I've been thinking something about Lucas's food videos. So, when he was at Mallon, even though he wasn't filming himself that much, he would still film his meals. And now, he never shows his face to the camera, but he'll still bother to drag the camera out if he's cooking spaghetti, or snorting up a bowl of overpriced food like today.
I find it hard to believe that Lucas is making these videos for anyone other than himself, so I wonder: do you think Lucas re-watches his food videos to re-enjoy the thrill of eating, the way a man will film the sex he has to later watch and re-experience arousal?
The reason I suggest this is because Lucas takes great pleasure in going over the details of meals of the past. People have even noticed him doing something very strange, which is talking about food he's eaten in the past WHILE he's eating different food in the present. There's a video of him at a restaurant eating a pizza, talking about how delicious steak he ate months ago was, and he's done this many times.
I think Lucas uses his food videos as a sort of sensory trigger, like porn, to stimulate the only aspect of his life that gives him any pleasure. This is why the camera is always pointed straight at the food, and why the videos don't seem to be made for anyone other than himself. When you think about it, it doesn't really sound that strange. Lucas doesn't care what anybody thinks about his gorging, and at this point he knows he's a morbidly obese balloon full of dog shit, but still, food is the only thing that gives him pleasure.
Fascinating question. IMHO Lucas means to reach an audience with his content, and does not rewatch his food videos. However, he does find making the videos to be extremely stimulating.
As for his audience, this subject often comes up due to the strangeness of his content. Sometimes it is clear who his intended audience is. When raging against the hypocrisy of Christians, faux socialists, and Gen Z baes, we need not guess who he's talking to, only marvel at his approach. And yet, it is often admittedly difficult to determine who Lucas think's he's talking to in his videos and posts. Scrolling through his social media can hit like hearing someone babble to themselves. If he has any sense of who is audience is, he might as well be addressing "society," "life" or "the state of things." He posts things that are of interest to no one, things that make him look terrible, things that make no sense to anyone. I like to believe this is because he is a fat faggot, and does not understand that the things that matter to him may not necessarily matter to other people. Sort of like how he just takes for granted that his sexless decade is as big a deal to total strangers as it is to him.
While I don't embrace your premise, you're on to something interesting. There is something vaguely indecent, almost pornographic, about Lucas's food videos. It's almost as if he's filming them the same way he'd film himself fisting his smart pretty interesting girl's asshole. It's easy to take it as food porn, and then wonder,
Who but Lucas would watch this food porn? I see not as consciously made food porn, but rather unintentionally revealing glimpses into a glutton's habits.
Watching someone indulge a vice can be uncomfortable. You may get an unwelcome peak into someone's skull, especially when said vice is manifestly consuming them. Lucas is a glutton, and has learned to use food to regulate his volcanic moods. I suspect that it is the eating that drives Lucas first, followed by the act of recording, and sharing. He gets off on eating, and displaying his eating, and making a video is just a way of making the eating public, of pretending that he isn't alone. He's not making a video to be watched, so much as trying to be seen.
I presently find food/obesity/eating to be the most interesting angle to wernology. I am fascinated by his relationship with his weight for the following reasons. First, quite a bit of Lucas’s recent content addresses his weight gain, and it must loom large in his thoughts. Second, Lucas has been a fat faggot his entire life, and we can draw a direct line connecting his weight, his social dysfunction, and his mother (consider the well known anecdote of his mother taking him out for ice cream after his 1st grade crush rejected him). FInally, weight is an excellent lens for exploring how Lucas experiences rejection. While Lucas is no HAES whale, he maintains both obesity and a state of plenty-goodness. He does not claim that he is healthy and that there is nothing wrong with being a fat faggot (aside from a few nods to "dad bods" being in). Rather, his focus is on how superficial everyone is for not digging him. It as if Lucas believes his fine qualities are being obscured by his weight, just as they've been obscured by his poverty, age, etc. Lucas's weight was likely his first explanation for why people don't treat him the way he feels he deserves to be treated, and it is clearly his most practiced.
I typed a lot. Didn't say much.
