1. Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi is a retired Japanese competitive eater.
65 Facts About Takeru Kobayashi
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The record was so unexpected that the organizers ran out of signs indicating how many hot dogs Takeru Kobayashi had eaten and had to resort to handwritten signs.
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Takeru Kobayashi would go on to break his own record three times in winning the contest 6 consecutive times.
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Takeru Kobayashi is known for having created the "Solomon Method" of separating the hot dog from the bun, while eating the dogs, then dunking the buns in water to wash the dogs down quickly.
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Takeru Kobayashi went on to be the undefeated champion for nine years, his best score being 159 tacos in 10 minutes, until 2018 when the competition came to an end.
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At a speed-eating contest in Hong Kong on August 13,2005, Takeru Kobayashi consumed 83 vegetarian jiaozi dumplings in 8 minutes.
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Takeru Kobayashi won the 2005 Alka-Seltzer US Open of Competitive Eating, a three-hour International Federation of Competitive Eating, elimination tournament on ESPN, as well as the Glutton Bowl, a two-hour IFOCE eating special that aired on the Fox Network in 2002.
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On Fox's 2003 show Man vs Beast, Takeru Kobayashi lost in an eating competition against a 1089-pound Kodiak bear, when he ate 31 bunless hot dogs in 2 minutes and 36 seconds to the bear's 50.
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On September 23,2006, Takeru Kobayashi set the world record at the Phantom Food Festival in Boston, for eating 41 Summer Shack lobster rolls in 10 minutes, replacing the previous record of 22 rolls.
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On June 25,2007, Takeru Kobayashi announced on his blog that he seriously injured his jaw during training.
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Takeru Kobayashi stated that he could only open his jaw about the width of a fingertip.
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Takeru Kobayashi was able to eat a personal record 63 hot dogs, though his mark was bettered by Joey Chestnut's 66.
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On July 4,2008, Takeru Kobayashi competed in the Nathan's contest.
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Takeru Kobayashi ate 59 hot dogs, tying Chestnut, but lost a sudden death five dog eat off to finish second.
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Takeru Kobayashi went on to defeat Joey Chestnut, on May 31,2009, in a Pizza Hut P'Zone competition at Sony Studios in Culver City, California.
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In July 2009, Takeru Kobayashi visited Puerto Rico in a special appearance for Taco Bell's Why Pay More Challenge, eating 64 tacos in 15 minutes for a local charity.
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Takeru Kobayashi ate 64.5 hot dogs to Joey Chestnut's 68.
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On September 27,2009, Takeru Kobayashi defeated Chestnut with a score of 93, earning the $20,000 top prize.
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On July 4,2011, Takeru Kobayashi competed on the rooftop of a Manhattan bar simultaneously with the Nathan's Contest at Coney Island via a live video simulcast of the event.
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Takeru Kobayashi finished 69 hot dogs, one more than the officially recognized world record at the time.
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Takeru Kobayashi went on The Wendy Williams Show to set the record for eating the most Twinkies in one minute, for the "Save The Twinkie" campaign, and set a new world record of 14 Twinkies.
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On February 3,2012, Takeru Kobayashi set the new Wing Bowl record for eating chicken wings at Wing Bowl XX, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
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Takeru Kobayashi's total was 337 wings in his first competition in that event.
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In October 2012, Takeru Kobayashi set the new world record at the State Fair of Texas for eating 60 hot dogs in 2 minutes 35 seconds.
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On June 30,2012, Takeru Kobayashi revealed the terms of the Major League Eating contract he was required to sign in order to compete in Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating competition.
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On July 4,2012, Takeru Kobayashi competed in the Crif Dog Classic.
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On October 11,2012, Takeru Kobayashi set the new world record at the Gringo Bandito Taco Challenge by eating 106 tacos in 10 minutes.
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On July 21,2013, Takeru Kobayashi defended his title at the Gringo Bandito Taco Challenge.
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On October 6,2013, Takeru Kobayashi won "LET 'EM EAT" Canada's biggest pizza eating contest for the fourth year in a row.
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Takeru Kobayashi competed against Joey Chestnut in September 2024 in a live-streamed Netflix event titled "Chestnut vs Takeru Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef".
