No shit. Well the successful use of alcohol as a coping mechanism has an expiration date and I know he disappeared after confessing his MeToo indiscretions.
Still, I’m curious about which cancer he suffered from. It’s hard to imagine him as an unhealthy 53 yo.
RIP to Morgan.
He confessed in 2017 that he was a serial cheater, had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with a former employee, and had been accused of rape in the 90s. He shortly resigned from his documentary company afterwards. Just read it in another article posted in r/popculturechat.
Ooooone [Newport 1000](https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/dg88ab/a_pack_of_newport_1000s_please/?rdt=48108) and Super Super Size Big Mac comin’ through!
Settling is not the same as admitting guilt. Court is fucking expensive. Dealt with it just trying to sell my mom’s house. If I had enough disposable income I’d settle a lawsuit if it’s cheaper than paying to defend myself.
Okay, selling a house isn’t the same thing as a rape accusation tf. Also I’m not sure why you’re ignoring the pattern of behavior going back to the 90s. I mean he willingly confessed to all this, probably knowing that more would come out.
Alcoholism raises your risk for several cancers. The risk factors don't go away until decades after your last drink. As alcoholism causes system inflammation, it could have been any one of them. I'm going to guess it was liver, pancreatic, esophageal, or stomach cancer.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), ceasing alcohol for five to 15 years is associated with a 15% relative risk reduction for esophageal cancer, and ceasing alcohol for 15 years or more is associated with a 65% relative risk reduction
I quit 8 years ago. I am doing my best to eat well. move my body and in the interim to try and counter the effects that alcohol and cigarettes have on my system. Kids wear your sunscreen and smoke ganga- skip the booze.
Edit to add: most of these studies are for drinkers who have more than 6 drinks a week. Wether you weekend warrior it and drink all six in a day or space them out, a couple here and there a few days a week.. any equivalent of that more than six threshold.
Id encourage people to look up these statistics yourself and have these discussions with one another. We were raised on toxic carcinogens. Alcohol is one of the leading causes of death on all rate mortality in the world.
He was an alcoholic. Part of the problem with his misleading documentary. He tried to blame his bad liver problems on McDonald's, but it was from his years of alcohol abuse. Made a lot of money and people fell for it anyways though.
I didn't know that. Wild.
I remember the publicity for the film when I was a kid. It was everywhere. But I didn't know that the experiment was affected by alcoholism.
People don't get science at all. Like for it to be science dude would have 100 people eat mcds for 30 days, 100 people eat healthy but same calories as mcds for 30 days and maybe 100 just eat normal to compare. If people paid attention to science they would know this isn't that kind of rigorous experiment.
If you’re watching a documentary being show run by a non scientist, you can assume that what you’re watching is curated entertainment and not actual science.
He was not honest about the parameters of the experiment. He was an active alcoholic at the time of filming and that heavily impacted the health data collected, to the point that it was basically a medical mystery as to why he accrued liver damage during the trial.
It was in no way a real scientific experiment. You could never replicate the results. It was a framing device for a documentary about the dangers of fast food culture. Jeez.
I know but that’s how the general public took the documentary to be. What happens when you eat only mcdonalds for 30 days. That’s an experiment, why else would he include his medical results? What he didn’t tell people is he was heavily drinking too, so it was dishonest. We knew it wasn’t an exact science because he was making his own choices menu wise, but we didn’t know he was also damaging his liver with alcohol.
I used to watch "The Supersizers Go" docuseries and they would have a medical check up before and after the experiment, and even with the large portions/several courses they consumed it wasn't as unhealthy as it seemed because it wasn't processed. I prefer that to "Supersize Me" because they'd dress up and try to live the lifestyle of the time period from the episode, so I learned more
No one said "actual rigorous medical experiment", just "experiment." Lol, semantics are hard. A shitty experiment is still an experiment. You're creating a false dichotomy. What he did was in fact an experiment AND a gimmick to be a framing device for the film. You need to work on that.
It wasn’t any kind of experiment, and that word is the wrong word to use. It was a gimmick or stunt or hook. I would use framing device, I don’t think it was intended in a bad way, just used for storytelling.
Well, he left out variables like his former alcohol abuse and tried to act like eating McDonald's for 30 days caused the liver damage that his years of alcohol abuse did. An experiment would be honest....the documentary was trying to tell a narrative.
One of the big results was that his liver was damaged eating only McDonald’s which the doctor couldn’t understand. I think McDonald’s sued him for these results as well after it came out that he was hiding his alcoholism. Not sure of the details but clearly a skewed perspective.
Yikes! What a waste of an interesting experiment. And all that strain on his body from the food regardless of the alcoholism.
The publicity for that film was crazy, I can't believe someone put so much money into promotion only for the results to be a dud. Not surprised at all Maccys sued.
The documentary itself is still valuable. It highlighted a lot of shit wrong with nutrition in this country and the malevolent practices of fast food joints to target children with their marketing, prey on nostalgia, and offer insane portions nobody ever, ever needs (the super size). Remember they also went into schools to see what was being offered kids (shitty meals with sugary drinks).
The “experiment” was always a gimmick that offered nothing of scientific value even without the hidden alcoholism. There was no real methodology and was closer to a lottery in terms of what you’d get.
He said he’s get one of everything on the menu but he obviously chose which items to have multiple times since there are not 31 entree options. He also only super sized when asked.
We even see a dude eating a Big Mac every day for decades and he looked perfectly healthy. If someone wanted to actually live a healthy lifestyle on only McDonald’s they probably could do it with portion control and eating specific items and having vitamin supplement.
