'I'm Such An Idiot': Dad's Lunch Mistake Caused Spicy Situation

The internet was left conflicted after one father explained how his daughter was "in agony" due to an error he made while packing her lunch.

In a viral post on Reddit's r/tifu (short for r/TodayIF****dUp), Redditor u/ChainsOfTheHelpless said he accidentally sent his daughter to school with a sandwich lathered with some of the hottest hot sauce on the market, and detailed the explosive aftermath of the mix up. Titled "TIFU by sending my daughter to school with a 3 MILLION SCOVILLE sandwich," the post has received over 24,000 votes and 1,500 comments.

Explaining that he always prepares lunches for his two daughters before taking them to school, u/ChainsOfTheHelpless said when his wife was recently working an early shift, he decided to make one for her as well. Preparing two sandwiches without hot sauce for his daughters, and one with The Last Dab hot sauce "spread across thickly on both side," the Redditor added that he packed all three sandwiches into bags and distributed them accordingly.

Just hours into the school day, however, u/ChainsOfTheHelpless was informed he made a spicy mistake.

"I got a call from my oldest daughter's teacher saying she was in agony, that she vomited all over the floor and is in the nurse's office being assessed," he wrote. "I immediately knew what I did, left work and rushed to the school."

"When I got there, the nurse had figured out what happened and I got an earful from her about the dangers of spicy food for young kids and I could have done some damage," he added. "I explained what happened to the principal who wanted to fill out an incident report. He was understanding that mistakes happen but also said this mistake could have been worse."

First We Feast's Hot Ones, a YouTube show that boasts 11 million subscribers and has birthed spin-offs like Hot Ones: The Game Show, has cemented itself at the intersection of food and pop culture. On Hot Ones, guests ranging from Kevin Hart to Kevin Durant eat increasingly spicy chicken wings, while Emmy-nominated host Sean Evans asks increasingly spicy questions.

The last chicken wing, paired with each episode's final question, is covered in the show's own hot sauce, called The Last Dab. Produced and sold by Heatonist, the sauce registers at 3 million on the Scoville Scale — a scale that organizes hot sauces "by their pungency and their amount of capsaicin in Scoville Heat Units (SHU)," according to ScovilleScale.org.

By comparison, Frank's Red Hot, Cholula, and Tabasco, all popular hot sauces, register between 450 and 3,750 SHU, per data collected by Sriracha2Go.While Heatonist and Hot Ones have collaborated on a hot sauce for children, called Hot Ones Jr., The Last Dab is not recommended for their consumption.

Responding to the viral Reddit post, commenters debated about the hot sauce situation, and were torn between concern and comedy.

"I don't know if I should feel bad or laugh my a**off," Redditor u/TheMightyLooneyTune wrote in a comment that has received nearly 5,000 votes.

"Pretty rough school day," Redditor u/DeeHawk added. "Being floored by lab strength capsaicin."

Amid a sea of Redditors sharing their experiences with too-spicy foods, and how they unknowingly ate them, u/ChainsOfTheHelpless assured commenters that The Last Dab hot sauce would be stored somewhere different to prevent the same thing from happening again, and explained how his family was able to use his mistake as a learning opportunity.

"When I told my wife what had happened...she went to comfort our daughter, jokingly called me a moron, and we had a bit of a laugh with my two daughters over it," he wrote. "My daughter has since recovered and I've learned a valuable lesson."