Everybody fears the reaper, especially when it's the Carolina reaper — the hottest pepper on earth, according to Guinness World Records.

It's 220 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper, packing enough heat to make even the strongest palate quiver.

And yet, three brave — or perhaps foolish — CBC employees took on the "world's hottest pizza" challenge at the Calgary Stampede grounds this week.

Paul Karchut is the director of The Calgary Eyeopener, CBC Calgary's morning radio show. Shubi Ahmed works as the medical intern on the show. The third, Jenny Howe, is the traffic reporter for the station's afternoon radio show, The Homestretch.

The trio headed down to Rick's Pizza, across the dirt path from the BMO Centre on the grounds, which decided to bake the Carolina reaper peppers into their cheese pizza for a new challenge at the Stampede this year.

Every night at 7 p.m. four people have a chance to tee off against one another, says Julie Ukmar, the owner of Rick's Pizza.

The challenge has only two rules:

You must eat the entire slice of pizza with the reaper peppers baked in. It is not a race. You cannot drink or consume any other foods or beverages once you start eating the slice. You must wait five minutes following the completion of the slice before you can start drinking/eating again.

Rick's Pizza is offering $50 US to anyone who successfully completes the challenge.

The Carolina reaper is often compared to the ghost pepper, also known as the Bhut jolokia.

A pepper's heat is measured in Scoville heat units (SHU). The Ghost pepper is rated at a meager 1.5 million SHU.

The Carolina reaper logs in at a staggering 2.2 million SHU.

That compares to the more common jalapeno, which rates just 10,000 on the scale, and Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000.

The CBC participants felt the effects of the peppers for more than 24 hours, including illness and general discomfort.

Watch the video embedded in this story to see their hilarious and disturbing reactions as they compete to see who can survive the reaper. Warning: It's not pretty and it doesn't end well.