Michael Keaton Interviews Beetlejuice in Hot Ones Parody

Ahead of the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice next week, Warner Bros. has staged an interview between franchise star Michael Keaton and…well, Beetlejuice. The pair have a pretty brief chat over some ribs, with Beetlejuice trying some spicy sauce in an homage to Hot Ones. They call it “Not Ones,” using the shrunken head of the hunter from the end of Beetlejuice as the logo. We’re assuming that nobody at Warner Bros. realized that Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith had already done the “Not Ones” thing with vegan “chicken wings” after Hot Ones couldn’t accommodate them in time to promote Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.

Our favorite part of this might be how quickly Keaton just gets exasperated with Beetlejuice and taps out. That happens faster than Hot Ones has ever managed to get anybody to surrender to the heat.

The interview also comes on the heels of a recent Hot Ones interview with Conan O’Brien, which may be the best video ever posted to the internet. 

In the new Not Ones video, Keaton plays himself as well as Beetlejuice, who is just as gross and goofy as you’d expect him to be in the scenario. In the comments, one fan joked about Multiplicity, the movie in which Michael Keaton’s character cloned himself, adding another meta level to this already kinda meta promotional gag. Of course, this short will likely weird Keaton out as much as anybody.

“There’s been so much merchandising of it, I had to drop back to where it started,” Keaton said in a recent interview. “I had to go, ‘What was my unusual imagination even thinking about when I was developing it in the first place?’ As opposed to seeing a coffee mug or a golf-club cover [adorned with Betelgeuse’s face].” The ubiquity of Beetlejuice as a character in the culture created its own challenges. “That was fucking weird,” admits Keaton. “To be honest with you – I’m being very frank – it was off-putting, to look and go, ‘I don’t want to look like all these little things, fuck that – what was the thing that started this?’”

Here’s the official synopsis for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice:

“Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic, and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.” 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to hit theaters on September 6th.