The Wave Magazine interviews Joey Chestnut

October 19, 2006 at 11:35 pm by ojrifkin · More posts about:Joey Chestnut, San Jose

The Wave Magazine of Silicon Valley has an interview with Joey Chestnut. Joey declares himself the greatest American eater and is quoted as describing pre-Kobayashi competitive eating “pretty much a joke.” Eaters who debuted before 2001 would probably disagree with that statement.

Comments (7)

7 Comments »

  1. donmoseslerman said

    October 20, 2006 @ 5:25 pm

    Joey Chestnut your an ingrate its the eaters that appeared in contests before 2001 built the platform that the eaters of today stand upon. your not worthy to bring home the yelow mustard belt

  2. Luther said

    October 20, 2006 @ 5:43 pm

    Assuming that the story is accurate, Joe indeed IS the greatest eater in America … right now. But he had better enjoy it while he can. But if he truly stated that CE was pretty much a joke before Kobayashi, then I have no respect for him.

    Koby was simply so great that he made it look so easy. I would love to see Chestnut get his ass ripped apart at upcoming events. I don’t care who does it.

    Having said what I did, if the article isn’t accurate, I take back what I said about Joey.

  3. Mega Munch said

    October 20, 2006 @ 11:25 pm

    I guess it depends on what he means by “CE was a joke before Kobayashi” (if those were his semi-exact words). If by “a joke” he means “virtually no following or awareness among the American public”, he’d probably be right.

    But when I think of something being “a joke” I think of something with little or no credibility or something that is mocked or made fun of. To be honest, CE suffers from all of those things even today, though it is gaining acceptance more and more with each major contest and ESPN telecast. Was it more of a punchline in the pre-Koby era? Only those who were fans or involved in the sport then can say for sure.

  4. The_Hangman said (Registered August 30, 2006)

    October 21, 2006 @ 6:53 am

    As one who has had some experience with the media and interviews for over 3 decades, I have seeen interviews cut and pasted while taking comments totally out of context.

    The way the story reads to me and others I have shown it is that Joey says the eaters who came before him and Koby were all jokes. The impression was eaters of yesterday and maybe even today, who do not eat at the level that Joey and Koby eat at today are just a joke in CE.

    People like Badlands who ate 19 and 20 hot dogs to win their contests are far from the numbers today of 60 and more hot dogs. In their day they were good. Cars go faster. Airplanes go faster and eaters eater more.

    I only met Joey a couple times and I do not think his ego is that big that he thinks he is better than anyone or that all that came before him is a joke.

    I wish to think that Joey’s comments were either misquoted or taken out of context.

    I’ll wait to see if Joey wishes to respond. In the mean time I will give him the benefit of the doubt. And I wish Joey along with all the other eaters in Chatty on Oct 28 the best.

  5. valkyrie said (Registered June 7, 2006)

    October 27, 2006 @ 9:29 pm

    So much Judgement among your comments. These are not comments, it’s more like hate mail! Did you ever think how the media twist the words of the people they interview? Honestly, I’m ashamed that this website hast turned to out to be so negative! I ashamed of those who just love to bash on people for fun.

  6. Steakbellie said (Registered August 11, 2006)

    October 28, 2006 @ 12:22 am

    I think this is blown out of proportion. If you read BeautifulBrian.com like I do you are well aware that that the old school eaters…the pillars and foundation of our profession…are upset by this interview.

    I didnt have the same conclusion about Joeys article. I think he was pointing out how the PUBLIC felt about CE. The old school eater had to subsist on the respect of their peers alone. There was no money(at least in todays terms), there was only eating for the joy of the competition and for the comaraderie of your fellow competitors.

    To the General Public reading in a Sunday Paper? Yeah it may have been a joke. It may have been a Marvel. How could they possibly understand why we would do this? (If you’ve seen my totals you know I eat for free)

    Joey points out how Koby changed the sport. How he treated it like an athletic event in training and produced totals that were unheard of. Once he was able to eat “Super Human” quantities, public interest was able to rationalize large paydays for these competitions.

    Lets be frank people. This is America. Money draws respect here. we’re Capitalists. If your $100 Million Dollar Pitcher cant change the oil in a car, or stop a baby from crying he aint shit in my house….worthless. But put him on that mound and we respect him BECAUSE of the money. fifty years ago that same guy would need a job over the winter….thats no knock on the sport, just that the public’s perception of the value of a pitcher has changed.

    I met Joey once and he’s a good guy. Dont jump to any conclusions over this article….

  7. Mr Wright said

    October 28, 2006 @ 9:48 am

    Valk why dont you let Chestnut speak for himself . He has yet to surface with an explanation or rebuttal which means he meant what he said. Next time why dont you shutup until someone asks your opinion

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