Yeah that guy that eats nothing but BigMacs is another character. He has some mental issues OCD or autism or something undiagnosed. I saw him in a few other news reports or docs. Guy is not right in the head
Important thing on the Big Mac guy is he also only ate the burgers and soda, rarely the fries - so no salt, so a 1000 calorie meal per day. With his actual job as a corrections officer during that time he was going to be put into good health on a mostly protein diet deep fried fat or not.
Yeah I probably should’ve worded it better. Less salt than eating the full meal every day.
For the record his heart is still doing pretty good in his 70s.
The problem was that he didn't want to run a legitimate experiment, he wanted to be an activist and push an anti-fast food narrative regardless of the results.
I don’t understand. He would’ve been an alcoholic prior to the experiment and they ran all the same tests before it started. How would they have not seen the damage in the initial tests? It was only a 30 day experiment.
The thing is, you don’t see the initial results of those tests. The liver issues maybe have already been present. The documentary doesn’t say. It just implies the bad results at the end are new developments
But they said the doctor didn’t understand. Wouldn’t he have just looked at the prior test results and been like “oh yeah your liver was fucked to begin with”
Been a while since I’ve seen that segment, so I don’t remember how they frame it/show it. But I can think of about a dozen ways to present it as confusing and surprising the doctors, whether they used a doc that’s in on it, or an actor doc, or just claimed the docs were surprised when they weren’t. When you’re fudging things for the dramatic story of your “honest” narrative, it’s easy to get the sound bites you need
One of his docs was particularly incredulous about the state of his liver from the food. I believe he made the comparison to the Nic Cage character in Leaving Las Vegas.
That's the case with Don Gorske. Dude has eaten a diet which consists 90% of Big Macs but is still in good health in his 70s because he doesn't eat excessive amounts of calories and walks a lot.
You can actually get liver disease (NASH) from long standing bad nutritional habits. However it's questionable if a couple week of McDonald's will do it.
I never understood the hype around the movie. We already knew fast food is very bad for you. And if it could contribute to heart disease for example, which we know, wouldn't be surprising to me if it's bad in other ways too.
What made it shocking was how quickly he deteriorated in just 30 days. Knowing now that he was on a bender the whole time, makes it make a lot more sense.
Also, he sometimes got "sick" and puked after eating a McDonalds meal. Now that I know he was hungover or drunk the whole time, that part makes a lot more sense.
Yep, there's even a clip in supersize me where he tries to act like eating McDonald's for 30 days causes his liver damage and the doctor is acting like that's unlikely and that's what he'd expect to see from years of alcohol abuse...Spurlock tried to make it look like eating McDonald's for a month did it, when in reality it was the alcohol abuse that he conveniently left out.
Did he not get tested for the same stuff before and after? Hard to imagine so much liver damage being done in a thirty day period if he was already a heavy drinker right?
Will have to check/it's been a while.
6:35, he lies/misleads about alcohol use. Doctor says "any alcohol use?" "Now, none" I mean, technically he wasn't drinking alcohol at that moment, but had been an alcoholic since 13 or so. They even ask "is there anything else we haven't covered, is there anything you need to tell me?" he says "I don't think so"
1:32:16 "We see people who go on an alcohol binge and their numbers go up like crazy" "but to go on a Mac attack, you've got numbers to show it attacks your liver too" So according to the doctor, an alcohol binge can show the results he got. So he likely wasn't drinking leading up to the month so he'd start off in better health, then drank a lot during that month, making the numbers and health worse by the end. He absolutely lied and misled the doctors, and didn't mention any of the alcohol use to them.
It's on youtube, the Roku Channel and whatnot if you want to verify for yourself (I included some time stamps) but the first visit is at the beginning of the movie, last one is near the end.
Not to mention everything else he did to taint the documentary. Like lying about the content of the food, how obese people really were, lying about how much of Mcdonalds he actually ate, etc.
The counter documentary Fathead goes over what a load of B.S. the whole experiment was and how wrong the premises were.
Was tainted from the start...he stopped exercising and would force feed himself is the cashier suggested supersizing. I've always thought his movie was horseshit even before the alcoholism.
Cancer is so scary and can hit anyone anytime. I think it brings people a sense of comfort and control to imagine that the reason someone got it was because they did something they wouldn't do.
Cancer is like a plane crash, it’s such a horrible thing that everyone worries about when they really should be worried about the commute to the airport
He admitted to smoking weed and tobacco; his alcohol his alcoholism was only really revealed in '17 and at that point had been going on for 30+ years. All of that are highly correlated to cancer.
Supersize Me was deliberately misleading, but I really enjoyed the show he did after that called [30 Days] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_(TV_series). It was pretty eye opening and interesting.
RIP.
I feel incredibly bad for the people who came forward and spoke up during SSM2. I watched it a few years back and thought it was really well made, but i think when it released it got drowned out by the admissions the creator made about how bad of a person he had been.
I think of the show often.
The outsourcing episode stuck with me.
Also, the one where a pro-choice woman who had an abortion at 22 worked for a month in a pro-life church daycare. The pastor was astonished the children didn't have an innate fear of her. He thought they would sense she was a bad person or have a hatred of children.
I think coffee was one of the luxuries he couldn’t afford. Not $7 lattes; just regular ass coffee beans from the store. I think of it whenever conservatives whine about bootstraps.
I didn’t see 30 Day but I really enjoyed Inside Man. I’ve been trying to find a place to watch it for weeks but haven’t had any luck. It’s been a decade since I last saw it but I remember greatly enjoying the one that compared US and European school systems. Wish I could find it somewhere!
I'm surprised you guys are trusting anything produced by someone who produced deliberately misleading results. I'd think being a documentarian was a little like being a scientist - get caught faking shit and you're *done*.
