The One Celebrity Who Refuses To Do Hot Ones

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of Hot Ones, allow us to give you a brief rundown — celebrities eat ever-increasing hot wings while answering ever-increasing intimate questions. "Our Hot Ones interview show is all about deconstructing celebrities and making them seem like normal people," host Sean Evans told The Hollywood Reporter. Got it? Good. 

The popular YouTube show has hosted a wide range of celebrities ranging from food stars like Guy Fieri to Oscar-winning actors such as Charlize Theron. It's pretty much an honor (and a promise of fiery pain) to get an invitation to go on the show. That said, not every celebrity is jumping at the chance to put their tongue through repeating rounds of liquid fire. One celeb, in particular, is in the "thanks, but no thanks" category and another may have burned his bridge to an invite. 

With guests like Gordon Ramsay earning 47 million views, it's easy to see just how popular Hot Ones has become on YouTube. Appearing on an episode arguably puts celebrities in front of more viewers than a late-night talk show appearance, but not all celebs want to do the show. Comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan recently said that he has no interest in doing the show, mostly because it looks like such an unpleasant experience. "I don't want to do that wings show," Rogan told fellow comedian Brendan Schaub. "It's not a good way to talk, man. While snots coming out of your nose, you're crying."

It's not that Rogan doesn't like spicy food either. Rogan, who has one of the top 10 podcasts on iTunes, went on to say that he enjoys spicy food — just in the right context. "Why are you asking people personal questions while they're crying?" Rogan joked. 

Joe Rogan is certainly accustomed to people eating unpleasant things. After all, he witnessed some of the worst food challenges while hosting Fear Factor. Even though he doesn't seem remotely interested in doing Hot Ones, a lot of fans of the show seem totally okay with that. On the Hot Ones Reddit page, an overwhelming number of people seemed relieved that he didn't want to go on. 

"I'd rather watch paint dry than see this guy on Hot Ones," said one person. "Yeah I agree, his excuse here is a pretty cheap cop out. He's also missed the entire point of the show," concluded another fan on Reddit.

Rogan isn't the only celeb who has yet to jump at the chance to eat blistering hot wings while on camera. We can also count filmmaker Kevin Smith among that bunch. In September 2019, Smith released a video titled "Not Ones," in which he and his "hetero life mate," Jason Mewes lampooned the show with Mewes eating vegan hot wings. It was all part of a promotion for Smith's film Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, but Smith hinted that Hot Ones had rejected him. "I thought with a new movie coming out that we would be able to go on to that show," Smith confessed to Mewes. "But our publicist reached out to the other show and they said they weren't interested." 

Smith further drummed up the parody with a tweet that Hot Ones had rejected Jay and Silent Bob from the show. (via Rogue Rocket). Not surprisingly, fans of both Smith and Hot Ones were a little peeved that he had been turned down. 

Naturally, Sean Evans took quick notice of Kevin Smith's parody and claimed that Hot Ones had not turned him down. Evans seemed to dodge any blame for not wanting Smith on the show, and chalked it up to a misstep in communication and scheduling. 

"I have to address this Kevin Smith situation, which is by the way, blown up completely out of proportion," Evans said in a video on Twitter. "For the record, we have never ever passed on Kevin Smith for lack of interest, In fact, we had a conversation going with his team that I thought was going really positive."

In yet another tweet as a follow-up to Evans tweet, Smith maintained that "not interested" was indeed the response he got from the Hot Ones team, but assured fans the parody was all in jest and not mean-spirited and agreed that scheduling conflicts were to blame. Evans seemed cool with the apology, tweeting "no hard feelings" so who knows, maybe Kevin Smith will one day find himself in the hot seat. Joe Rogan, on the other hand, probably will never be.