About

The Hot Pepper Challenge is a popular dare game involving eating extremely hot peppers, normally the ghost pepper. Since 2011 the game has become well known for the extreme side effects such as profuse sweating and vomiting and thousands of videos with people attempting the challenge have been uploaded onto YouTube.

Origin

On November 5th, 2011, the comedy website Rooster Teeth^[1] uploaded a video titled "Ghost Pepper Challenge" which featured three men eating ghost peppers, named the 3rd hottest pepper in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records^[2] in 2013. Though the men comment on the pain and heat from the peppers, none appear to have violent reactions.

On November 11th, 2011, YouTuber WFAE Charlotte^[10] uploaded a video of radio personality Marshall Terry completing the hot pepper challenge, during which he sweats profusely, vomits and hallucinates. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 330,000 views.

Spread

On February 4th, 2012, YouTuber AyyOnline^[3] uploaded a hot pepper challenge which featured him eating a ghost pepper. The video was covered by The Daily Dot^[4] on February 6th, 2012. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 5 million views. On April 21st, 2012, YouTuber Chuck From The Bronx^[6] uploaded a hot pepper challenge. The video was covered by The Huffington Post^[7] and Gawker^[8]. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 420,000 views.

On June 7th, 2012, YouTuber GloZell Green^[9] uploaded a hot pepper challenge video. As of July 2014, the video has gained over 18.3 million views and is the most viewed pepper challenge video.

On April 11th, 2013, Buzzfeed^[5] posted a round-up of screenshots from YouTube videos from the hot pepper challenge titled "17 Very Misguided People Who Just Ate The World’s Spiciest Pepper."

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References