Trevor Noah Rides a Pain Rollercoaster While Eating Spicy Wings - Hot Ones.mp4

It's just pain. What? Why? There's no good memories. This is not the bomb. This is trash. Hey, what's going on everybody? For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones. It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings. And today we're joined by Trevor Noah. He's the host of the Emmy Award winning The Daily Show on Comedy Central. He's also written a New York Times bestseller. It's called Born a Crime? Stories from a South African Childhood. Trevor Noah, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. You once tweeted that starting your day with chicken wings is like pouring paraffin into a Ferrari. So I take it you can handle your heat? Man, I don't even know why I'm here to be honest with you. I love chicken wings. I like hot food. But when it's a competition, that's never a good idea. Any hot food eating endeavor I've gone on has ended very badly. So this is just us beginning? This is just our baby steps. Okay. This is the beginning? This is nice. Just tingles the tip of your tongue, you know? So when we had Charlize Theron on the show, she gave us a crash course in Afrikaans and taught me how to say Yomasopus. Oh, wow. Okay, wow. Alright. As somebody who speaks seven languages themselves, can you give me a Zulu phrase that I can incorporate into my everyday life? You'd use it for your show, Ngilambile. Ngilambile? Yeah, which means I'm hungry. Oh, Ngilambile. You need that all the time. Which South African delicacy do you think deserves more shine? Slap chips, bunny chow, or biltong? Biltong. I think biltong deserves a lot more shine. Because, like, here's the thing. Bunny chow, I've seen versions of it in the world. You know, people will take bread and put a bit of curry inside of it. I've seen some version of that. Slap chips, I mean, it's just like how you, you know, it's not French fries. It's just bigger portions of potato that have been cooked, you know? But biltong is amazing, man. It's like, I remember when I came to America and someone was like, have you tried jerky? And it's trash. Jerky's trash. I don't care who you are, jerky's trash. It's got a whole bunch of, like, sodium and whatnots and, like, sugar. And why do you have sugar in your meat? Like, what is this? Whereas biltong is just spiced, dried meat. It is the most delicious thing you've ever eaten if you eat it right. I guess the name as well, biltong. Right. It's not a sexy name. You know what I mean? Like, if your girlfriend said to you, tonight, me, you, biltong. I'd be like, I got plans. See? It's branding. That's the problem. It has a nice flavor. I can taste the pineapple. So you're a self-described roller coaster whore who dreams of touring the best thrill rides in America. What's been your most harrowing amusement park experience? I went and I rode Harry Potter out at Universal, I think it is. I love roller coasters, and the Harry Potter ride's one of the best. And the ride stopped in the middle. At first, I was like, oh, this is part of the ride. It's crazy. And then I was like, no, no, it's not. Something's wrong. Yeah, and then you just hang there. And then you go, what happens now? You're like on a plane. They tell you, hey, if ---- goes down, something's going to fall. You're going to do a thing. You put your head down and, you know? Yeah. They don't tell you anything before a roller coaster. They just go, have fun. Be this tall and have fun. How was it resolved? Like, did somebody get on a ladder and press a button? Or did it just start moving again? After a while, it started moving. And I was with a friend of mine who is terrified of any kind of type of ride. And his screams made me afraid. Because at first, I was like, we'll be fine. And he was like, ah! Ah! And then I was like, we're going to die. We're going to die. He's just like, yeah. You've got a contact fear. You know, it's like in horror movies. I feel like half of the fear is the person who's screaming. You know, if everyone was just calm, like, we might die, I'd get through it. But the contact fear is what terrifies me. Let's see Shaquanda. It hits the sides of your tongue really nicely. Liking the sauces so far, it seems. Yeah, it's got an OK flavor. I'm still on the classic. I mean, that's winning for me right now. We'll take it. So since taking over on The Daily Show, there's been a massive explosion in the number of programs that have political commentary and satire at their core. Do you think that this snowballing of political punditry is helping us to think more clearly, be more informed? Or do you think it might be having the opposite effect? Oh, it's interesting. I think it's good. I think it's good to have as many shows as possible, especially shows that cater to young people. For so long, people have made it seem like politics is what you do when you're old. But politics affects your entire life. In fact, I feel like it should be the other way around. I feel like old people should be like, I don't care, I'm almost done. It's weird to me that super old people are like, I'm going to vote and change this world that I'm leaving soon. Why? Why would you care? If I was old, I would not give a ----. I would be on roller coasters going crazy. Did Jon Stewart give you any advice for how to avoid becoming that old angry man screaming