About

Idris Elba Choking on Hot Wings refers to a video of actor Idris Elba appearing on Hot Ones and coughing while ingesting a spicy chicken wing. The video became popular on Twitter as a reaction to captions explaining shocking scenarios.

Origin

On August 1st, 2019, Idris Elba appeared on Hot Ones in an episode that gained over 5.5 million views (shown below).

Spread

A week after the video was posted online, Twitter users began using a clip of Elba coughing from the episode as a reaction video used with captions expressing surprising situations. One of the earliest popular examples was posted by @uglynewyork on August 9th, gaining over 4,600 retweets and 14,000 likes (shown below).^[5]

The video peaked in popularity between August 12th and 13. Popular posts include one by @rayaldn (shown below) that gained over 33,000 retweets and 109,000 likes.^[6] The jokes were covered by Daily Dot,^[1] Complex,^[2] and High Snobiety.^[3]

Idris Elba's Thoughts On The Meme

During an August 9th, 2022, appearance (seen below) on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Idris Elba described his response to becoming a meme and how he felt about the "Hot Ones" format. In the interview, Noah describes his younger brother's 15-year-old friend not knowing Elba as an actor but recognizing him from the meme. Elba responded by saying that he was embarrassed by it because "I eat pepper every day."

Elba went on to argue that it was not the spice of the wing that got him but instead "the spit got wrong in (my) throat."^[4]

Various Examples

When you eat the food of a woman who doesn't have wobbly triceps pic.twitter.com/qOs2ByQkk0

— Silky (@KeKatli) August 12, 2019

When you’re eating at a restaurant and she randomly asks “what are we?” pic.twitter.com/D7hBGgSr10

— Deeps🥤 (@Shallows_C) August 11, 2019

When you’re enjoying your Nando’s and the worker comes to ask you why you have Fanta in a water glass
pic.twitter.com/XAegXDihwm

— 45🎒 (@Gio45ive) August 12, 2019

Search Interest

External References