HOME |
RSS | 
Between 1968 and 1971, researchers Edwin L. Murphy and Doris H. Calloway published three, count ‘em, three studies on flatulence. The 1969 paper was about astronauts and their farts, specifically a study to determine the level of flatulence produced by difference astronaut space diets. Picturing how the study went brings into focus the many indignities astronauts face for their shot at space travel.
Their paper formed part of a loose trilogy of flatulence-related papers that the pair worked on, which kicked off with 1968′s “The Use of Expired Air to Measure Intestinal Gas Formation” and concluded with 1971′s “Reduction of Intestinal Gas-Forming Properties of Legumes by Traditional and Experimental Food Processing Methods.” Truly, if you needed to know something about farting in the late 1960s or early 1970s, you went to Calloway and Murphy. I would kill to be able to put something like that on a business card.
Link -via the Presurfer
We told you the story of Joseph Pujol, who made a good living by farting onstage in Paris over a hundred years ago. Now that story is a off-Broadaway musical! The Fartiste opened last week at Sofia’s Downstairs dinner theater.
It might be lowbrow humor at its lowest, but it gets laughs. Why? Unfortunately the cast and crew can’t say. You just have to have an open mind … and open nostrils.
“I love fart jokes and I think that everyone should,” said Charlie Schulman, who wrote the show’s book. “It’s one of those things in life that makes people laugh, but I don’t know why.”
More flatulent sound effects fill the air of the Manhattan dinner theater where the show opened last week than at a Whoopee cushion factory.
“You could be at a funeral, and if somebody farts, people will laugh,” said Steven Scott, a standup comedian who produces every gassy sound in “The Fartiste” with his mouth. “There’s just something funny about it.”
So far, the show has received good reviews. Link
(Image credit: Carol Rosegg)
Pull My Finger Pen – $2.95
Father’s Day is Sunday. This is a time when we pay tribute to Dad and his giving spirit. In honor of this joyous event we present to you the Pull My Finger Pen from the NeatoShop. We think Dear Old Dad will find this farting, finger shaped pen to be a real gas!
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Gag Gifts & Pranks!
Comments Off
Actor Leslie Neilsen was known for his fart jokes. His gravestone, installed at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has one. The quote says, “Let ‘er rip.” Which could mean Rest in Peace, but we all know what he really meant. Link -via Screen Junkies
(Image credit: Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel)
11-year-old Christian Summers, like many kids (and adults, for that matter), think that passing gas is funny. But not the school bus driver lady, no siree!
According to his school bus driver, he also thinks passing gas is fun. She didn’t find his flatulence so funny.
"She’s like, ‘I’m gonna sign you up. I’m gonna sign you up’. I’m like, ‘It was an accident," said Summers.
For letting it rip on the ride home, Christian was slapped withn an hour of detention at Thoreau Park Elementary.
"I thought it was pretty dumb," said Summers.
It seems breaking wind is now breaking the rules. The detention slip reads, quote "Thinks it’s funny to pass gas while on the van. I’ve told him it’s not funny, nor polite to the others in the van. While others scream, he laughs."
But what does a kid do when he’s got to fart?
Christian now fears his flatulence. If he’s caught passing gas on the bus again, he could get four or five days of detention.
"Depends on how much more gas he has," said his father.
Now he’s secretive when letting one slip on his small school bus.
"When I have to pass gas, I have to cover myself because it won’t stink up the bus," said Christian.
Emily Valdez of Fox News has the story: Link – via Arbroath
More baby and kids stories over at NeatoBambino
Annalee Newitz of io9 compiled a list of some of the grossest jobs in scientific research, like fart statistician:
How do you know when you fart too much? Because gastroenterologists have studied human fart production, figured out what the average number of daily farts should be, and determined that levels above that might indicate a medical problem. All hail the fart counters, who are keeping our gastrointestinal tracts healthy. And because I know you want to know: The mean number of farts in humans is “13.6 episodes per day,” according to one expert.
