Hot Ones fans baffled as hit YouTube series announces bizarre next guest

Fans of the hit YouTube series Hot Ones have been stunned by the announcement of the next talk show guest... cartoon waterfowl Donald Duck .

The series, produced for the channel First We Feast, sees host Sean Evans interview a high-profile celebrity while the pair consume increasingly spicy hot wings.

Among the show’s recent guests are Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Vince Vaughn, Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and Will Smith.

In a post shared to social media, the series revealed that its next guest would be none other than Donald Duck, the animated character known for appearing in Disney’s Mickey Mouse universe.

A video shared to X/Twitter sees the fully animated duck sit in the famous Hot Ones studio.

“Hello, I’m Donald Duck,” he says. “As if you didn’t know. And I’m the guest on Hot Ones this week.”

“They’re so lucky to have me,” he adds.

Fans of the series reacted with bemused excitement to the announcement, with some expressing confusion over the logistics of the interview.

“I am now questioning the ethics of an animated, anthropomorphic duck eating poultry,” one person commented.

“I hope this is some Roger Rabbit thing mixing live action and animation,” wrote another, referencing the hit 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? , which blended live-action footage with animation. “That whole thing needs to make a come back.”

“There’s something not right about Donald Duck eating chicken wings… something perverted,” someone else quipped.

Others, meanwhile, suggested that the series should instead have featured an interview with one of the puppets from the hit franchise The Muppets instead.

“A sign of cultural rot that the first character on Hot Ones is a cartoon and not a muppet. We used to build things in this country,” one person joked.

Earlier this year, an appearance on Hot Ones from comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien was lauded by viewers as the “best” episode of all time.

The episode saw the former Simpsons writer engage in a number of prepared comedy “bits”, including several interactions with a man introduced as his personal doctor, “Dr Arroyo”.

At the end of the episode, O’Brien was seen chugging hot sauce straight from the bottle, with the sauce covering his face and chin.

The Donald Duck episode of Hot Ones will be available to stream on YouTube from Friday 23 August.