| Banzz eats a shrimp off a seafood platter during his online meokbang show broadcast on Afreeca TV. Screen capture from Afreeca TV |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Banzz, one of Korea's top YouTube foodie stars, walked down the aisle on April 6, with hundreds of celebrities from TV and internet watching the ceremony live.
The face of YouTube channel “Meokbang Banzz” with almost 3.2 million subscribers married his girlfriend in Daejeon after a three-year romance. The ceremony was broadcast live on YouTube channel DIA TV, a multi-channel network run by one of Korea's largest contents commerce operator CJ ENM.
“Girl powers” TV comedian Kim Sook and Lee Young-ja were among about 800 wedding guests. The two worked with him on the TV variety show “Lanlife” on JTBC, which shows how Korea's top online contents creators ― Banzz, Buzzbean11, Yum-cast and Ssin ― work round the clock preparing their content. Their subscribers total about 7.6 million.
| Banzz, right, marries his girlfriend in Daejeon, April 6. Photo from Facebook |
Singer Navi and composer Yoo Jae-hwan sang to the couple. Popular YouTubers including Heopop (subscribers 3.14 million) and a foodie girl whose screen name is “uneager sun” (630,000) greeted the couple.
Real name Jung Man-soo, Banzz is well known for eating enough food for several people at once and still keeping his physique in top shape.
Starting his career of meokbang (a shortened Korean word for broadcasting a BJ eating a ridiculous amount of foods) on Afreeca TV in 2013, Banzz soon expanded to YouTube that year. As of Monday, his YouTube channel had drawn over 1 billion views.
In 2017, he launched health supplementary shop EAT4U in Daejeon.