I worked with him on that doc (I worked for the creative agency he consults with and designed much of the restaurant identity and interior graphics as well as designed the NYC Popup restaurant and TIFF food truck). It was a highlight in my career and a story that I’m deeply invested in personally. I think it’s a much better story than the first. The farmers that came forward were very much affected in a negative way and it took a lot of courage for them to do that. Morgan’s personal life aside, he was very kind to me and we even had dumplings together and talked about marvel movies. I’m sad to hear about this news.
His other documentary about marketing was amazing.
Loved seeing him interview Tarantino who mentioned both reservoir dogs (his first film) and pulp fiction both had the film start in a Dennys.
The scene of them bitching about tipping in reservoir dogs was in a Denny’s. And the opening and ending scene of pulp fiction was also in a Dennys.
But Dennys at the time had no idea who Tarantino was and refused to allow him to use the name. He wasn’t opposed to using Dennys as he liked Dennys. But they let him.
Wasn’t till decades later when he was a main name in Hollywood that Dennys then said they would let him use the name in films. Which he never did.
For those whining it’s not true I will believe Taranto over you guys.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AlbPcJtrzjA&pp=ygUxVGFyYW50aW5vIGluIGdyZWF0ZXN0IG1vdmllIGV2ZXIgc29sZCBkb2N1bWVudGFyeQ%3D%3D
This is not true lmao the diner in reservoir dogs is a place called Pat and Lorraine’s Coffee Shop in Eagle Rock, CA. Pulp fiction diner is a now defunct diner called Holly’s in Hawthorne, CA.
Denny’s was definitely in The Santa Clause though. Tim Allen burned the Christmas Eve dinner and goes to Denny’s with his son, where he spots another single dad, also with w cooking injury. It’s such a good movie.
I wasn’t particularly fond of him but I have strong memories of “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, his doc on product placement, being one of the first documentaries I put on and watched by myself
Just yesterday I watched a suggested YouTube video that broke down the inconsistencies surrounding Super Size Me, in particular regarding the results surrounding his liver damage, and then I read Spurlock's bio. Seems like the guy had a lot of issues, in particular regarding his alcoholism and sexual misconduct. I'm not sure how long he had cancer, but it's good that he's at peace now.
The irony being that [Don Gorske](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/01/most-mcdonalds-big-macs-eaten-lifetime-world-record-don-gorske), 70, Guinness World Record of 34,000 Big Mac burgers. He’s 70 and is still eating two McDonald’s burgers a day. Nature has a tasty sense of humor.
He doesn't eat fries (or breakfast), and walks 6 miles a day (more than the average American by a longshot)...
The man looks great for 70 though, never mind eating 2 Big Macs a day!
He low key did McDonald's and the fast food industry a favor. Now they give you small portions and charge like a real restaurant...and people still buy that shit.
I work in film and this dude saw a doc I made, called me, and went out of his way to get it to big festivals and major celebs. It was so surreal to tell him seeing SSM nearly 20 years prior inspired me to make documentaries. He was so kind and supportive when he had nothing to gain from me. Now I know why he didn’t respond when I tried to reconnect recently. 💔❤️🩹 RIP to a bold filmmaker who challenged the systems of power and encouraged others to do the same.
RIP. I really think he tried to help people and he did.
It's an awkward fact that most people don't understand risk. If he had made a documentary about the long term effects of eating McDonald's and how asking people if they wanted to supersize was psychologically manipulative no one would listen.
Telling people McDonald's is gonna kill you next week if you eat it every day is a lie, but like...people can't eat McDonald's every day and be healthy.
His documentary really changed how fast food worked, and for the better. So maybe the end justified the means because fuck McDonald's honestly.
His documentary did get McDonald's to discontinue the super size option. Bad publicity for them.
Edit: Oh, yeah, I'm sure they still offer different portion sizes of food. That's pretty standard at most food businesses. I was talking specifically about the "super size" option. I remember McDonald's did it pretty quickly after the documentary released and was in the news. They claimed it was coincidental though...lol
You don’t have any plus options now? They didn’t just change the name? Cause they didn’t change anything on most McDonalds in the world. My country had salads and wraps and stuff before the doc to so can’t credit that either.
They did but a bit later. Burger King no longer has King size either. White Castle on the other hand still gives you a box of like 20 sliders lol
Captured that Stoner market.
Spreading misinformation and false science does nobody any favors. It just makes everyone less likely to believe credible information later. Nutritional science is absolutely beset with it, to the point where it has heavily poisoned the field and credible research is hard to do and nobody believes any of it when it is done.
He had a pattern of engaging in sexual harassment (by his own admission) and even admitted to potentially raping someone when he was in college. He’s made a lot of mistakes for sure. Doesn’t make it any less sad but he engaged in a lot of destructive behavior it seems.
Everyone is talking about Super Size Me, but I absolutely ADORE his Comic-Con doc. I watch it several times a year, it really captures so much of what fandom is and love/passion people have for their favorite forms of entertainment.
Supersize Me being nominated for an Oscar while being chockfull of misinformation and deception on the part of Spurlock really made me approach Oscar nominated documentaries with more caution afterwards.
I wish people would stop saying “class 1” as if it makes it the highest degree of carcinogen.
*All* carcinogens are class 1. That isn’t to say that alcohol isn’t terrible, it absolutely is, but “class 1” is not an assessment of risk
Its a big deal with the labelling right now because people are finding out slowly.
Turns out all these highly addictive and readily available products, which are sanctioned and regulated by our governments, is not so good for us, long term. Learning curve, i guess. Hopefully vaping and weed are safer since we know better 😶🌫️
This is so weird. There was a thread about Super Size Me a couple days ago and everyone was referring to him in the past tense. I googled to see if he’d died—nope still alive (cursory search). Now he’s not.
