.. Cultural Artifact Speech ( Kickboxing )

Simon Kern

Cultural Artifact: Competitive Eating

I INTRODUCTION

A) Attention Getter: For most of us, July 4th is for celebrating our nation’s independence. We watch fireworks (legal or illegal) and have day long BBQ’s where we overeat, even if it’s swimsuit season. But to me, July 4th is about our nation’s greatest athletic competition: the Cony Island Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Every July 4th I awake with jubilation in my heart, turn on ESPN, and watch the greatest athletes alive shovel hot dogs down their gullet. As a semi-retired competitive eater, the men and women in this competition are everything I aspire to be.

B) Thesis: So today, I’ll introduce you to the competitive eating culture, because it is the greatest American pastime and has impacted us all.

C) Preview: First, we’ll chow down on the history of competitive eating; second, we’ll gorge ourselves on the history of my artifact (the hot dog); and third, we’ll let our stomachs settle, as I explain my personal connection to competitive eating.

II Body

A) Main Point 1 Topic Sentence: Let’s begin with the history of competitive eating including its origins, expansion, and backlash.

1) Claim: There have been many cultures to engage in competitive eating, but the American version began in Coney Island, New York on July 4th, 1916.

Support: Major League Eating’s website, March 20, 2014 claims that four immigrant men competed in a hotdog eating contest to determine who was the most patriotic, with the Irishman winning by consuming 13 hotdogs.

Impact: With that, competitive eating, and the long standing tradition of the July fourth Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest was born.

2) Claim: One would assume the world’s greatest sport would have risen to popularity immediately, but it actually took a long time to gain any traction.

Support: Time Magazine July 3, 2008 explains that the culture languished for decades in county fair obscurity, until the sport rediscovered legitimacy in the 1990s when new visionaries took over Nathan’s publicity.

Impact: Today it’s more popular than ever after being aired on ESPN, expanding the competitions to pies, wings, and even asparagus, and there’s even a competitive eating video game in development for the Nintendo Wii.

3) Claim: However, while the sport has grown in popularity recently, there are still those who dismiss it as an unnecessary celebration of gluttony and American excess.

Support: Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of nutrition at Harvard Medical School argues in the Wall Street Journal August 15, 2002 that "This is sick, abnormal behavior, and making it a spectator sport [is] one of the saddest commentaries on our country."

Impact: As long as these health professionals promote this backlash to the culture, we may see competitive eating fade away forever.

Transition: Now that I’ve satisfied your appetite for the history of competitive eating culture, we can dine on the history of an artifact from my culture: the hotdog.

B) Main Point 2 Topic Sentence: The hotdog has a long and fascinating history so I’ll be covering its origins, why it’s called a hotdog, and the best brands.

1) Claim: Hotdogs derive their inspiration from sausages as a casing

filled with ground meat, mixed with spices, and dried, cured, or smoked for preservation.

Support: The original hotdogs came from Frankfurt, Germany in the 13th century, which is where the term frankfurter comes from as stated in the Online Etymology Dictionary last updated 2014.

Impact: It’s popularity led German immigrant Charles Feltman in 1870 to serve the first hot dogs in America in, where else, Coney Island.

2) Claim: So, if a hotdog is simply a type of sausage, why do we refer to it as a hotdog?

Support: The answer lies in the 2004 book Word Myths, which describes a 19th century urban legend that sausages contained dog meat, as eating dogs in Germany was common at the time.

Impact: I’ll admit, hotdogs often contain…interesting cuts of meat, however, as the book goes on to say, there is no truth to the rumor, so you can eat in peace.

3) Claim: But to eat in peace, you need to know the best hotdogs available to you.

Support: The top five hotdogs brands are Nathan’s, Trader Joe’s, Hebrew National, Kirkland, and Dietz and Watson as reported by, of all things, GQ magazine July 1, 2014.

Impact: And if you don’t feel like cooking, you can eat at the various gormet hotdog stands right here in southern California including Oki Dog, Dog Haus, and the legendary Pink’s.

Transition: After enjoying the history of the hotdog I hope you left room, because we still get to cover my personal connection to the culture.

C) Main Point 3 Topic Sentence: My competitive eating career is a vast buffet of competition, but I’ll just discuss how I got started, some of my accomplishments, and how the culture has benefited me.

1) Claim: I began my competitive eating career in high school when I

would go to minor league baseball games in Lancaster for dollar hotdog night.

Support: One night they held a competition for consuming the most hotdogs in 3 minutes, which I won.

Impact: Two days later my picture was posted onto the team’s website, and I became a genuine superstar.

2) Claim: As I began to seek out more competitions my legend grew, leading me to a world I only dreamed of when I was a husky 12 year old.

Support: I won the pie-eating contest at the Oxnard Strawberry Festival, completed the six minute wing challenge at Buffalo Wild wings in three minutes, and set the record in the donut challenge at Voo-Doo Donuts in Portland.

Impact: These accolades are something I’ll cherish forever because fame and notoriety is extremely important to me.

3) Claim: But, I don’t just do this for the recognition (although that is a huge part of it). I also do it because it has benefited me so much.

Support: Doing this activity requires laser sharp focus, discipline, and a commitment to excellence, which I have incorporated into every aspect of my life.

Impact: I can say in full sincerity that if it wasn’t for what I learned as a competitor, I wouldn’t be the person I am.

III Conclusion

A) Review: So today, we first took a bite out of the history of competitive eating; second, we snacked on the hotdog; and third, we feasted on my personal connection to this culture.

B) Restate Thesis: We got a little taste of what competitive eating is, and its significance to every single person in this room.

C) Closing Statements: I’ve brought an extra hotdog with me today to issue a challenge to all of you. Maybe later you can face off against me in a competition. Who knows? The next eating champion could be sitting in this very room. And that, is food for thought.