I never thought I'd talk about a conspiracy centered around eating hot dogs, but here we are! Our (alleged) villain protagonist is Nick Wehry, a YouTuber, competitive eater, and, depending on whom you ask, a total fraud! This year's Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest wrapped up recently. Nick Wehry entered the contest, eating around 46.75 hot dogs. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite enough to beat the winner of the competition, Patrick Bertoletti -- who ate 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
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Wehry would come in fourth place, as a matter of fact. However, per the New York Post, Wehry may have been cheating, fudging some of his official numbers. Allegedly, according to two sources, Wehry "inflated his tally of eaten hot dogs and falsely placed himself among the sport's elite contenders."
Let's go back to that 46.75 real quick. On the day of the competition, that was the original, definitive number. However, on the official Major League Eating results website, that number ballooned to 51.75. The five-dog boost came as a result of what could certainly be described as sleight-of-hand sorcery. ...If it's true, that is! The New York Post summed up the way scores are handled in the competition.
"Eaters' scores are tabulated based on the number of empty plates stacked in front of their spot after the allotted time has concluded. Any 'debris' left uneaten on the top plate on the stack -- bits of bun or stray chunks of beef -- is subject to judges' determination about whether it's deducted from their total. Every plate on the competition table starts out loaded with five hot dogs. So, each plate left behind counts for five dogs eaten as the judges determine the participants' scores."
Nick Wehry, A Competitive Eater, Is Accused Of Cheating During A Hot Dog Eating Contest
Gross imagery aside, that's the gist of how scores are tallied! Wehry allegedly stole plates from other competitors' stacks and added to his own. Any performance above 50 hot dogs is considered among the competitive eaters' elite class. "For someone to have on the record that they ate more than 50, makes you part of a very small elite club of competitive eaters," one of the competition's internal sources said.
Wehry would deny the accusations, of course. It's a-bun-dantly clear, however, there's a larger reckoning to be had in the world of competitive eating!