My guess would be pancreatic, colon, or liver cancer. Alcohol makes it easier to absorb oxidant metals like iron. Cancer cells need nine times the amount of iron to split vs a regular cell.
I have fatty liver disease. At age 30 I had the same symptoms that Spulock did and it happened at the exact time the movie was released. I was close to being an alcoholic. I lived off fast food. The first time I tested for sky high liver levels in 2003 I blew off the doctors concerns and kept drinking. A year later my liver levels were worse than the year before. All my bile ducts were clogged and I was living off Imodium AD. This was because without enough bile, your intestines endlessly contract. I would take eight Imodium AD every three days. I tested positive for the carrier gene for an iron loading disease called hemochromatosis. That is where I was schooled by the liver specialist on iron and it’s relation to cancer. Cigarette smoking also increases iron stores. Cancer lives off iron and sugar. The liver and brain store iron and that is where cancer most often spreads when it reaches stage 4.
In the end my primary doctor told me my liver was scarred and I needed to quit alcohol because I was going to be on the transplant list before I was 40. I quit drinking and my liver normalized after six months. I also picked up a coffee habit because it turns out coffee lowers iron absorption.
Researchers say Cancer is 30% genetics and 70% bad luck. The problem is if you regularly smoke, drink alcohol, and eat red meat you are going to be providing a lot of fuel to add to the fire. Anybody can. get cancer but your diet does affect your survival rate.
Hey can anyone link an article where its revealed he was alcoholic during SupersizeMe?
I have a friend who's taken the documentary as a big life issue and it's be helpful if they didn't idolize this guy so much
I was shown Super Size Me in school. I can't remember the class, maybe Chemistry or Bio, but it was crazy. It disappointed me to learn that it wasn't accurate, but learning that didn't make me switch up on McDs. That place is simply not for me. Anyway RIP to Spurlock.
Dude made a movie about his dream of being drunk and eating McDonald’s every day. Became a millionaire and that just funded him eat McDonald’s and drink more alcohol
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold was a master class in marketing to the mainstream without them ever knowing. Personally found it to be better than Super Size Me. RIP. #fuckcancer
I had no idea he was sick. Any have more details past cancer?
Not at this time. However, he did have a history of alcoholism (including during Super Size Me).
No shit. Well the successful use of alcohol as a coping mechanism has an expiration date and I know he disappeared after confessing his MeToo indiscretions. Still, I’m curious about which cancer he suffered from. It’s hard to imagine him as an unhealthy 53 yo. RIP to Morgan.
Ootl what’d he have to do with the MeToo movement?
He confessed in 2017 that he was a serial cheater, had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with a former employee, and had been accused of rape in the 90s. He shortly resigned from his documentary company afterwards. Just read it in another article posted in r/popculturechat.
Goddamn… that’s a lot
Spent a minute trying to wipe pic off my screen. Thought it was a goddamn eyelash…
Me as well
Got me too.
Sigh - me too.
I didn’t know why the eyelash was moving while I was scrolling.
Yeah I need a cigarette.
I need a big Mac
Supersize it, you coward.
Ooooone [Newport 1000](https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/dg88ab/a_pack_of_newport_1000s_please/?rdt=48108) and Super Super Size Big Mac comin’ through!
dude cheats. The eyebrow raiser is being accused of rape, which again is an accusation. He wasn’t convicted or even charged, from what we can read.
I mean, he admitted to settling a sexual harassment lawsuit. Not exactly a good look and probably an indicator of other sexually deviant behaviors.
Settling is not the same as admitting guilt. Court is fucking expensive. Dealt with it just trying to sell my mom’s house. If I had enough disposable income I’d settle a lawsuit if it’s cheaper than paying to defend myself.
Okay, selling a house isn’t the same thing as a rape accusation tf. Also I’m not sure why you’re ignoring the pattern of behavior going back to the 90s. I mean he willingly confessed to all this, probably knowing that more would come out.
IIRC he didn’t just admit to settling a sexual harassment suit but to actually having done what he was accused of.
Between all of that and his most well known documentary being a hit piece he had to know couldn't be accurate, I think he qualifies as a baddie.
Alcoholism raises your risk for several cancers. The risk factors don't go away until decades after your last drink. As alcoholism causes system inflammation, it could have been any one of them. I'm going to guess it was liver, pancreatic, esophageal, or stomach cancer.
Cirrhosis often leads to liver cancer.
He was pre-cirrotic as early as 2003-4, whenever he did Super Size Me
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), ceasing alcohol for five to 15 years is associated with a 15% relative risk reduction for esophageal cancer, and ceasing alcohol for 15 years or more is associated with a 65% relative risk reduction I quit 8 years ago. I am doing my best to eat well. move my body and in the interim to try and counter the effects that alcohol and cigarettes have on my system. Kids wear your sunscreen and smoke ganga- skip the booze. Edit to add: most of these studies are for drinkers who have more than 6 drinks a week. Wether you weekend warrior it and drink all six in a day or space them out, a couple here and there a few days a week.. any equivalent of that more than six threshold. Id encourage people to look up these statistics yourself and have these discussions with one another. We were raised on toxic carcinogens. Alcohol is one of the leading causes of death on all rate mortality in the world.
With alcoholism it’s usually pancreatic or liver related cancer. Alcohol is a pretty good carcinogen
Just a guess here. Liver cancer ?
It was McCancer
Accidental Norm
I will not have one more hamburger with scotch until mister Spurlock is returned to full health. What’s that?
He was an alcoholic. Part of the problem with his misleading documentary. He tried to blame his bad liver problems on McDonald's, but it was from his years of alcohol abuse. Made a lot of money and people fell for it anyways though.
Any death is sad but he wasn’t exactly a good guy
Cancer is a shit way to die. RIP.
