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Crazy Consumption

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When someone's mental instability, or at least separation from the rest of humanity, is demonstrated by their consumption of food in an unusual manner. Related to Big Eater, Extreme Omnivore, Masochist's Meal, and Madness-Induced Omnivore. Not to be confused with Conspicuous Consumption or the disease formerly known as consumption.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Alucard from Hellsing. So long as Integra orders him to kill, he'll do whatever he damn well pleases to his victims. Including tearing off their heads and letting the blood pour into his mouth. And using demon dogs to eat them alive. Honestly, this guy acts more like a cannibal than a vampire.
    • The Nazis basically spent an entire chapter messily devouring whatever the hell they could get their hands on. Including babies.
  • L from Death Note tends to stack sweets when he's pondering the case, and Mello munches on chocolate when he's angry (which is often). And of course there's Light who "take[s] a potato chip and EAT[S] IT!"
  • Anemone and her jam in Eureka Seven. The way she eats it is both disturbing and alluring.
  • Gintama: Hijikata Toshiro will put a big serving of mayonnaise on everything, and Yamazaki has recently become an anpan junkie.
    • Also Kagura with her sukonbu, Gintoki with his obsessive sugar craving, Mitsuba and her love of chilly, Sacchan and natto...
  • Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! eating a steak like he's some kind of carnivorous animal. This was also covered in Big Eater.
  • Xerxes Break in PandoraHearts. He'll steal your cake and EAT IT!.
  • Kumagawa Misogi in Medaka Box can eat taiyaki while making it look like he's just slaughtered somebody.

    Comic Books 
  • Nextwave's Dirk Anger enjoys things like blenderized chicks (baby chickens not women) and bowls of ice cream stuffed with various pills.
  • Rorschach from Watchmen eating cold beans straight out of the can. "Fine like this."
    • As well as straight up sugar cubes. One gets the impression he doesn't actually sit down for a decent meal and instead just goes for high energy products.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The main character in the movie Elf has an extreme Sweet Tooth, to the point where it is rather disgusting to normal people, piling on candy, syrup and sugar with joyful abandon.
  • In K-PAX, we see Kevin Spacey as the title character eat a banana without peeling it several times throughout the movie. Less noticeable but along the same lines, strawberries, complete with the leaves.
  • Allison, the basket case from The Breakfast Club, with her throwing the baloney from her sandwich on the ceiling and replacing it with Cap'n Crunc cereal and Pixy Stix powdered candy, as well as exploding her soda and licking it off the desk.
  • In The Fly (1986), one of the first signs that something is wrong with Brundle (and the first one his lover notices) is that he starts eating huge quantities of sugar and sweet foods. When he starts spewing bile on his food before eating it, it's a sign that things have gone further downhill.
  • In Michael, the titular character heaps insane amounts of sugar into his food to experience the Earthly pleasures of sweetness.
  • In The Three Stooges short "A Pain in the Pullman", the Stooges eat crab shells, throwing away the meat.
  • In Splash, Allen takes Madison to a fancy restaurant, where she gets the lobster - and picks it up, crunching into it, shell and all.
    Allen: ...she's really hungry.
  • There's a moment in Help! where The Beatles are hiding in an alpine brass band - George takes a bite out of a cymbal he's holding.
  • In Date with an Angel, the Angel has no previous experience with eating but really gets into french fries. It's adorable rather than creepy.

    Literature 
  • Kockroach from Kockroach really likes ribs. He eats them while naked, rubbing them on his chest.
  • Honor Harrington: In a mild example of the 'separation from humanity' sort, people that have been genetically modified for higher gravity are noted to also be voracious eaters due to their higher metabolism.

    Live-Action TV 
  • An episode of CSI featured a man with a compulsive eating disorder - he was permanently stuck in a state of ravenous hunger because his brain couldn't tell if he was full. He had to spend his entire life restrained and guarded by caretakers, otherwise he'd eat everything - even the inedible.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "The End of Time": The Master actually starts eating PEOPLE after his (sabotaged) resurrection. And even when he eats regular food, he does it so fast and so desperately it's pretty clear he is REALLY hungry.note 
    • "The Eleventh Hour": The newly regenerated Doctor rejects some perfectly ordinary food before settling on fish fingers dipped in custard.
  • Walter, from Fringe. He has a severe sweet tooth, and relies on Congruent Memory to help him recall projects he worked on long ago, triggering it by eating the same foods. This has occasionally led to him buying (or having Peter or Astrid buy) multiple brands of a single item trying to find the one that tastes the most like some discontinued brand.
    • Also the Observers: One of them dumps an entire shaker of pepper and bowl of jalapenos onto a sandwich before eating it. They have almost no sense of taste and have to compensate by massively overspicing their food.
  • In an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a character's mental problems are signposted by his habitual yet uncharacteristic eating of candy.
  • In Supernatural Dean stuffs his face every chance he gets. In at least one flashback he is shown giving up his dinner so Sammy can have something to eat. So this might be a reaction to not eating regularly as a kid.
  • In Warehouse 13 Pete Lattimer never turns down food. He frequently will grab handfuls of cookies or other food offered by someone they are questioning as they hurry away to follow up a lead.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Goldberg ate Scott Hall's contract on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro.
  • Delirious was known for eating discarded pieces of food fans would leave on their seats or drop on the floor if he should be thrown out of or otherwise exit the ring and see it. Same goes for unattended drinks. He's even tried to eat the "hair" hanging off his own mask in Ring of Honor. In IWA Mid-South, Jim Fannin would encourage this sort of behavior and even shouted "Eat The Air! Eat It!" at Delirious, while Dave Prazak would try to discourage it "No, it's fattening!"
  • The Boogeyman ate live earthworms.
  • At SHIMMER volume 46, a fan happy to see the return of "Sweet" Saraya handed her a flower, which she proceeded to gnaw to pieces.
  • In the middle of a Pro Wrestling Guerilla World title defense at Death To All But Metal, Kevin Owens began to eat a paper fan because it had the word "Ole" written on it.
  • Leading up to a Valkyrie Women's Pro event, Nyla Rose ate a picture of "Top Shelf" Troy Nelson and then started vomiting blood!

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Ravenloft supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead details its authors' encounter with the Glutton of G'henna, an undead priest cursed with an insatiable appetite. He'd eat food by the wagon-load if it was available, but would gobble up whole livestock, chomp on the appendages of attackers, or even take bites out of trees, if that was all he could reach.
  • Redcaps in Changeling: The Dreaming can eat anything - Wood, steel, romance novels or toxic waste, it doesn't matter - if the redcap can fit it between his upper and lower jaw he can eat it.

    Web Original 
  • In Shadow Unit, increased food consumption (to fuel accelerated brain functions) is one of the telltale signs of a gamma. This applies to betas as well.
  • Daisy Brown does this. In "friendship bracelet" she mentions that she keeps a bell pepper in her room because she forgets to eat, then, realizing that she doesn't have a knife to slice it, simply bites into it whole like an apple. Note, however, that in context Daisy is stuck in a room because of Alan's abuse.

    Western Animation 

 
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Fish Fever

While infected with Fish Fever, Emma eats a raw fish, several cans of sardines, and pours a vase full of water on herself to drink it.

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