at the clouds? Oh no, he said it was going to happen. Jon said, I'm leaving because I'm old and angry, and you're young and happy, so enjoy it while it lasts. That was his advice. His advice was just like, you know, try and enjoy it for as long as you can. Don't let the anger be your overriding emotion. You want people to tune in so that they're not angry anymore by the end of the show. And that's what I try and do. One unintended consequence, I think, is that there are a lot of super funny comedians who seem less interested in doing the lighthearted entertainment that they used to. Do you think that that's sad in a way, or is it naive to expect anything different? I think people forget that comedians are human beings. We're living in the world, you know? So Jim Gaffigan, super funny guy, doesn't like talking about politics, but at some point he's going to be like, yo, I've got to say something. Ricky Gervais, another person, hates talking about politics, but at some point even he was like, guys, we're just going to act like this is not happening. So I get why some people would be like, oh, my favorite comedian started talking about politics. It's like, yeah, but maybe it's because the politics have started affecting your favorite comedian. That's probably what it is, you know? What kind of name is that? Lucky Dog, Year of the Dog, Thai Chili. I don't think Thai is ever spicy. Mmm. It's got a nice, it dances on your tongue nicely. That's my favorite spicy food. The one that dances on your tongue? Yeah, you just want like, you know, you want to be like Fred Astaire dancing across your tongue. That's good spicy food. So when we had Bill Burr on the show, he said that doing stand-up in New York is like performing at a women's college, and I'm just curious, from your perspective, do you find that audiences in the U.S. are any more or less sensitive than the ones that you encounter internationally, or do they just care about different things? I find it depends where you go. You know, I've gotten rid of, like, categorizing America as one giant, you know, one monolith. When I came here, I had those ideas. I've realized now America is basically 50 countries masquerading as one. Even in New York, like, going from, like, Long Island to Brooklyn, audiences are completely different. I always say this with comedy. Everyone thinks a joke is funny until it's a joke about them. Right. That's pretty much what it is, you know? It's like hot ones. Everyone's like, yeah, that's cool, until they're the one eating the food, and then they're like, this is not cool, man. This is not cool. I'm always hesitant to say how hot or not something is. Sometimes it sneaks up on you. That's a guy who's been around hot food before. That's a veteran take right there. All right, Trevor, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram where we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context. So I'll bust out the laptop, I'll show you the picture, you just tell me the bigger story. Does that sound good? Shoot. All right, laptop, please. This is just from my Instagram, not my Pornhub account, right? Yeah, no, just from your Instagram. Okay. But I did check that out. This is you at the Met Gala with Chrissy Teigen and Jon Budget. So that picture was actually one of my favorite moments because I had just gotten to America, really, for the Daily Show. And this was one of my first public outings. I had no clue what this was or who these people were. You're just seeing all the celebrities. And people always think you just become a celebrity overnight. No, no, there's levels, there's levels. So you walk into a place, and then if you see Rihanna, it's not like you'd be like, hey, Rih, how you doing, girl? No, no, you don't. And so when I was leaving the event afterwards, Jon Legend and Chrissy Teigen saw me, and then, like, I think it was Chrissy, she was like, hey, you're the guy taking over the Daily Show. And I was like, yeah. And she's like, don't **** it up. And I was like, uh, okay. She's like, no, I'm kidding. Come over here. You got friends? I'm like, no, I don't have friends. I mean, I do, but not at the Met Gala. She's like, come on, come on, hang out with us. How you guys doing? They're the nicest people you'll ever meet. Nice vibes. But, yeah, Jon and Chrissy are just, like, the nicest celebrities you will ever, ever meet in your life. So that's what that picture was. Speaking of epic nights. That's Lewis Hamilton's world championship trophy. I think that was in Austin, but he's a friend of mine. He's a world championship Formula One racing driver and really one of the best we've seen in a generation. Amazing driver in the wet, which is really hard to do, especially in Formula One. He was racing in Austin. He was like, hey, do you want to come check out the race? Hopefully I'll win the championship. And I was like, yeah, okay, I'll come. And so I went, and he won. And then when we went down to congratulate him, they were like, yo, do you want to hold the trophy? I was like, yeah, of course I want to hold the trophy. You trust me with the trophy? And they're like, yeah, we trust you with the trophy. And now they don't know where the trophy is. Detroit Hellfire. I would say this is my favorite, like, all-around flavor of a hot sauce, you know? So far. It has, like, a beautiful body to it. It accentuates