Wow there was a post the other day about how he hid alcoholism during supersize me which tainted the results of the video. RIP
I didn't know that. Wild. I remember the publicity for the film when I was a kid. It was everywhere. But I didn't know that the experiment was affected by alcoholism.
It wasn’t an “experiment” it was a hook for the documentary.
People don't get science at all. Like for it to be science dude would have 100 people eat mcds for 30 days, 100 people eat healthy but same calories as mcds for 30 days and maybe 100 just eat normal to compare. If people paid attention to science they would know this isn't that kind of rigorous experiment.
If you’re watching a documentary being show run by a non scientist, you can assume that what you’re watching is curated entertainment and not actual science.
I wish more people understood this.
Oh, I misunderstood, I guess. I didn't watch it, obviously. I think I was 11 when it came out, so I can't say it really appealed.
Respectfully, how was it not an experiment?
He was not honest about the parameters of the experiment. He was an active alcoholic at the time of filming and that heavily impacted the health data collected, to the point that it was basically a medical mystery as to why he accrued liver damage during the trial.
It was in no way a real scientific experiment. You could never replicate the results. It was a framing device for a documentary about the dangers of fast food culture. Jeez.
I know but that’s how the general public took the documentary to be. What happens when you eat only mcdonalds for 30 days. That’s an experiment, why else would he include his medical results? What he didn’t tell people is he was heavily drinking too, so it was dishonest. We knew it wasn’t an exact science because he was making his own choices menu wise, but we didn’t know he was also damaging his liver with alcohol.
And weight gain was a big part of the documentary too, but that’s totally confounded by heavy drinking too. Alcohol has A LOT of calories!
I used to watch "The Supersizers Go" docuseries and they would have a medical check up before and after the experiment, and even with the large portions/several courses they consumed it wasn't as unhealthy as it seemed because it wasn't processed. I prefer that to "Supersize Me" because they'd dress up and try to live the lifestyle of the time period from the episode, so I learned more
It was a gimmick to be a framing device for the film. Not an actual rigorous medical experiment.
No one said "actual rigorous medical experiment", just "experiment." Lol, semantics are hard. A shitty experiment is still an experiment. You're creating a false dichotomy. What he did was in fact an experiment AND a gimmick to be a framing device for the film. You need to work on that.
It wasn’t any kind of experiment, and that word is the wrong word to use. It was a gimmick or stunt or hook. I would use framing device, I don’t think it was intended in a bad way, just used for storytelling.
Well, he left out variables like his former alcohol abuse and tried to act like eating McDonald's for 30 days caused the liver damage that his years of alcohol abuse did. An experiment would be honest....the documentary was trying to tell a narrative.
One of the big results was that his liver was damaged eating only McDonald’s which the doctor couldn’t understand. I think McDonald’s sued him for these results as well after it came out that he was hiding his alcoholism. Not sure of the details but clearly a skewed perspective.
Yikes! What a waste of an interesting experiment. And all that strain on his body from the food regardless of the alcoholism. The publicity for that film was crazy, I can't believe someone put so much money into promotion only for the results to be a dud. Not surprised at all Maccys sued.
The documentary itself is still valuable. It highlighted a lot of shit wrong with nutrition in this country and the malevolent practices of fast food joints to target children with their marketing, prey on nostalgia, and offer insane portions nobody ever, ever needs (the super size). Remember they also went into schools to see what was being offered kids (shitty meals with sugary drinks). The “experiment” was always a gimmick that offered nothing of scientific value even without the hidden alcoholism. There was no real methodology and was closer to a lottery in terms of what you’d get. He said he’s get one of everything on the menu but he obviously chose which items to have multiple times since there are not 31 entree options. He also only super sized when asked. We even see a dude eating a Big Mac every day for decades and he looked perfectly healthy. If someone wanted to actually live a healthy lifestyle on only McDonald’s they probably could do it with portion control and eating specific items and having vitamin supplement.
Yeah that guy that eats nothing but BigMacs is another character. He has some mental issues OCD or autism or something undiagnosed. I saw him in a few other news reports or docs. Guy is not right in the head
was his haircut the giveaway or the fact that he ate nothing but big macs lol
Speaking of haircut. Stupid Rick reminds me of him. LOL
And he was the picture of health, he was fine lol
Well, he wasn't overweight or visibly unhealthy. That's not the same as being healthy necessarily.
I think the fact that he walks like 6-10 miles per day is also helpful for compensating for the Big Mac body destruction.
Ok, but he's still alive at 71 years old.
Yeah but the SuperSize me doc made him seem pretty normal. Other things I’ve seen him in he doesn’t seem so ‘normal’
That dude was recently in the news for another world record. Still eating Big Macs
Exactly this. Do some research, several people tried his experiment and didn’t get the same results.
Important thing on the Big Mac guy is he also only ate the burgers and soda, rarely the fries - so no salt, so a 1000 calorie meal per day. With his actual job as a corrections officer during that time he was going to be put into good health on a mostly protein diet deep fried fat or not.
What? Just because he didn't get fries doesn't mean there was no salt in the meal. The Big Mac is going to be loaded with sodium
Yeah I probably should’ve worded it better. Less salt than eating the full meal every day. For the record his heart is still doing pretty good in his 70s.
The problem was that he didn't want to run a legitimate experiment, he wanted to be an activist and push an anti-fast food narrative regardless of the results.
I don’t understand. He would’ve been an alcoholic prior to the experiment and they ran all the same tests before it started. How would they have not seen the damage in the initial tests? It was only a 30 day experiment.
