Why are farts funny?
鈥� There are several reasons why flatulence puts a smile on some people鈥檚 faces. The first is the relief felt by the farter as they get rid of troublesome bowel gas. The next is the sound of the fart as it announces its departure. This raises an air of expectation: will the fart be unscented or malodorous, and to what degree? This anticipation and associated humour seem proportional to the loudness and duration of the fart.
Farting鈥檚 potential for humour peaks when there are more than two people in the room. A mischievous culprit can plead innocence and cause argument among the blameless.
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David Muir, Edinburgh, UK
鈥� I was involved in a research project on the nature of humour a couple of years ago that found the answer.
Conventional wisdom says that laughter is triggered by the unexpected. But experiments in recent years showed this to be false: audiences laugh louder at surprise-free stories. To make someone laugh, you don鈥檛 surprise them, you attack them.
If you are a comedian, you attack their conventions, their values, their assumptions, their expectations. If you are a parent, you physically 鈥渁ttack鈥� your infants, nibbling them and throwing them in the air. This explains why you cannot tickle yourself: the sense of an external attacker is missing.
To fart in polite society is to attack multiple conventions, which is why some people find it funny. To maximise the laughter, choose a large audience and time it carefully. For example, wait for a school function during which the principal reads a poem that says: 鈥淎nd the Goddess Mother Nature released her mighty wind over the forest鈥︹��
Nury Vittachi, Hong Kong, China
鈥� Comical farting certainly has a history. Henry II of England, who ruled in the 12th century, once gave one of his minstrels
a 12-hectare estate in Suffolk for performing the king鈥檚 favourite party trick 鈥� a hop and a whistle, followed by a fart. The condition was that the minstrel, known as Roland le Fartere (what else?), had to do the trick every Christmas 鈥� and his descendants also had to carry on the tradition.
Fast-forward to France in the late 19th century, where Joseph Pujol, the French flatulist, or professional farter, used to amuse audiences by farting at will. He didn鈥檛 actually pass intestinal wind, but could draw air in through the amazing control of his sphincter and then fart it out.
David Hulme, Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK
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