Other featured jobs include testicle crusher and corpse grinder.
Link | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Charles Williams used under Creative Commons license
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.
Just when you think you’ve heard it all… someone comes up with something like this. It’s from a little book called It’s A Gas, by Eugene Silverman, MD, and Eric Rabkni, PhD. It’s required reading for BRI history buffs.
In all fairness to the farters of the world, the greatest of them all was not by his passing of gas also passing a judgment. His completely conscious control of his abilities was confirmed by numerous chemical examinations, including two in published form. This man, a hero at bottom, was a gentle and loving father, a noble and steadfast friend, a successful and generous businessman, and a great stage entertainer. This unique individual, a phenomenon among phenomena, this explosive personality and credit to our subject, was christened Joseph Pujol, but invented for himself the name by which all history knows him: Le Petomane!
THE ART OF THE FART
Le Petomane could fart as often and as frequently as he wished. His farts were odorless. As other people use their mouths, Le Petomane had learned to use his anus. Furthermore, by constricting or loosening his anus he could vary the pitch of the air he expelled and by controlling the force of abdominal contractions he could control its loudness. With these two fundamental tools, simple enough but rarely seen, Le Petomane contrived not only to imitate a variety of farts, but also to make music.
He headlined at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, the most famous nightclub in the world at that time, and brought in box office receipts more than twice as high as those of the angelic Sarah Bernhardt. He was one of the greatest comedians of the turn of the century The manager of the Moulin Rouge kept nurses in the theater to tend to female customers whose uncontrolled laughter in tight corsets often caused them to pass out as Le Petomane passed gas. Here was not a court fool at all, but the toast of civilized society.
DISCOVERING HIS GIFT
As a boy, Joseph had had a frightening experience in the sea. Holding his breath and ducking under water, he suddenly felt a rush of cold water enter his bowels. He went to find his mother but was embarrassed to see water running out of himself. Although he recounted this in later years, apparently as a child he tried to keep his terrifying experience a secret.
Early in his married life he was called to military service and in the all-male atmosphere of the barracks he recounted for the first time his strange experience in the sea. When asked for a demonstration, he agreed to try again. On their next furlough, he and his unit went to the sea. He did succeed in taking water in and then letting it out. This might have been viewed as mere freakishness, but combined with Joseph’s gentleness and good humor, it struck the soldiers as a delightful feat.
Pujol, using a basin, practiced this art in private with water and, once able to control the intake and outflow by combined exertions of his anal and abdominal muscles, he soon began to practice with air as well. This, of course, was only for his own amusement and the occasional amusement of his fellow soldiers.
We’ve addressed the problem of the methane from livestock farts and burps contributing to global warming. One way to attack the problem is to breed sheep that produce less methane. But researchers at Newcastle University say that adding curry spices to livestock feed could produce the same results.
Research has found that coriander and turmeric – spices traditionally used to flavour curries – can reduce the amount of methane produced by sheep by up to 40 per cent.
Working a bit like an antibiotic, the spices were found to kill the methane-producing ”bad” bacteria in the animal’s gut while allowing the ”good” bacteria to flourish.
The findings are part of a study by Newcastle University research student Mohammad Mehedi Hasan and Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry.
Spices also help an animal digest its food more efficiently, which could reduce the amount of feed needed. Coriander was the most efficient spice in the experiment, followed by tumeric and then cinnamon. Link -via Fortean Times
(Image credit: Flickr user Tambako the Jaguar)
This five-month-old dog hears a fart machine and immediately checks to see if she produced it. -via Arbroath
The following is an article from The Best of The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Papal Belvedere by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1545), showing
German peasants farting at the pope.
