A YouTube star known for his gourmet “mukbang” food videos has lost 250 pounds — while convincing his millions of fans that he's still dangerously overweight.
Nikocado Avocado, who has more than 4 million subscribers on YouTube where he posts videos showing himself and others eating excessive amounts of food, revealed his much thinner body on Friday by posting a video captioned “Two steps forward.”
The video also included a comment in which he called his followers “ants” and ridiculed them for watching his videos and commenting on his size despite his obesity.
Nikocado Avocado called this stunt his “greatest social experiment,” and he made it a success by hiding himself from his videos for months and only posting old videos he recorded before the weight loss.
The content creator, whose real name is Nicholas Perry, revealed the major change three months after telling fans he had “given up on his weight loss journey” and would be taking a break for a while.
“Two steps forward, two steps forward,” Nikocado Avocado begins the video, which shows himself wearing a panda head mask.
He added, “This has been the biggest social experiment of my entire life. It's disturbing, it's compelling, it's fascinating to watch all these unhealthy, confused people roam the internet looking for stories, ideas, competition, where they feel encouraged and engaged.”
Nikocado Avocado said interacting with fans over his seven-year career making mukbang videos felt like “monitoring ants on an ant farm.” He said it taught him that people “will eat whatever they are told to eat.”
Perry then removed her mask and showed the full effect of her weight loss.
“I'm a villain because I made myself a villain. And you're going to keep hearing these stories about me. Year after year, year after year, as long as I keep telling the internet that I'm a villain. Stories that get into the minds of ants, take over and infect them. Influence the ants. Brainwash the ants,” he said, and then told the audience directly: “You are the ants.”
The YouTuber continued: “Today, I woke up from a very long dream and I also woke up with 250 pounds of weight off my body. Yet, just yesterday people were calling me fat, sick, boring, and irrelevant. People are the most messed up creatures on the entire planet.”
In a separate video uploaded to another channel run by Perry, he explained that he was posting years-old content to keep his channel going while he worked on his health.
However, Perry wasted no time getting back to her roots and dishing out a huge plate of noodles, much to the amusement of the audience.
While his shocking transformation shocked many fans, most were happy to see the producer in good health, with one person writing, “Let's get real. This is what we were hoping for, that he didn't die from complications caused by his massive weight.”
Another fan wrote: “It almost feels unreal, he managed to play us like a violin, this redemption arc feels unreal.”
Another said: “He gained weight, became a millionaire, lost weight, greatest comeback ever.”
