About

Shaq on Hot Ones, also known as Surprised Shaq, refers to video edits and memes based on former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal's appearance on the YouTube series Hot Ones, an interview show in which guests answer questions while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. In the weeks following the interview, video edits exploiting various facial expressions made by Shaquille O'Neal during the interview gained popularity on Instagram, with one particular expression later gaining popularity as a reaction image.

Origin

On March 14th, 2019, YouTube channel First We Feast released the Hot Ones episode "Shaq Tries to Not Make a Face While Eating Spicy Wings".^[1] The episode featured former professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal and gained over 9.8 million views in twelve days.

During the interview, O'Neal made several faces while eating the hot wings, noticeably reacting to the heat (shown below).

Spread

On Instagram, the interview gained popularity as a base for video edits. On March 22nd, Instagram user bepis.man posted the first known edit based on the video which gained over 340,000 views and 53,000 likes in three days.^[2]

In the following days, multiple edits of Shaq's reactions were posted by Instagram users, including notable edits by fr1ck.mp4,^[3] toucher_of_cancer^[4] and cold_lasagna_.^[5] On March 25th, Ebaum's World^[6] launched a photoshop contest based on a picture from the episode.

Starting in April 2019, a still image of Shaq wearing an alarmed, surprised expression gained popularity as a reaction. For example, on April 2nd Redditor TheCats_Bananas made a post based on the image which gained over 13,600 upvotes in four days.^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References