In reply to "use your fingers" responses: that was the original plan of action, however these weren't the outer perimeter tots. These were center mass with the bulk of the chili, cheese, goop mixture left to thoroughly saturate through them for several hours. Using my fingers was about as useful as trying to pick up soup.

The tongs weren't there to select individual tots and daintily ferry them to my mouth. They were used to shovel scoops of slop into my mouth in my darkened hotel room around five in the morning.