It used to be that no one talked about farts … now, it's no big
deal. You can't get away from it. Which is fine by us. Here we honor people
who have made an art out of passing gas. (By the way - if this is your
favorite part of the book, we recommend a tome called Who
Cut the Cheese
Reprinted with permission from The Best of the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Bathroom Reader Institute handpicked the most eye-opening, rib-tickling,
and mind-boggling articles from everything they have written
over the last ten years and carefully crammed them into 576 pages of the
book.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular
books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure
yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom
Reader Institute.
The staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, England learned their lesson last year, when farting turtles set off overflow alarms at another aquarium. The turtles get a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts, which cause gas in turtles as they do in humans. When feeding sprouts to the turtles this year, the Norfolk aquarium lowered the water level to keep the expected bubbles from splashing water and setting off sensors.
Now the Yarmouth turtle tank -12 feet in depth and width holding 250,000 litres of water along with George the 3ft long green turtle – has been partially emptied for the festive season.
Thousands of litres have been removed to lower the water by a six inches and keep the sensitive alarms clear.
Displays Supervisor Christine Pitcher said: ”Last time an aquariist had to dash to the centre in the middle of the night, so we’re not going to take any chances.
”Sprouts are really healthy for green turtles.
”The high levels of calcium in them are great for their shells, the fibre is good for their digestion and they also contain lots of beneficial Vitamin C, sulphur and potassium.”
Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: Flickr user pkingDesign)
Residents of Axedale, Australia called authorities when they smelled what they believed to be a gas leak. Firefighters responded to the home and found a 120 kilogram pet pig, which they believe to be the source of the gas.
“She got very excited when two trucks and 15 firies turned up and she squealed and farted and squealed and farted,” said fire chief Peter Harkins.
“I haven’t heard too many pigs fart but I would describe it as very full-on.”
Mr Harkins said the family had done the right thing by calling 000 to report a suspected gas leak: “It’s all bottled gas up here and a leaking cylinder could pose a major fire risk.
“It was because we took it so seriously that 15 volunteers still managed to attend the call out at 10.30 on Tuesday night.”
The pig’s owners are embarrassed over the incident and refused to let the pig be photographed. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: AAP)
Some dogs are well-trained, some dogs are really well-trained. In this Very Funny Ads video clip, Thailand’s Chaiphak Training Center shows just how well they can train dogs (unfortunately, making their masters look bad in comparison …)
The combined ratings were significantly lower — more immoral — when the survey was conducted in the presence of fart smell. Schnall’s team says that this demonstrates that our moral judgment is affected by disgust: we’re harsher in our moral judgments when we’re disgusted (a post-test confirmed that those who smelled the fart spray were significantly more disgusted than the others). Interestingly, the quantity of fart spray didn’t matter: despite the fact that everyone agreed that more fart spray smelled worse, the moral judgments weren’t different depending on how much spray was used.
Warning: Some examples from the questionnaire may be disturbing. Link
The entire city council loses it and cannot conduct business when some kid uses a fart machine. There’s no indication of what city it is, but they moved to recess in order to regain composure. Link
Chessington Zoo in London has issued an apology to guests after giving the gorillas a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts. The seasonal sprouts are highly nutritious, but the gorilla farts caused horror among people around them.
Gorilla keeper Michael Rozzi said: “We feed the gorillas brussel sprouts during the winter because they are packed with vitamin C and have great nutritional benefits.
“Unfortunately, an embarrassing side effect is that it can cause bouts of flatulence in humans and animals alike.
“However, I don’t think any of us were prepared for a smell that strong.”
The zoo has taken the sprouts off the menu while the zoo is open to the public. The gorillas will enjoy them when the zoo is closed on Christmas Day. Link -Thanks, Rich!
A social club in Devon UK, has banned a 77-year-old man from breaking wind while indoors.
Maurice Fox received a letter from Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in Paignton asking him to consider his actions, which “disgusted” members.
Mr Fox, a club regular for 20 years, said: “I am happy to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy – I am an old fart now.”
He said he had to leave the club about three times a night and added “I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell.”
Source: BBC News
