‘Simpsons’ Fans Are Convinced That Conan Used Homer’s Wax Trick for ‘Hot Ones’

As anybody who’s been online at any point during the past 24 hours is likely aware, Conan O’Brien just made his debut appearance on the hit YouTube show Hot Ones — or as Conan called it, a “Charlie Rose Show where you eat hot wings.” As we previously speculated, medical safety was a top priority for the extremely Irish former talk show host, which is why O’Brien brought along his own personal physician Dr. Arroyo, aka his longtime writer José Arroyo.

Never one to shy away from going to unhinged extremes in order to make an audience laugh, not only did Conan devour the intensely spicy chicken wings (despite admitting that he never tasted spice until he was “about 52 years old”) he taunted host Sean Evans over the tame offerings, then proceeded to douse his wings in more hot sauce and even drank directly from the bottles. By the end of the episode, Conan was ranting and raving like a pepper-addled maniac, with a face that resembled a velvet painting of a sad clown that had been left outside in a rainstorm. It was glorious. 

Naturally, seeing Conan gulp down hot sauce like it was fresh water on a warm summer’s day caused some viewers to become skeptical, and question whether or not the sauce Conan consumed was “real or fake.” The best evidence for this? The fact that Conan isn’t currently dead. But Conan can be seen unwrapping the seals of several of the hot sauce bottles, meaning that if it was faked, it was a pretty elaborate undertaking that required far more work than buying a lab coat for one of his writers. 

A number of Simpsons fans couldn’t help but playfully compare Conan’s Hot Ones appearance and the classic episode “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)” in which Homer similarly becomes unhinged after tasting a spicy delicacy: a chili made with peppers grown in a “Guatemalan insane asylum.” 

Homer eventually decides to cheat — so did Conan take a page from his former co-worker? “Maybe he coated his tongue with candle wax like Homer Simpson?” asked one person on Reddit. Others had the same idea: “Did he coat his tongue in wax? Be honest Conan!!” 

Of course, it should be noted that drinking melted candle wax would severely burn someone, something the Fox censors were very worried about when that Simpsons episode first aired. So it’s more likely that Conan endured the pain because he will endure almost anything if he believes that the end result will be funny. In fact, he elucidated this exact philosophy during a 2023 episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend with guest Sarah Silverman, claiming that he would happily shatter his pelvis if it got a “really great reaction” from an audience of people, adding that, even if he wouldn’t be able to walk for a year afterwards, his first concern would be “how hard did they laugh?”

So really, compared to a debilitating pelvic injury, what’s a little Pepper X in your gastrointestinal tract? 

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