the chicken. That's a nice flavor, man. That's really good. So the title of your book, Born a Crime, refers to the fact that as somebody who had a black mother and a white father, that you were representing a crime that could have been punishable by up to five years in prison. Right. You've made an interesting point about how, in some ways, you prefer the racism in South Africa compared to the racism in the United States. Right. How do you unpackage that for someone who thinks that all racism is the same? Well, you know what? You've got to think of it like this. Think of racism like hot sauce, you know? There's some hot sauce where they tell you it's hot sauce, but you can't really tell, you know? You put it on your tongue. It doesn't happen. But then maybe tomorrow, when you go to the bathroom, you'll be like, oh, that was hot sauce. I don't like that. I want to know when it's happening that this is hot sauce. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. So, yeah, I grew up in a world where people were blatantly racist for the most part, if they were. And then, you know, what I like about that is I know where we stand. We can work off of that. I can talk to you as a person. I can try and figure out where your racism started or what makes you more racist. And then we can move forward. The hardest person to try and change is someone who doesn't believe they're racist or engages in racist ideas that aren't direct. Because then, you know what I mean? Someone's like, I'm not racist. I'm not racist at all. I just think that sometimes black people, you know? Those ones. Whew. Good luck, man. That's that day after hot sauce racism I don't need that in my life. Trinidad Scorpion. Oh, Lord, here we go. Okay. Oh, okay. Oh, this is one of those don't breathe hot sauces. Feel it in your nose. Yeah. Immediate. Mmm. Oh, ----. Oh, man. You feel that? I feel that. This is a hot sauce that doesn't even... Whew. This is unnecessary. So you seem to have a real knack for interviewing people whose views are diametrically opposed to. Mm-hmm. In these tribal times, what advice do you have for talking to someone with whom you share almost no common ground? I think the key is to listen. Our instinct as human beings is to first tell a person why they're wrong. But I find if you listen to them, you can understand a little bit of where they're coming from, and then maybe that can give you a little insight or a way in to finding common ground that then can lead you somewhere else. That takes some discipline. Do you feel your tongue right now? I do. Can you feel your tongue? It's starting to tingle out. Whoo! But, you know, sometimes there's this expectation from the audience that you're gonna, like, body-slam this person or destroy him in this debate. If you come to my show as a guest, I'm going to treat you accordingly. You know, I don't want to destroy you. I want to engage with you. And I think a lot of the time as people, if you have ideas you believe in, you should be willing to engage or you should be willing to test those ideas against somebody that you don't agree with. Hittin'. I'm hittin'. Are you hitting the water? Mm-hmm. Does water help? So, I always have this thing. When I hit the water, I know that fans are gonna be like, that actually makes it worse. That spreads the conversation around. No, I know, I know. But, like, so I have, like, there's tons of insufferable hot sauce experts that are always hitting me with the tips and their tricks. So you're trolling them? Maybe on some level, but also I think psychologically, which I think is more important anyway, the water does help me for whatever reason. I know that it's against science, but in my brain, that's how it works. Okay. All right. This next one is to bomb beyond insanity. Man. All right. Oh, this is horrible. Oh, Lord. Oh. Shit. This is my, what is this? This is not food? It's beyond insanity. This is not food? Oh. Oh, man, I got that weed cough. Oh, man. Now that you're in a position to afford the finer things in life, is bologna and brown bread still better than any Michelin-starred restaurant? Bologna, brown bread, and margarine, which you guys aren't familiar with because you guys use butter. We couldn't afford butter, so we had margarine. Still one of my favorite meals. Simple, it's effective, and it's delicious, unlike this ---- which you've just made me eat. What is this? Goddamn, this is horrible. For the uninitiated, how do you describe the gastronomic experience of eating a goat's eye? Imagine a bouncing ball. Imagine taking a bouncing ball, putting it into your mouth, and biting it really hard, but then it pops and explodes, and all the snot from a child's nose is in your mouth. That's what eating a goat's eye is like. It's delicious. Finally, I know that you're a big fan. Where does the heat that we're at right now compare to the hottest at Nando's? Oh, my Lord. Here's the thing. Nando's gets really hot, but it has flavor. It makes you think of something else. Oh, Lord. Oh, Jesus. It's just pain. What? Why? There's no good memories. This is not the bomb. This is trash. Oh. Ugh. Okay. I'm trying to think if I should rinse my palate for this or just add to it. So far, you're on a no-water, no-milk track. It is rarefied air. I like to taste the flavors. What's this next one? This is Pucker Butt Chocolate Plague from Smokin' Ed