I’m tired of seeing things about the crazy demands that bands and artists make while touring.
Touring is hard. Being on the road ever day? Sleeping very little? Having to get up in front of screaming and occasionally hostile crowds no matter how you feel?
Yeah, that sounds hellish to me. I’d ask for some damn fried chicken in my dressing room, too.
Anyway, as mentioned in the comments, a lot of the time demands in artist’s rider sheets are to determine if the correct attention is being paid to other things – for instance, if the request for chocolate-covered burritos on silver platters embossed with the face of Nicolas Cage is ignored, chances are the sound or lighting will be screwed up too.
One method of maintaining a sense of stability in hectic, ever-changing environments such as tours is having a few non-essential things, preferably things that come with tiny “rituals” of their own (such as Mariah Carey’s champagne-and-drinking-straws combo) easily available everywhere you stay, so people are making fun of an important psychological coping mechanism here.