“Hot Ones: The Game Show” Review by Josh Davis : Pop Culture Leftovers

“Hot Ones: The Game Show” Review by Josh Davis

March 29, 2020 1:46 pm |

A spin-off of the popular YouTube show “Hot Ones,” where celebrities are interviewed while eating a series of 10 progressively hotter chicken or vegan wings, “Hot Ones: The Game Show” packs all of the spice but none of the substance of its namesake.

Set in a Thunderdome style arena dubbed “The Pepperdome,” the game show pits two teams of two in a pop culture trivia showdown. The catch? Before every series of three questions, the contestants must chow down on a blazing hot, hot wing.

While the chat show can be cheeky and fun – depending on the guest – the game show is closer to “Saw” than “Jeopardy.”

Case in point, in the first four minutes of the pilot episode, one contestant remarks “I might have to take a dump” after eating his first wing. Two minutes later he adds, “I’m gonna throw up,” and then vomits on cue into a tin bucket for several minutes as a crowd of several hundred spectators in the arena groans loudly.

“He’s scaring me right now,” another contestant exclaims. You’re not the only one, Nick from Staten Island.

A medic comes in, and poor Brendan from Spanish Fort, Alabama can still be heard heaving during a clip aired at the first commercial break. “I’m in so much pain,” he says.

“Hey, bro, bro, bro, you’re good,” his teammate assures him.

“No. Stop saying that!” Brendan pleads, later adding, “I can’t feel my hands.”

It’s the possibly the lowest common denominator in the sad history of “bro” culture, making “Jersey Shore” seem like a Kenneth Branagh production of “Twelfth Night” in comparison.

After the break, host Sean Evans introduces the second round of wings, called “Eye of the Scorpion” and clocking in at nearly 700,000 on the Scoville scale, which measures the pungency of chili peppers. For reference, an average jalapeño can range from 1,000 to 10,000 on the Scoville Scale.

“As the sauce makes its way through their bloodstream, our players find their vision becoming blurry,” Evans says.

“Brendan, you with me?” Evans asks, to which Brandan burps loudly into his bucket.

While “Hot Ones” the YouTube show is part food porn, often making the wings seem enticing, the game show is closer to torture porn.

Even Evans, often quite insightful as an interviewer, is reduced to lowest common denominator “bro” hype man here.

In the terrible final challenge, two contestants from the remaining team are forced to down a shot glass full of blended hot sauces, including an added dash measuring more than 2 million on the Scoville scale.

Brendan’s partner, Sam, plays the last round with one eye literally swollen shut, although they somehow stick it out to win $25,000 by answering enough trivia questions in a classic “lightning round” format.

“Amazing! From puking in the bucket in round one … to likely puking again just now,” Evans says. “These are the faces of winners,” albeit it swollen and turning green.

At the outset, a woman in an “EMT” uniform administers a milkshake to poor Brendan. “It was a great experience – I threw up,” Vinny from Staten Island says after the show. His partner, moments later, is shown vomiting into a bathroom toilet.

Given the choice, I’d rather pour hot sauce in my eyes than watch another second.

PCL Rating: Toss It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Rotten