Curry. You joining me? I'm coming. All right. Okay. We're back in flavor. Still very hot. Very hot. But the flavor. Which playing-with-fire incident as a child brought you closer to death? The time that you were playing with black cats and they exploded, taking your eyebrows off or the time that you burned down a shed with a magnifying glass? I would have to say the time I was playing with black cats. So I poured them all out into a pot plant. Oh, and made a super black cat. I was trying to light one in my hand as a pause. I was like, let's just enjoy this moment. And it blew up in my hand and I dropped the match into the pot plant. I was trying to gather all the gunpowder. And it exploded up and it burnt my eyebrows off. But I didn't know. So my mom heard a loud bang. It was like, wah! And then my cousin screamed and my mom came running outside and she's like, what happened? And I was going to be in trouble. So I turned around and I was like, nothing. And she's like, what did you do? And I was like, nothing. And she's like, something happened. I was like, why would you say that? She's like, because you don't have eyebrows. And I was like, what? She's like, go to the bathroom and look at what you look like. And I went and literally I was like, I had like charred pieces and then no eyebrows. Irrefutable. So yeah, that was probably it. What's the bag like for doing voiceover work for Black Panther? You just want me to ignore that you're shaking the last one up? You haven't shaken any of them up? You're going to shake up the last one? So this is the last dab. We call it the last dab because it's tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing. You don't have to if you don't want to, Trevor Noah. You say that as reverse psychology. Now I have to do it. Basically what you just said to me, the translation was, if you would like to be a little bitchy, you're welcome. That's what you did. So now I have to indulge with you. Good, healthy smattering. You know what it looks like? It looks like my little brother's diaper. Whenever I would change his diaper, I would find this inside his diaper. That's what it was. See that over there? Yeah. This is it. Cheers, my friend. Cheers, my man. Okay. Are you okay? Yeah. I think you're holding up better than me. You look a little stressed. I'm not going to lie. For a white guy, this is super impressive. Thank you, Trevor. I'll take that. I'm being for real. All right, Trevor Noah, here we are at the summit of Spice Mountain, and as we've learned today, you can speak on almost anything, but I think that you're at your most eloquent when you talk about taking a ----. You've called going number two profound, a powerful experience, and an act that makes us forget our airs and graces. So now, with your gut throbbing, cinched, tortured by the hot sauce, can you tell the people why are we most ourselves when we're letting the caboose loose? I'll tell you why. It's not even a disgusting thought. I think as human beings, we spend so much time pretending. You're taught to act from the time you're a young child. Your parents teach you a certain thing. Your teachers, your friends, everybody. And then you develop this persona about who you are. That persona lives with you. It changes and it augments as you grow. But there's one place where we are honest. I don't care who you are, and that is when you are taking a ----. It is just you and yourself. You sit there, and you are honest. You are humble. No one shits cool. From me all the way to the queen, we all ---- the same. Same squat pose, same everything. Have you seen a dog when it takes a ----? I don't care if it's a pit bull or a chihuahua. They've all got that look on their faces. That's what shitting does to you. It reminds you that we're all the same. Nobody's better than anybody else. At the core, we've all got that stuff that comes out of our butt. Words to live by from Trevor Noah. And look at you, my man. Ten chicken wings up. Ten chicken wings down. And now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you, Trevor Noah. Thank you very much. This camera. This camera. Let the people know what you have going on in your life. I've got an arena tour. That's really fun. It's called Loud and Clear. I'm going around America and the world doing stand-up comedy everywhere from North Carolina to Abu Dhabi, so check out trevornoah.com if you want to come and watch the show. Very funny is what I've been told by the audience as they laugh while I tell them the jokes. I've got... Oh, ----! The hiccups are coming. Oh, I should have mentioned I get hiccups when I eat spicy food. Oh, ----. Wait, wait, wait. Alright, I'm good. I'm good. I get hiccups and I forgot about the hiccups. Right at the finish line. Alright. So I'll see if it shows if I still have a voice. Alright, good job, Trevor. Oh, that's the hot one. Jesus. Yeah, the hiccups. When do you shoot today? In about an hour. Aloha, Spice Lords. Thank you so much for watching today's episode. This is Sean Evans checking in with three tips for surviving summer. Remember to wear sunscreen. At least an SPF 50 if you're anything like me. Don't forget to stay hydrated when you're out there on the beach and always have a bottle of the sauce of summer. Los Calientes. I never go anywhere without it. Heatness.com. Heatness.com to order Los Calientes. It's muy delicioso.