How fast can nihilist punk hero Brendan Kelly choke down a large Arby’s combo?
Over here at The A.V. Club, we’re big fans of pushing limits, whether we’re talking about how many movies we can see in a year or how many gifs we can use on our Slack channel before someone gets annoyed and snaps. That’s why we chose to pit one of our own staffers, David Anthony, against The Lawrence Arms’ Brendan Kelly—who also runs the hilarious Twitter account @Nihilist_Arbys—in an all-out sweaty, shake-infused Arby’s eating challenge. The two go head-to-head in the latest Talent Show, racing to choke down a large Beef ’N Cheddar (560 calories), large Curly Fries (650 calories), and a large Jamocha Shake (850 calories), all while avoiding the dreaded “reversal of fortune.” The results, which you’ll see above, are repulsive, but like all of history’s finest and most respected journalists, we’re committed to doing just about anything to get the story.
The Lawrence Arms’ latest record, Metropole, is out now on Epitaph Records. Kelly also fronts punk supergroup The Falcon, which is releasing its first new record in 10 years on March 18 via Red Scare.