Well, these are snakes they know will bite you regardless. They get bit any time they clean their cage. They're not doing anything more to provoke the snake than when they are doing maintenance. The only difference was they were deliberately positioning X body part in the line of fire. The only added stress I saw was experienced by Kerny.

I personally would never do that. That's just crazy. Some people are just masochistic though. I am not the type.