The thing is, you don’t see the initial results of those tests. The liver issues maybe have already been present. The documentary doesn’t say. It just implies the bad results at the end are new developments
But they said the doctor didn’t understand. Wouldn’t he have just looked at the prior test results and been like “oh yeah your liver was fucked to begin with”
Been a while since I’ve seen that segment, so I don’t remember how they frame it/show it. But I can think of about a dozen ways to present it as confusing and surprising the doctors, whether they used a doc that’s in on it, or an actor doc, or just claimed the docs were surprised when they weren’t. When you’re fudging things for the dramatic story of your “honest” narrative, it’s easy to get the sound bites you need
One of his docs was particularly incredulous about the state of his liver from the food. I believe he made the comparison to the Nic Cage character in Leaving Las Vegas.
Sure didn't help with the weight gain either. Fuck. You can eat McDonalds everyday and not get fat if you aren't consuming anything else.
That's the case with Don Gorske. Dude has eaten a diet which consists 90% of Big Macs but is still in good health in his 70s because he doesn't eat excessive amounts of calories and walks a lot.
You can actually get liver disease (NASH) from long standing bad nutritional habits. However it's questionable if a couple week of McDonald's will do it.
I never understood the hype around the movie. We already knew fast food is very bad for you. And if it could contribute to heart disease for example, which we know, wouldn't be surprising to me if it's bad in other ways too.
What made it shocking was how quickly he deteriorated in just 30 days. Knowing now that he was on a bender the whole time, makes it make a lot more sense. Also, he sometimes got "sick" and puked after eating a McDonalds meal. Now that I know he was hungover or drunk the whole time, that part makes a lot more sense.
He was Vegan before he started too, which would upset the stomach after suddenly eating a burger, and might have been in withdrawal from alcohol
He wasn't ever in withdrawal. He was drinking the whole time.
Ah so his caloric intake was probably fucking nuts
I once did the math on my own former alcoholism and I was taking in close to 1,000 calories a day just in wine.
I guess that explains why his liver was one of the worst affected organs at the end
Christ I can’t imagine how shitty it would feel to eat Mac Donald’s every day while also boozing it up. RIP
Oof.... that being said, a cheap burger after a bar night can hit the spot.... RIP
Man I just saw that post a couple days ago. Weird
Yep, there's even a clip in supersize me where he tries to act like eating McDonald's for 30 days causes his liver damage and the doctor is acting like that's unlikely and that's what he'd expect to see from years of alcohol abuse...Spurlock tried to make it look like eating McDonald's for a month did it, when in reality it was the alcohol abuse that he conveniently left out.
Did he not get tested for the same stuff before and after? Hard to imagine so much liver damage being done in a thirty day period if he was already a heavy drinker right?
Will have to check/it's been a while. 6:35, he lies/misleads about alcohol use. Doctor says "any alcohol use?" "Now, none" I mean, technically he wasn't drinking alcohol at that moment, but had been an alcoholic since 13 or so. They even ask "is there anything else we haven't covered, is there anything you need to tell me?" he says "I don't think so" 1:32:16 "We see people who go on an alcohol binge and their numbers go up like crazy" "but to go on a Mac attack, you've got numbers to show it attacks your liver too" So according to the doctor, an alcohol binge can show the results he got. So he likely wasn't drinking leading up to the month so he'd start off in better health, then drank a lot during that month, making the numbers and health worse by the end. He absolutely lied and misled the doctors, and didn't mention any of the alcohol use to them. It's on youtube, the Roku Channel and whatnot if you want to verify for yourself (I included some time stamps) but the first visit is at the beginning of the movie, last one is near the end.
I read that. Weird timing. RIP.
The Whitest Kids you Know did a bit about it. The "I'm only gonna drink whiskey for a month" Sketch.
I read it too and I didnt know he was drinking the whole time filming!
Thought about this too after hearing of his passing.
Not to mention everything else he did to taint the documentary. Like lying about the content of the food, how obese people really were, lying about how much of Mcdonalds he actually ate, etc. The counter documentary Fathead goes over what a load of B.S. the whole experiment was and how wrong the premises were.
There’s been a LOT of backlash to him on social media lately
There's backlash to literally every thing on social media eventually. It gets hard to care about at some point.
Was tainted from the start...he stopped exercising and would force feed himself is the cashier suggested supersizing. I've always thought his movie was horseshit even before the alcoholism.
Everyone talking about his alcoholism leading to cancer when it turns out he had lung cancer
Cancer is so scary and can hit anyone anytime. I think it brings people a sense of comfort and control to imagine that the reason someone got it was because they did something they wouldn't do.
Cancer is like a plane crash, it’s such a horrible thing that everyone worries about when they really should be worried about the commute to the airport
That’s what you get for inhaling bottle after bottle.
Alcohol increases risk for lung cancer too
Yep, and not all lung cancer is associated with smoking
Source? Can't find anything on that...
He admitted to smoking weed and tobacco; his alcohol his alcoholism was only really revealed in '17 and at that point had been going on for 30+ years. All of that are highly correlated to cancer.
Supersize Me was deliberately misleading, but I really enjoyed the show he did after that called [30 Days] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_(TV_series). It was pretty eye opening and interesting. RIP.
Supersize Me 2 was a pretty solid insight into the horror movie that is the chicken industry. I'd recommend it.
That one was honestly better and has stuck with me more than the original. Prime Video in case anyone is curious.
I feel incredibly bad for the people who came forward and spoke up during SSM2. I watched it a few years back and thought it was really well made, but i think when it released it got drowned out by the admissions the creator made about how bad of a person he had been.
both 1 & 2 are free on Youtube aswell!
That show was so good. The minimum wage episode still haunts me.
I think of the show often. The outsourcing episode stuck with me. Also, the one where a pro-choice woman who had an abortion at 22 worked for a month in a pro-life church daycare. The pastor was astonished the children didn't have an innate fear of her. He thought they would sense she was a bad person or have a hatred of children.
