Conan O'Brien's appearance on the chicken wing webseries Hot Ones has quickly become the stuff of legend, as the comedian went viral for disgustingly smearing hot sauce all over himself. Now, O'Brien has shed more light on the stunt, saying that the sauce didn't actually cause him any phsycial pain — until after the show, that is, when he touched his eye.
Speaking with comedian Nikki Glaser on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, the host explained that his "performance energy" meant that he didn't actually find the spiciness painful during the filming.
"I walked out, and there was a dressing room, and I went into the dressing room, and made the terrible mistake of wiping my eye, and that burned like crazy," he recalled. "That's just like acid in your eye. So I remember washing out my eye."
The pain continued after the taping, because hot sauce had become trapped under his wedding ring. "My hand started burning," he said. "Underneath my wedding ring, it was burning and burning and burning, and I took it off and it was all discoloured. It was just because it's an acid and it got trapped underneath my wedding ring."
Watch the discussion below. If you're one of the few people who hasn't watched the Hot Ones appearance, definitely check that out here.