'Hot Pepper Gaming' Puts Spicy Spin on Game Reviews

It's a sad, but true, fact that the Internet loves to watch people doing painful things.

Need proof? Twenty-seven million people have watched "Scarlet Takes a Tumble," Jennifer Lawrence's trip at the Oscars was instantly immortalized in GIFs and embarrassing tales on Reddit earn heaps of upvotes.

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Combine that phenomenon with a passion for video games and you get Hot Pepper Gaming, one of the most oddly entertaining new channels on YouTube. The concept is simple. What happens if you eat a horrifyingly hot pepper just seconds before reviewing a game?

As it turns out, the answer is a lot of sputtering, contorted facial expressions and tears. In their first video, Rosen eats a habanero pepper (a chili pepper that is rated 100 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper) before reviewing Deadpool.

In the week since the channel's debut, nearly 6,000 people have subscribed to watch the tongue-scorching antics.

Hot Pepper Gaming is the brainchild of Creative Director Vernon Shaw, 24, Art Director Erin Schmalfeld, 25, and Game Reviewer Jared Rosen, 25.

Mashable chatted with Vernon Shaw to learn more.

Where did the idea for Hot Pepper Gaming come from?

Hot Pepper Gaming isn't all that original of an idea. I'd like to keep that in the open as much as possible. I doubt we would've existed if the Spicy News Network didn't exist first. I really liked the contrast of combining something serious (reporting the news) with something ridiculous (spicy peppers). However there were some serious issues with [Spicy News Network's] format that I thought could be improved upon, so I set out to create something along those lines, but with a more specified focus for the gaming community.

What was the process of shooting the first video like?

Jared and Erin both only ate one hot pepper during their segment. I had to eat two. Jared has the funniest reactions to hot peppers. We actually experimented a lot with small tweaks to the format — most importantly trying to see if it would be funnier to eat a pepper and read a buzzword-filled pre-written review or to ad-lib it. Ad-libbing seems to be better, but I'm curious to see what our audience will think of the other type.

You have a good eye for catching onto viral content and were one of the first people to latch onto the Harlem Shake trend. Do you see a similar sort of trend emerging alongside Hot Pepper Gaming?

I don't. The Harlem Shake was an interesting example of virality in new media in that it encouraged user-generated content. This falls in line with things like 'Call Me Maybe,' planking and 'Shit Girls Say.' I was lucky enough to catch this trend in an emergent state and convince a bunch of people to make one for ourselves. Hot Pepper Gaming is meant to be a replicable format — a video series whose joke or concept can be repeated video after video.

In your opinion, what makes content go viral?

I could write a really long, really boring book about this. There's a lot that goes into the viral spread of content, but what I think is most important is this: We as new media creators need to see our audience not just as viewers but as content curators. Content on the Internet needs to be designed so that it can be shared. If we're not doing that, then we're wasting both time and money.

What is your favorite video game and why?

Shaq Fu. No explanation needed.

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Homepage image: YouTube, HotPepperGaming