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Chestnut defeated Takeru Kobayashi, eating 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
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Takeru Kobayashi ate 66 hot dogs, breaking his personal best that he set in 2009 at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
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Takeru Kobayashi is known for his trademark body wiggle, referred to by some as the "Takeru Kobayashi Shake", to force food down his esophagus and settle more compactly in his stomach.
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Takeru Kobayashi eats hot dogs by splitting the frankfurter in half, dipping the buns in water, and then stuffing both parts in his mouth.
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On June 28,2010, Takeru Kobayashi announced he would not compete in the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Competition, reportedly due to the company's insistence that Takeru Kobayashi sign an exclusive contract.
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On July 4,2010, Takeru Kobayashi was in attendance watching from the crowd at the Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
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Accordingly, Takeru Kobayashi indulged their wishes by climbing up onto the stage to a thunderous ovation.
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Some witnesses reported that Takeru Kobayashi was simply intending to shake the hand of the winner, Joey Chestnut, as a gesture of sportsmanship and goodwill.
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In 2011, Takeru Kobayashi was still barred from the annual Nathan's event due to the contract dispute.
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Takeru Kobayashi finished 69 hot dogs, one more than the officially recognized world record at the time.
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In 2012, Takeru Kobayashi was still barred from the annual Nathan's event due to the contract dispute.
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Takeru Kobayashi ate 113 bunless Nathan's hot dogs at 230 Fifth.
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In 2005, Takeru Kobayashi appeared in a commercial for ESPN's SportsCenter.
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In 2007, Takeru Kobayashi appeared in commercials for MasterCard and Coors Light.
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In 2008 Takeru Kobayashi appeared in a Western Canada Lottery Corporation commercial.
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On May 30,2009, Takeru Kobayashi attended the Spike Guys' Choice Awards.
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In November 2010, Takeru Kobayashi appeared in a magazine featuring men's clothing published as an offshoot of V magazine, VMAN 20th Winter.
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In November 2010, Takeru Kobayashi competed against Donkey Kong in a banana eating contest at the Rio-Can Centre in Toronto as part of the launch for Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country Returns.
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On July 7,2011, Takeru Kobayashi made a guest appearance at Hewlett Packard event 2011.
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In Spring 2011, Takeru Kobayashi appeared in his first major fashion editorial in Canada's The Block magazine as a model.
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In 2012, Takeru Kobayashi appeared in an Eight O'Clock Coffee and a Hofmann commercial.
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In 2012, Takeru Kobayashi appeared on a celebrity edition of Fear Factor.
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Takeru Kobayashi has been featured on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live, MTV's True Life, MTV After Hours With Josh Horowitz, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Wendy Williams Show and has done original features with Buzzfeed.
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On July 4,2013, Takeru Kobayashi unveiled his new line of all-beef midwestern grain-fed hot dogs, known officially as "Kobi Dogs" at Eventi Hotel in New York.
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The video ends with Takeru Kobayashi acknowledging his defeat by placing a medal around the hamster's neck.
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In 2015, Takeru Kobayashi consumed 110 hot dogs without buns in 10 minutes.
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Takeru Kobayashi's eating abilities partially inspired the King of the Hill episode "The Fat and the Furious".
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Takeru Kobayashi helped inspire the 2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Dog Eat Dog".
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Takeru Kobayashi is mentioned by Will Ferrell's character, Ricky Bobby, in the 2006 film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
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Takeru Kobayashi appears in the ending cinematic of level three, "Around the World in 80 Bites" in the 2007 video game, The Simpsons Game.
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The Family Guy episode "Killer Queen" features a parody of Takeru Kobayashi named Charles Yamamoto, a hot dog-eating champion who is dethroned by Chris Griffin at a hot dog-eating contest, later making numerous attempts on Chris' life in revenge for defeating and dishonoring him at the competition.
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Takeru Kobayashi appears as himself on a 2012 episode of Jake and Amir, a CollegeHumor web series.
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Takeru Kobayashi becomes aggressive when Jake tries to feed him hot dogs.
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Takeru Kobayashi is in the Brain Eating Contest during the Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Takeru Kobayashi was featured in the 2024 Netflix documentary Hack your Health: Secrets of Your Gut, where he announced his retirement from competitive eating and a desire to create more healthy hot dogs.