Offcuts #24: IShowSpeed, the thinking child's Anthony Bourdain

Edward Said would have loved him

The cult of personality that surrounds Anthony Bourdain as a posthumous cloud has seeped into the heart of travel journalism. The average male 23 - 29 year old food blogger can probably recite this passage off the top of their head:

‘Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.’ - No Reservations

and cures his hangovers with aspirin, coke (a-cola), a joint and spicy Szechuan food. His television shows, from which that block quote was taken, are the visual tutorial on how to behave like a local, rather than a tourist. No Reservations topped out with an episode rated 8.9 on IMDb, beaten only by Top Gear for top ratings amongst filmed travel journalism - admittedly there’s no shame in losing out to the Vietnam Special. Since the Bourdain Renaissance and his ascendence into mythology rather than reality, there is a hereditary gap left in his wake. For they who will assume the role of local rather than tourist. Who will take up the this burdensome mantle? The answer is Darren ‘IShowSpeed’ Watkins Jr, a 21-year-old online streamer from Cincinnati, Ohio, with more than 46 million followers on Instagram and 50.8 million subscribers on YouTube.

In an era of hyper-consumption led by Jimmy ‘Mr Beast’ Donaldson and his Beast Games, Watkins (better known as just ‘Speed’) reinforces a more positive image of visual media and attitudes towards cultural appreciation. Not to say that Donaldson’s series is inherently negative in some capacity, but there is something slightly twisted in the reality TV-based philanthropy, and the reference to the murderous Squid Game in the title is ominous to say the least considering the format. Speed’s world tour faces its own criticism - in a BBC article covering the recent conclusion to the African leg of his tour, a Reddit user by the name of Bakyumu is cited saying:

‘“Seeing the local crowds deify him feels tragic because it highlights a desperate need for escapism.

“This isn’t meaningful cultural exchange. It is a momentary distraction from systemic misery,” Bakyumu says, referring to things like poor housing and unemployment that millions in Africa deal with every day."'

Bakyumu does highlight a persisting issue, but the function of these streams is to indirectly help addressing these issues. As an embodiment of globalisation and diaspora, he bridges the gap between the West’s perception of other nations (obviously USA the most, Speed is the most popular English-speaking streamer) and addresses Orientalist expectations of ‘dated’ societies that lack technological advancement. When Jonathan Harker travels east in the beginning of Dracula, note the devolution of technology. The trains are late, timetables are wrong, and suddenly horse-drawn carriage is the only way of arriving at his destination. As Speed stands atop the 209.3-metre-tall Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the camera pans to the skyline, and he proclaims Ethiopia’s urban beauty (and that of Addis Ababa by extension). His trains run perpetually on time. Perhaps in that case, IShowSpeed is the thinking child’s Edward Said, rather than Anthony Bourdain.

As well as exposure to the realities of technological advancement, the streams aimed to highlight the beauty and idiosyncrasy of regional tradition across continents. On the African leg of the tour alone, he joined the Benna tribe in Ethiopia, danced Zaouli in Côte d’Ivoire, was stunned by the Xhosa language in South Africa and became the first person to livestream from within the Great Pyramid in Egypt. First to livestream next to Pharaoh Khufu and first to break the firewall to livestream in China for a Western audience, backflipping on the Great Wall and rode a flying car in Shenzhen.

Each of these experiences are rooted in a genuine curiosity, which is what viewers find intoxicating. Although the Bourdain Renaissance caused a spike in ‘being a local’ travel philosophy, it also saw a resurgence in subtle fetishisation and semi-colonialist attitudes to travel and travel. Instead of the kind of obnoxious British/American tourist who disregards local convention, the new breed of travel tourist has an air of self-importance and righteousness at ordering a bowl of pho in Vietnam. White boy stuns locals by ordering in fluent X. Take your pick. This isn’t the fault of Bourdain, his was an earnest interest rather than a desire to be seen as ‘cultured’ for experiencing all of these ‘exotic’ and ‘alien’ cultures and customs.

Put down the Kitchen Confidential, young man, switch off No Reservations. You are unwittingly being led down the wrong path. Instead, get on YouTube and watch a 21-year-old tell you to spam Ws in the chat.