Conan O’Brien Reflects on ‘Hot Ones’ Appearance: ‘Many of My Friends Went Online and Thought I Died’

Harrison Richlin
·2 min read
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Back in April, Conan O’Brien took the internet by storm with his unhinged appearance on “Hot Ones” with host Sean Evans, where he faced down the wings of death with brash abandon.

“Many of my friends went online and thought I died,” O’Brien said recently for a profile in The New York Times.

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Dousing extra hot sauce on already blazing wings, O’Brien licked and chewed like a beast, mocking the conceit of the popular talk show while at the same time visibly struggling with the effects of the heat.

“My father, who I love, once said that if you agonize enough — he used the word ‘agonize,’ I’ll never forget — if you agonize long enough, eventually ideas will come,” said O’Brien, drawing a link not only to his willingness to cause physical harm to himself for a laugh in this instance, but over his entire career in general and even further back.

“People say: ‘Do you miss late-night?’” O’Brien said to The New York Times. What they didn’t understand, he said, “I had 30 years before late-night where I was doing the same things.”

In fact, O’Brien doesn’t feel scarred by his father’s advice at all, but instead, continues to be motivated by it. He said of this wisdom, “I would not go back in time and have my dad say, ‘Hey man, chill.’”

Now that he’s gotten older, time is certainly becoming a more relevant subject to, with his travel show “Conan O’Brian Must Go” serving as an opportunity for him to see more of the world and the community of fans he’s built.

“I like those moments, like the eclipse recently, that remind me that I don’t count,” O’Brien said of his current view on life. “I’ve been through the late-night wars and I’ve trended and not trended and I know I have a certain skill set, and would like to be of use for as long as that’s viable.”

After a brief, serious pause, O’Brien then said, “And I would also like to acquire a vast amount of real estate in Montana. I mean, a huge tract of land. Then I would like to frack on that land, because why not?”

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