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For millions of<\/span> Americans, Guy Fieri\u2019s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives<\/em> is a comfort show.<\/p>\n With more than 500 episodes<\/a> produced and aired over nearly two decades, it serves as a Food Network<\/a> staple that runs in nine-hour blocks, with Fieri himself\u2014the peroxide blond Mayor of Flavortown\u2014a reassuringly familiar and upbeat guide to the nation\u2019s mainstream cuisines.<\/p>\n But what if the pleasure Fieri apparently takes in sampling all those burgers<\/a> and tacos<\/a> was a deception of sorts? Could it be that each declaration of \u201cThat\u2019s money!\u201d or \u201cI\u2019d eat that off a flip-flop!\u201d isn\u2019t totally sincere? Is it possible that the entire loud Fieri aesthetic, from the flame-patterned shirts and cherry-red convertible to wrap-around shades and frosted tips, serves to conceal a quiet yet devastating truth?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the contention of a video creator and Twitch<\/a> streamer known as Doctor Spaghetti<\/a>, who has lately gone viral with an explosive claim: Fieri never swallows the food he eats on the show. The conspiracy theory<\/a> has gained surprising traction<\/a> across social media<\/a>, even as chefs and television industry professionals who say they\u2019ve worked with Fieri dismissed it as ridiculous.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as my thoughts on Guy before all this, I didn’t have many, to be honest,\u201d Doctor Spaghetti, who declined to give his real name for fear of harassment by Fieri fans, tells WIRED. \u201cI thought some of his catchphrases\u2014\u2018That\u2019s gangster!\u2019\u2014were really corny, but other than that, I didn’t really care either way. It wasn’t until this theory was born that I started to look closer.\u201d<\/p>\n For whatever reason, Fieri has often been the subject of both silly internet rumors and unhinged conspiracy theories. One popular conceit was that Fieri and his late friend Steve Harwell, lead singer of Smash Mouth, were actually the same person<\/a>. (Harwell died in 2023.) Elsewhere, some Pizzagate believers attempted to implicate Fieri in their baseless conspiracy theory because the host had taped a segment for his show<\/a> in Washington, DC\u2019s Comet Ping Pong pizzeria.<\/p>\n Two weeks ago, when Doctor Spaghetti was streaming himself playing a video game, a viewer in his chat room tipped him off to the idea that Fieri doesn\u2019t swallow food on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives<\/em>, with the camera shot always cutting away before he\u2019s done chewing. \u201cMy initial thought was that it’s too dumb to have any credibility, but also too dumb to ignore,\u201d he says. When he set about analyzing the series with a mind to debunk the claim, however, he found that \u201cthe show’s cuts were just incredibly suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n In a series of videos that have collectively amassed about a million likes on Instagram, Doctor Spaghetti showcases various kitchen scenes in which Fieri is tasting a dish but is not shown swallowing. In the first one<\/a>, he jokes that Fieri\u2019s beard \u201cis there to disguise his neck so that you can\u2019t tell.\u201d For another video<\/a>, he slowed down footage that, on closer inspection, shows Fieri lifting chopsticks to his face without anything on them. Doctor Spaghetti also scrubbed through an episode from 17 years ago, reasoning that \u201cin the early days he must have swallowed,\u201d and found a moment<\/a> when Fieri pulled a spoon out of his mouth with the food still on it. He compiled much of his research into a half-hour YouTube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFully invested,\u201d wrote one commenter on Doctor Spaghetti\u2019s Instagram account. \u201cDiners, Drive-ins, and LIES??!!\u201d another replied.<\/p>\n As critics of the conspiracy theory<\/a> were quick to point out, some of this sleight-of-fork<\/a> is to be expected in the production of DDD<\/em>. Fieri visits lots of restaurants in a short span of time and can\u2019t eat full meals at all of them. Sometimes a second or third (or tenth) take is necessary, and it\u2019s not practical to take a new bite for each. Certain editing choices are no doubt for the sake of continuity and flow: does the audience really want or need those few extra seconds of awkward silence as Fieri finishes chewing a morsel of barbecued meat and gulps it down?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n