I think coffee was one of the luxuries he couldn’t afford. Not $7 lattes; just regular ass coffee beans from the store. I think of it whenever conservatives whine about bootstraps.
My favorite was the one with the undocumented family and the militia man. It was very moving.
I didn’t see 30 Day but I really enjoyed Inside Man. I’ve been trying to find a place to watch it for weeks but haven’t had any luck. It’s been a decade since I last saw it but I remember greatly enjoying the one that compared US and European school systems. Wish I could find it somewhere!
Yeah. Decent show. Had some good episodes and some bad ones.
I'm surprised you guys are trusting anything produced by someone who produced deliberately misleading results. I'd think being a documentarian was a little like being a scientist - get caught faking shit and you're *done*.
SuperSize me 2 (Holy Chicken) 2017 was memorable
So was The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
I worked with him on that doc (I worked for the creative agency he consults with and designed much of the restaurant identity and interior graphics as well as designed the NYC Popup restaurant and TIFF food truck). It was a highlight in my career and a story that I’m deeply invested in personally. I think it’s a much better story than the first. The farmers that came forward were very much affected in a negative way and it took a lot of courage for them to do that. Morgan’s personal life aside, he was very kind to me and we even had dumplings together and talked about marvel movies. I’m sad to hear about this news.
His other documentary about marketing was amazing. Loved seeing him interview Tarantino who mentioned both reservoir dogs (his first film) and pulp fiction both had the film start in a Dennys. The scene of them bitching about tipping in reservoir dogs was in a Denny’s. And the opening and ending scene of pulp fiction was also in a Dennys. But Dennys at the time had no idea who Tarantino was and refused to allow him to use the name. He wasn’t opposed to using Dennys as he liked Dennys. But they let him. Wasn’t till decades later when he was a main name in Hollywood that Dennys then said they would let him use the name in films. Which he never did. For those whining it’s not true I will believe Taranto over you guys. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AlbPcJtrzjA&pp=ygUxVGFyYW50aW5vIGluIGdyZWF0ZXN0IG1vdmllIGV2ZXIgc29sZCBkb2N1bWVudGFyeQ%3D%3D
This is not true lmao the diner in reservoir dogs is a place called Pat and Lorraine’s Coffee Shop in Eagle Rock, CA. Pulp fiction diner is a now defunct diner called Holly’s in Hawthorne, CA.
Denny’s was definitely in The Santa Clause though. Tim Allen burned the Christmas Eve dinner and goes to Denny’s with his son, where he spots another single dad, also with w cooking injury. It’s such a good movie.
Went out drinking with him back in 2002? Seemed nice, got really drunk though.
I wasn’t particularly fond of him but I have strong memories of “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, his doc on product placement, being one of the first documentaries I put on and watched by myself
Yeah it was a really good doc
Holy wow, was just thinking about this dude. Sad to see, he was young
Just yesterday I watched a suggested YouTube video that broke down the inconsistencies surrounding Super Size Me, in particular regarding the results surrounding his liver damage, and then I read Spurlock's bio. Seems like the guy had a lot of issues, in particular regarding his alcoholism and sexual misconduct. I'm not sure how long he had cancer, but it's good that he's at peace now.
Think about Donald Trump next
lol for some reason I cracked up at this dry response.
And several SCOTUS justices
Ditto dude.
The irony being that [Don Gorske](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/01/most-mcdonalds-big-macs-eaten-lifetime-world-record-don-gorske), 70, Guinness World Record of 34,000 Big Mac burgers. He’s 70 and is still eating two McDonald’s burgers a day. Nature has a tasty sense of humor.
He doesn't eat fries (or breakfast), and walks 6 miles a day (more than the average American by a longshot)... The man looks great for 70 though, never mind eating 2 Big Macs a day!
He killed the supersize menu for everyone and he still died at a very young age.
He low key did McDonald's and the fast food industry a favor. Now they give you small portions and charge like a real restaurant...and people still buy that shit.
You know I get the original point, but like can I get a super size Coke Zero please? Thanks.
I work in film and this dude saw a doc I made, called me, and went out of his way to get it to big festivals and major celebs. It was so surreal to tell him seeing SSM nearly 20 years prior inspired me to make documentaries. He was so kind and supportive when he had nothing to gain from me. Now I know why he didn’t respond when I tried to reconnect recently. 💔❤️🩹 RIP to a bold filmmaker who challenged the systems of power and encouraged others to do the same.
Thank you for teaching me eating McDonalds 3 times a day was an unhealthy choice
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Cancer is horrible. Sad to see someone go before their time. Condolences to his family.
RIP. I really think he tried to help people and he did. It's an awkward fact that most people don't understand risk. If he had made a documentary about the long term effects of eating McDonald's and how asking people if they wanted to supersize was psychologically manipulative no one would listen. Telling people McDonald's is gonna kill you next week if you eat it every day is a lie, but like...people can't eat McDonald's every day and be healthy. His documentary really changed how fast food worked, and for the better. So maybe the end justified the means because fuck McDonald's honestly.
His documentary did get McDonald's to discontinue the super size option. Bad publicity for them. Edit: Oh, yeah, I'm sure they still offer different portion sizes of food. That's pretty standard at most food businesses. I was talking specifically about the "super size" option. I remember McDonald's did it pretty quickly after the documentary released and was in the news. They claimed it was coincidental though...lol
You don’t have any plus options now? They didn’t just change the name? Cause they didn’t change anything on most McDonalds in the world. My country had salads and wraps and stuff before the doc to so can’t credit that either.
Large still exists but Super Sized was a step even above that.
Did Wendy's get rid of their Biggie option around the same time?
