learning new info, staying in touch with friends, or catching up on the latest television shows, but spend too long on YouTube, Facebook or Reddit, and soon you'll find yourself in the very weird part of the internet.
I can't tell you how many times I've left my YouTube running for around two hours, only to return from dinner or a movie to a crazed conspiracy theorist telling me how the world is secretly run by a race of lizard people, but sometimes, that weirdness pays off in pretty unique and satisfying fashion.
Like this bizarre chain found deep in the bowels of Reddit, introducing us to Eric, a guy who will put anything - and I mean anything - into his mouth if you ask him nicely enough. What's more: if you ask Eric to film him chowing down on his unorthodox dinner, he'll do so without hesitation.
But how exactly did we get here? Like most weird things on the internet, the tale of Eric starts of pretty innocuously. Here we are at the beginning of the Reddit thread, where the Redditor BenRosen posted a simple video of the man named Eric eating some string cheese.
Things got weird, quick.
What then followed were 125 further videos of Eric eating all things imaginable, ranging from bananas (with full eye contact) and mayonnaise, to an actual garbage bag, as Reddit users pushed the boat out with increasingly outrageous requests. Each time, the man named Eric called their bluff; like a poker champion who knows he has the winning hand.
Yep. That was cat food. You're welcome.
What's more, so quick was Eric's rise to fame, that soon, he was asked to participate in a Reddit AMA, to which he duly obliged, because he is the hero we deserve, not to mention the hero we need right now. So, what does the internet want to know most about the man who will eat anything?
Disappointingly (but not surprisingly), people were curious as to how things were on the way out for Eric, if you know what I mean. "How were ya poopz?" asked user teamfupa, with Eric responding by apparently "opening and closing his index finger and thumb like an OKAY sign".
Lovely.
User Brainix asked Eric which food made it the most difficult to maintain eye contact, to which our champion eater replied: "man, I had a really tough time with the lemon." But then, someone asked the question that was on everyone's lips: why, Eric? Why do you eat things on YouTube?
" I read somehwere [sic] that there were clues in your videos. Is that true?" asked giovnav, to which BenRosen and Eric replied cryptically. "We both thought that the internet would love this," said Ben, while Eric admitted there was a secret method to this madness, should you look closer: "There is deeper meaning. The clues have been left for you to find."
Well, I guess I'm going to have to watch all 126 videos to figure out exactly what Eric's purpose is here on Reddit. Maybe I'll learn something about myself in the process.
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