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Nietzsche said “to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”, essentially believing that humans do not even wish to avoid suffering, but only find meaning in the suffering they endure. What's interesting about this, in the context of spicy peppers, is that humans actually enjoy eating them. Peppers evolved specifically to avoid being eaten by mammals, by activating our nerves with something called “capsaicin” that makes us literally feel like we are burning. Birds don’t respond the same way, so all the seeds get eaten by birds, which is better for the plant since birds fly farther away, and don’t chew the seeds.

As a result, all mammals (aside from the treeshrew, which seems to evolved an immunity) do not eat spicy peppers. All mammals, of course, except humans. Humans have a higher thought capacity that allows us to understand that we aren’t really burning, and there is no real danger. What’s interesting though is that this doesn’t just result in us bearing the suffering to reap the reward of the pepper’s nourishment. Humans actually enjoy the burn. In fact, in a strange twist of fate, the only animal on earth to enjoy peppers also made peppers one of the most successful plants on earth, because we also happened to be the only animal that cultivates plants on purpose. Chili peppers spread across the globe, and in fact were specially bred to be more spicy and burn us more. Humans seem to enjoy the very sensation of suffering.

Of course, everyone still seems to have a “limit” to how much spice they enjoy. Once you go past it, the physical reality of the pepper sensation overpowers the strange enjoyment we get from pretending our mouth is on fire, and it returns to the animal state of mere suffering. There is, however, an exception even to this. The premise of the YouTube show “Hot Ones” is of course based on this principle: it is actually pretty funny to subject ourselves to extreme pain on purpose. Ever since they bred spicy peppers that are too hot for anyone to reasonably enjoy, dudes have been daring each other to eat them for a laugh. So while humans have transcended the animal state, which responds to mere stimulus to make decisions (mouth hot! don’t eat!), and converted the pain to pleasure with knowledge, we can further transcend even our humanity and convert the higher level of suffering to pleasure, through will power.

This is why Conan O’Brian is the true existential hero of the show. Not only did Conan enjoy his suffering, because it was funnier the more he suffered, but his pleasure was directly tied to the suffering. He would have, in fact, been quite disappointed if he had not suffered, having been robbed of the goal of his directed will. He wished to suffer for glory, and to creatively construct a great episode and lasting memory for the show. This is Nietzsche’s rebuke of utilitarianism – mankind should seek to transcend lower goals of mere pleasure and pain so that they can instead create great art from their force of will. This is why we can say, I think quite confidently, that Conan O’Brian has at last achieved Nietzsche’s ultimate goal of transcending his humanity and becoming an Ubermensch.

Nietzsche said “to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”, essentially believing that humans do not even wish to avoid suffering, but only find meaning in the suffering they endure. What's interesting about this, in the context of spicy peppers, is that humans actually enjoy eating them. Peppers evolved specifically to avoid being eaten by mammals, by activating our nerves with something called “capsaicin” that makes us literally feel like we are burning. Birds don’t respond the same way, so all the seeds get eaten by birds, which is better for the plant since birds fly farther away, and don’t chew the seeds.

As a result, all mammals (aside from the treeshrew, which seems to evolved an immunity) do not eat spicy peppers. All mammals, of course, except humans. Humans have a higher thought capacity that allows us to understand that we aren’t really burning, and there is no real danger. What’s interesting though is that this doesn’t just result in us bearing the suffering to reap the reward of the pepper’s nourishment. Humans actually enjoy the burn. In fact, in a strange twist of fate, the only animal on earth to enjoy peppers also made peppers one of the most successful plants on earth, because we also happened to be the only animal that cultivates plants on purpose. Chili peppers spread across the globe, and in fact were specially bred to be more spicy and burn us more. Humans seem to enjoy the very sensation of suffering.

Of course, everyone still seems to have a “limit” to how much spice they enjoy. Once you go past it, the physical reality of the pepper sensation overpowers the strange enjoyment we get from pretending our mouth is on fire, and it returns to the animal state of mere suffering. There is, however, an exception even to this. The premise of the YouTube show “Hot Ones” is of course based on this principle: it is actually pretty funny to subject ourselves to extreme pain on purpose. Ever since they bred spicy peppers that are too hot for anyone to reasonably enjoy, dudes have been daring each other to eat them for a laugh. So while humans have transcended the animal state, which responds to mere stimulus to make decisions (mouth hot! don’t eat!), and converted the pain to pleasure with knowledge, we can further transcend even our humanity and convert the higher level of suffering to pleasure, through will power.

This is why Conan O’Brian is the true existential hero of the show. Not only did Conan enjoy his suffering, because it was funnier the more he suffered, but his pleasure was directly tied to the suffering. He would have, in fact, been quite disappointed if he had not suffered, having been robbed of the goal of his directed will. He wished to suffer for glory, and to creatively construct a great episode and lasting memory for the show. This is Nietzsche’s rebuke of utilitarianism – mankind should seek to transcend lower goals of mere pleasure and pain so that they can instead create great art from their force of will. This is why we can say, I think quite confidently, that Conan O’Brian has at last achieved Nietzsche’s ultimate goal of transcending his humanity and becoming an Ubermensch.