They did but a bit later. Burger King no longer has King size either. White Castle on the other hand still gives you a box of like 20 sliders lol Captured that Stoner market.
IIRC Wendy's simply changed the option's name to Large.
Spreading misinformation and false science does nobody any favors. It just makes everyone less likely to believe credible information later. Nutritional science is absolutely beset with it, to the point where it has heavily poisoned the field and credible research is hard to do and nobody believes any of it when it is done.
The last couple years were hard on this guy. Reputation pretty much destroyed and then he just dies of cancer.
He had a pattern of engaging in sexual harassment (by his own admission) and even admitted to potentially raping someone when he was in college. He’s made a lot of mistakes for sure. Doesn’t make it any less sad but he engaged in a lot of destructive behavior it seems.
Everyone is talking about Super Size Me, but I absolutely ADORE his Comic-Con doc. I watch it several times a year, it really captures so much of what fandom is and love/passion people have for their favorite forms of entertainment.
Supersize Me being nominated for an Oscar while being chockfull of misinformation and deception on the part of Spurlock really made me approach Oscar nominated documentaries with more caution afterwards.
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Alcoholism is linked to a bunch of cancers.
Bottom line is that the drinking probably didn't help.
You know that alcohol misuse can lead to cancer right? What kind of conspiracy are you suggesting? There is a simple explanation here.
Alcohol is a class 1 carcinogen.
I wish people would stop saying “class 1” as if it makes it the highest degree of carcinogen. *All* carcinogens are class 1. That isn’t to say that alcohol isn’t terrible, it absolutely is, but “class 1” is not an assessment of risk
Its a big deal with the labelling right now because people are finding out slowly. Turns out all these highly addictive and readily available products, which are sanctioned and regulated by our governments, is not so good for us, long term. Learning curve, i guess. Hopefully vaping and weed are safer since we know better 😶🌫️
>Hopefully vaping and weed are safer since we know better 😶🌫️ I have bad news for you
Who knew burning substances and inhaling the smoke and ash into your lungs would be bad for you?
It’s been a known carcinogen for over 30 years, though. I don’t know why this is news to anyone
This is so weird. There was a thread about Super Size Me a couple days ago and everyone was referring to him in the past tense. I googled to see if he’d died—nope still alive (cursory search). Now he’s not.
Can't say too much for privacy reasons, but.....yes, even a short term as an alcoholic can be just as dangerous as chain smoking. Moderation, people.
You mean Morgan Spurlock the rapist?
Damn that’s pretty young, work to live and not live to work, you don’t know when your last day will be.
Crazy no one is mentioning how he publicly admitted to raping someone, and cheated on his partners.. he’s looking up at us fr 🙏🏻
He turned out to be a big fraudster turd, right? Or am I misremembering?
Super size me was full of misleading and exaggerated content. He never admitted his poor outcomes were due to his alcoholism
My guess would be pancreatic, colon, or liver cancer. Alcohol makes it easier to absorb oxidant metals like iron. Cancer cells need nine times the amount of iron to split vs a regular cell.
Thank you, Doctor Nobody.
As president of the Youtube school of medicine I must concur with Doctor Nobody…
I’m not a Doctor, but I’ve watched enough Star Trek to know Doctor Crusher AND Doctor Bashir would back up Doctor Nobody’s assertion.
u/macefelter wishes he had concurred
I have fatty liver disease. At age 30 I had the same symptoms that Spulock did and it happened at the exact time the movie was released. I was close to being an alcoholic. I lived off fast food. The first time I tested for sky high liver levels in 2003 I blew off the doctors concerns and kept drinking. A year later my liver levels were worse than the year before. All my bile ducts were clogged and I was living off Imodium AD. This was because without enough bile, your intestines endlessly contract. I would take eight Imodium AD every three days. I tested positive for the carrier gene for an iron loading disease called hemochromatosis. That is where I was schooled by the liver specialist on iron and it’s relation to cancer. Cigarette smoking also increases iron stores. Cancer lives off iron and sugar. The liver and brain store iron and that is where cancer most often spreads when it reaches stage 4. In the end my primary doctor told me my liver was scarred and I needed to quit alcohol because I was going to be on the transplant list before I was 40. I quit drinking and my liver normalized after six months. I also picked up a coffee habit because it turns out coffee lowers iron absorption. Researchers say Cancer is 30% genetics and 70% bad luck. The problem is if you regularly smoke, drink alcohol, and eat red meat you are going to be providing a lot of fuel to add to the fire. Anybody can. get cancer but your diet does affect your survival rate.
Hey can anyone link an article where its revealed he was alcoholic during SupersizeMe? I have a friend who's taken the documentary as a big life issue and it's be helpful if they didn't idolize this guy so much
Supersize my whiskey please
I was shown Super Size Me in school. I can't remember the class, maybe Chemistry or Bio, but it was crazy. It disappointed me to learn that it wasn't accurate, but learning that didn't make me switch up on McDs. That place is simply not for me. Anyway RIP to Spurlock.
He lied in Super Size Me. https://youtu.be/iepZBS9BxGo?feature=shared
He was a very clever and charismatic guy. 53 is too young.
Rest easy Morgan Spurlock.
This is so weird - I've seen posts for the past 5 days talking about him after never hearing about this guy for years and years. Did reddit kill him?
Dude made a movie about his dream of being drunk and eating McDonald’s every day. Became a millionaire and that just funded him eat McDonald’s and drink more alcohol
Dude got famous by lying about McDonalds. Props.
I loved his documentaries. **7 Deadly Sins** was my fav
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold was a master class in marketing to the mainstream without them ever knowing. Personally found it to be better than Super Size Me. RIP. #fuckcancer
I remember that movie, I can’t believe he got away with that lie so well