As the Holiday season drew to a close just this Wednesday, the Mukbang community was in the middle of its biggest scandal yet. On Youtube, Mukbang has become increasingly popular. The videos revolve around anything related to eating. Youtubers involved in creating these videos typically sit in front of large pots of ramen, chicken, or fast food, eating and chatting away. Most of the creators will typically also get together with each other to gossip and leak drama, but most aren’t very controversial.
However, that all changed on December 21st when a Mukbang YouTuber named Stephanie Soo released a video titled, “Why I Am Scared Of Nikocado Avocado.” Both Soo and Nikocado Avocado are extremely popular on the platform, each with around 2 million subscribers. In the video, Soo accused Nikocado Avocado of being extremely manipulative and bullying her into a series of violent panic and anxiety attacks. According to Soo, Nikocado Avocado had pressured her into talking trash about another YouTuber during a collab, Veronica Wang. Soo said that she was reluctant to say anything bad about Wang because she felt no animosity towards her former friend. When she arrived home, she claims that she felt extremely miserable and didn’t feel up to filming another collab with Nikocado Avocado (which was scheduled for the next day.) During this time, Soo suffered from a series of panic attacks that left her positively exhausted for the next day and left her in poor health. When she told Nikocado Avocado and Zach Choi (the other member of the collabs) that she couldn’t make set that day because she was “in and out of sleep”, Nikocado basically told her that she was a complete waste of his time.
Soo went on to accuse Nikocado of having a so-called “pattern of behavior,” which meant that this wasn’t the only time that he had become extremely angry over nothing. She pointed to several instances when Nikocado had spammed her repeatedly, forcing her to talk to him, and that it wasn’t the first time the creator had tried to manipulate her for nothing apart from views. Soo pointed to a series of texts that were sent while she was trying to fall asleep, where Nikocado had said that he was very hurt by the situation and that she needed to talk to him personally. She claimed that that same night, Nikocado Avocado had taken to social media and posted videos with other Mukbang creators, all making fun of Soo for claiming that she was “in and out of sleep.” Furthermore, he also expressed his rage on social media, threatening to “expose her” and saying that he had “audio clips” to prove that she was in the wrong.
I think it’s rich that @nikocadoavocado is twisting him CHOOSING to bully Stephanie soo by teasing “in and out of sleep”, which originally was a PRIVATE message between him her and Zach Choi and making it seem like it was okay because “he didn’t know that she had ptsd”…
— Prince Bojji Stan Account (@Cthululorde) December 31, 2019
Soo was instantly concerned because she had never let Nikocado record any audio clips in her home. She had previously installed a high-quality security system after a home invasion and scanned the footage. To her dismay, she witnessed Nikocado taking photos inside of her home at her security system, along with other private items, while she had stepped out of the room.
However, Soo was never trying to destroy Nikocado’s career, instead just wanting to clear the air. She tried to make the lesson positive by releasing “in and out of sleep” merchandise, donating 100% of the profits towards Stomp Out Bullying. Her first donation to the organization was over 10,000 dollars, just days after dropping the merch line.
Nikocado’s initial response was that he would immediately address the issue. However, fans waited almost an entire week before Nikocado said anything about the situation. During this week, Nikocado uploaded many pre-recorded videos with little to no comment on the situation at all. Many accused him of being taking advantage of the situation and using it to garner additional views. Fans were quick to point out that there were ads all over Nikocado’s video during this time as well, more than there had been previously.
It's funny how Nikocado avocado talked about how Stephanie views are dropping so made it seem like she's desperate for views when his response video is LITTERED with ads when Stephanie had none…who's money hungry now Nik?#NikocadoAvocadoIsOverParty
— 🌷 (@ursroseanne) December 30, 2019
Nikocado finally released a video to his channel titled “re: Stephanie soo.” In this video, Nikocado said that Stephanie was the one who kept showing off all of her furniture and was begging for him to take pictures of it. Nikocado went on to say that she was always present when he was taking photos in her home and that she even gave him permission to do so. He said that it was a compliment since he was admiring her home. Nikocado showed a couple of photos with Stephanie in them, posing for the camera. However, much to Soo’s distress, one of the photos showed her home security monitor and was fully unsafe.
https://twitter.com/kalinakr1064/status/1211949582424399877
In his video, Nikocado went on to address many things that Stephanie was lying about. He implied that it was Soo, not him, who was manipulative, showing several texts where Soo had begged him to collab with her. One of his biggest focuses was on a docuseries that Stephanie wanted to make with tons of other Mukbang YouTubers. The series was going to revolve around a past misunderstanding with YouTuber Veronica Wang. Nikocado went on to show several text messages from other leading figures in the field, saying that they thought that Stephanie was just taking advantage of them. These influencers included Zach Choi, who had just collaborated with Nikocado and Soo.
Nikocado went on to rope in other influencers including Hyunee Eats, Karlee Steel, and Veronica Wang, saying that they didn’t like Stephanie at all. He then went on to say that he didn’t like Stephanie to begin with and that she was just using him for fame.
Then, Soo came out with a second response video, titled “How Nikocado Manipulated All Of Us.” This time, she was armed with tons of texts and footage that showed that she and many of those influencers had no bad blood. She went on to show multiple (over 10) texts where Nikocado had wanted to collab with her. She questioned his photos and wondered what piece of furniture or part of her house he was even admiring, considering that he had put her security at high risk.
She went on to show that she wasn’t alone, this time with texts from Zach Choi, who admitted that he too, was scared of Nikocado when Nikocado was angry. But the biggest shock of all was that a young man had reached out to Stephanie and said that he had the exact same experience with Nikocado after a first date. The unidentified young man claimed that he thought his date with Nikocado was going well when in reality, the influencer had actually been hating every minute of it. After a peaceful goodbye, the man claims that Nikocado started creating posts threatening to expose him, which is the exact same thing that happened to Stephanie. Soo used this new behavior to reaffirm that Nikocado had a real “pattern of behavior,” ending her video encouraging people to stand up for themselves.
https://twitter.com/zach_choi/status/1212204075959242752
After the second video, YouTubers who were Nikocado’s friends were all quick to realize that they were in the wrong, releasing tons of apologies toward Stephanie. Those who had originally sided with Nikocado realized that they had no idea what was actually happening and weren’t able to open their eyes until they saw Soo’s side (Hyunee Eats, Karlee Steel). Veronica Wang even went as far as to say that she was proud of Soo for standing up and sharing her story.
While the drama is not yet over, fans have made predictions that Nikocado is not going to be able to come back from this big of a fall. Soo’s evidence proved that she wasn’t the liar, and fans have been quick to rise up and support her. The drama teaches all of us that it’s important to speak out about things that aren’t right, and many have said that Soo set the bar for dealing with difficult issues in the social media community.
Featured Image via Nikocado Avocado @ Timestamp: 9:07
