Tik Tok star “Spice King Cam” crossed the 10 million subscriber threshold this weekend, and he celebrated with a gauntlet of spicy foods that would leave most people gasping. The social media sensation gulped down raw peppers, Takis, wasabi paste, spicy candy, hot sauces and other novelty products to show his appreciation to his fans.
Spice King Cam has been a rising star on TikTok for a while now, and 10 million followers was a huge benchmark for him. Few were surprised to see that his response was to subject himself to a gauntlet of spice. With each new gastrointestinal stunt, he laughed it off, assuring viewers that it did not even impact him. Those that have followed him for a while know that this is a drop in the bucket by his standards.
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@spicekingcam Reply to @panzerrrr What better way to show my appreciation?
♬ original sound – Spice King
The self-appointed Spice King makes videos like this all the time, devouring snacks that are made for shock value. In extreme cases, he displays the Scovil rating of the foods he eats on the screen, giving viewers some way of judging the severity.
Even since reaching his new subscriber goal, Cam has made seven more videos trying to outdo himself. He traveled to a seafood restaurant for their extremely spicy fair and experimented with a number of intense hot sauces on different spicy snacks. He responded to commenters in several of these videos, taking their challenges and suggestions.
Cam has been expanding his content onto other platforms recently as well, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and Twitter. He joins a growing field of entertainers whose primary platform is TikTok, eschewing the longer forms and production values of other mediums. TikTok only growing more popular in the U.S., especially among younger viewers.
TikTok was founded in 2016 and borrows a bit from the legacy of Vine and other short video-sharing apps. It gives users tools to edit record, edit and publish their videos all on their phone, opening up the possibility for new content like dubbed parodies and video memes.
However, TikTok also raises concerns among many since its parent company, ByteDance is based in China, where information privacy laws are different. Former President Donald Trump even threatened to ban the app within the U.S., fearing it would allow espionage if it was installed on the right phones.
Both TikTok and ByteDance have refuted these concerns, but they persist among American politicians and culture critics. So far, no legal action has been taken against the app in the U.S.
