I think the hot wings do a couple things, give them a sort of trajectory for the interview, make interviewee more vulnerable, and gimmick for brand recognition. The interviewer is also just really good at his job and asks interesting questions, so it could probably work without that stuff but certainly wouldn't have the notoriety it currently does.
Eating hot wings is a pretty standard food challenge in the states. Many local wings places were doing it long before this YouTube show. (Like "if you can eat this plate of ghost pepper wings you get them for free and your picture on the wall") I don't know much about the brand but they definitely were always planning on doing food related things based on the name "first we feast" and this idea makes sense. The interviews are otherwise normal and like I said have this guy who's a good interviewer. If you're curious, find a celebrity you like and watch that episode. Or you can just forget the whole thing because I assure you there are much weirder premises for interview shows.
totally understand the premise of eating hot wings, I have a friend who is super into them and enters contents and impresses large men with her heat-eating ability
it's just baffling to me as a context for Getting To Know Someone, which I'm beginning to understand is how some of you are seeing it
idk how else to explain that it's weird to me that watching someone suffer a food makes them relatable/likable, which leaves me with the idea that it's me that's weird here
everybody else gets it, and I get that, but it is very weird to me
edit: also, I'm not looking for weird interview shows to make celebrities relatable. they will never be relatable to me, fuck celebrities ❤️
The juxtaposition of the challenge and the interview was the novelty that I think gave hot ones its initial appeal though, to be trite the suffering is the point
it revolves around making both the host and said interviewee increasingly suffer by way of capsaicin while general interview questions (both career and personal) are asked. they do a "flight" of incrementally-hotter hot sauces until it's just asinine scoville levels toward the end. idk what the gag is here, if the VA ate wings as the character or what. I don't care enough to watch it to figure this one out.
Competent host: Sean Evans seems like a perfectly normal guy with above average charisma that isn't as manufactured as Fake Laugh Fallon or Waitstaff Abuser Cordon. The team also seems to do their research in terms of guests and tend to ask questions they didn't already just answer in another interview
Novel premise: Instead of the host asking raunchy or off cuff questions, the host asks mundane albeit obscure questions regarding the celebrity in question loses composure due to increasing spice. A part of the spectacle is seeing someone famous lose composure in a way that isn't in a public mental breakdown or substance induced rampage.
Generally wholesome: Or at the very least not mean spirited. Despite some dramatic sound effects added after the fact, the show is actually extremely benign and doesn't antagonize anyone. Fairly accommodating, if the interviewee is vegan they'll have vegan wings, if they don't eat processed food they get like fried cauliflower.
I get the appeal and have seen like 4 or 5 episodes.
people don't watch celebrities for intellectual reasons as your comment would seem to expect. Its for the spectacle / parasocial relations / interpassivity. To marx, the substitution of actual social life with the commodity. As such, the value of the commodity is the illusion of realness, and yes seeing them in pain does enhance this via our brains wiring toward empathy.