To understand the true power of Jake Gyllenhaal on Hot Ones, you must watch it in 1.5x speed. This thing needs horsepower as it descends into madness. For one thing, Gyllenhaal is the whitest of white men (white enough to have a lyric about his favorite “indie records†referenced on a breakup song about him) and still chooses to eat the entirety of his wings on a show where the challenge boils down to “take one bite of increasingly hot wings.†Another thing is that he is a bit of a weirdo. Even before the wings get too hot, he’s commenting on the unwieldiness of host Sean Evans’ upper body, saying, “It might be the clue to the show, how weird you are when you do this [mocks Evans rocking back and forth].â€
When the wings take a turn for the hotter, he goes even further, first professing his deep love for Evans (after making fun of him), and then fully descending into hot-sauce madness. A wing gives him a leg cramp, which inspires him to eat more of that wing, which Evans accompanies him on. “I have the most electric head high,†Evans says of the sauce. “Wanna know why? ’Cause now you’re in my world, motherfucker,†Gyllenhaal responds, before shouting, “I brought you into my world! You think you can take me to nowhere land, and I’m not gonna take you to my world?!†Later in the interview, Evans mentions that Gyllenhaal has said that he takes pieces of his characters with him into everyday life. This appears to have activated Nightcrawler mode. Look, he may be a great actor, he may be smelly, and he may be the object of Swiftie ire, but one thing you can’t accuse Jake Gyllenhaal of is a lack of commitment.