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Fart lighting or fart-burning is the practice of setting fire to the gases produced by flatulence often producing a blue hue. Although earlier records do not document the activity, probably because of its vulgar and juvenile nature, the unique activity has increasingly found its way into popular culture with references in comic routines, books, videos and movies.
Background
Flatulence is a mixture of gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen sulfide with hydrogen sulfide being the most odorous. The gases are produced by bacteria which live in symbiosis within the large intestines of humans and other mammals . The gases are created as a by-product of the bacteria's digestion work to break down food into elementary substances.
Flammability
Because the methane and hydrogen present are flammable, lighting the resulting gas can result in burns or explosions as well as the desired flame. Clothing or hair may catch fire and sensitive tissues can be damaged. The flame is not always blue, but may be orange or yellow as well, depending on the composition of the gas and the microorganisms living in the colon.
Motivations
The Manly Art Of Fart-Burning. Compression, ignition, combustion and exhaust."
— Frank Zappa
Fart lighting has become a novelty practice primarily among young men or college students for decades, but is discouraged for its potential for causing injury. Such experiments typically occur on camping trips and single-sex group residences, such as tree-houses, dormitories, or fraternity houses. With the advent of video sharing features online hundreds of self-produced videos both documentary as well as spoof have been posted to sites such as YouTube and predominantly are from young males. In his book The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life author Mark Richard Leary explains how a great deal of unhappiness is due to people's inability to exert control over their thoughts and behavior and that "stupid stunts" including lighting flatulence was a way to make an impression and be included in group bonding or hazing.
Radio personality Howard Stern, who is known for outlandish and often vulgar on-air stunts cites a fart-lighting scene for losing his popular radio show's first NBC affiliate when WGIT in Hartford canceled the show.
On 2 May 2000, a U.S. patent was issued for a "Toy gas fired missile and launcher assembly", a product that would allow one's "colonic gases" to be stored for later ignition to "fire the missile into space."
Serious injuries
The flammability of bodily gases has caused serious problems in the medical operating room and also in animal slaughterhouses. At least one patient is known to have suffered from the effects of an explosion while undergoing cauterization of a colon polyp. An electric spark ignited the patient's gases, resulting in a six-inch (15-cm) hole in the patient's large intestine. However, this was sewn up, and the patient recovered.
References in popular culture
Many find a comedic value to the lighting of farts. The activity is often represented in pop culture and "for adults, the allure of the vulgar is regressionary and often secretly pleasurable."
- Fart lighting is the major plot device that starts the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Shortly after the characters are introduced, one character, Kenny McCormick dies after attempting to light one of his own farts on a dare. (Kenny's deaths from odd causes are a running gag in the series). The children make this dare in response to seeing Terrance and Phillip light each other's flatulence in the movie-within-the-movie, Asses of Fire. After lighting his fart, Kenny combusts and goes to the hospital; through a series of events the doctors replace his heart with a baked potato and it explodes, killing him and sending him to hell.
(Also, in the very first episode of the TV show, South Park, ("Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"), Cartman shoots fire out of his anus by virtue of an alien satellite dish inserted in his rectum.)
- In the British comedy Bottom, the character Richard Richard, a 40-year-old virgin played by famous English comedian Rik Mayall, attempts to sell his soul in order to have sex with beautiful women. In order to seal his pact he eats the "sprouts of evil", sprouts left over from last Christmas cooked in curry sauce. Richard Richard also forces his friends to eat some. When the characters regain consciousness hours later, they literally fart flames. One character sets fire to the settee, while another ignites volatile alcohol and destroys the conservatory.
- In UPN's sitcom Rock Me Baby, two disc jockeys perform the practice on the air. Shortly afterwards, an entire frathouse, inspired by the broadcast, is hospitalized for rectal burning and cauterization after attempting to light their farts—resulting in guilt, heavy fines for the station, and public backlash.
- A fantasy sequence in Dumb and Dumber depicts the lead character, played by Jim Carrey, lighting a fart as a party trick in polite company. These unusual circumstances for the trick are intentionally jarring; the character's fantasy is established as bizarre and unrealistic.
- In the Beavis and Butt-head episode "Butt Flambé", the duo visit an emergency room after Beavis severely burns himself by lighting a fart. In the film Beavis and Butt-head Do America the pair encounter their father(s) in the desert. Over the encounter, the elder man resembling Butt-head offers to show something really cool, then farts into the campfire with atomic results.
- The Flaming Gerbil Legend was reported by Robert D. Raiford on the John Boy and Billy radio show, when read from a newspaper article.
- In Family Guy Viewer mail #1, Chris Griffin received the powers of pyrokinesis, and lit Peter Griffin's fart, creating a flame several feet long. This gag is one of Peter's super attacks in M.U.G.E.N. In another Family Guy episode, the Big Bang was God lighting a fart.
- In the movie Dennis the Menace (1993) Dennis was a "captive" of small time crook Switchblade Sam who in his stupidity, allowed himself to be tied up by Dennis. The key (lost in the tin of baked beans) was to be found by feeding them to Switchblade Sam who was sitting by the fire. Hours later, the beans had their desired effect with flames licking his ankles.
- A Bud Light commercial, aired during the 2004 Super Bowl, features a horse-drawn carriage in which a couple is building romance and the man hands a woman a lit candle; while he leans down retrieving the Bud Light, the horse farts and the gases, ignited by the candle flame, produce an explosion and we see the results of the woman's "blown out" hair and soot-covered face. At the end of the commercial a man refers to it as a "Rocket Sleigh".
- In the movie Extreme Days, the four main male characters are shown in one scene lighting farts in a dark hotel room and laughing hysterically.
- Johnny Test as Johnny X has the ability to produce farting flames called "power poots".
- In an episode of the satire puppet show Spitting Image, Rupert Murdoch uses lighted farts to make toast.
- In the movie Weekend Warriors (1986), the guardsmen in the unit all cheer on, as one of their number eats beans and then proceeds to engage in pyroflatulence, just as a visiting congressman enters the room. The viewer can see the congressman's shocked face, by the light of the flame.
See also
References
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673508
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673508
- Slaven, Neil (2003, ISBN 0711994366). "Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa". Omnibus Press. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Dawson, Jim (1999). "Who Cut the Cheese?: A Cultural History of the Fart". Ten Speed Press, ISBN 1580080111. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- U. of California Press Web site Retrieved October 6, 2007
- Barnes, Steve (2007). "On YouTube, you too can be a star". Santa Cruz Live. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- "Search Results for "fart lighting"". YouTube. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- Leary, Mark Richard (2004). "The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- Stern, Howard (1993). "Private Parts". Simon & Schuster ISBN 0671880160. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
- Zanakis, Michael F. "Toy Gas Fired Missile and Launcher Assembly". U.S. Patent Office, Patent number: 6055910; Filing date: Jun 1, 1998; International Classification - F42B 406. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
{{cite web}}: Text "date: 2 May, 2000" ignored (help) - The Straight Dope web site
- Twitchell., J. (1992; p.52). Carnival Culture – The Trashing of Taste in America. Columbia University Press, New York.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - http://www.spscriptorium.com/Treats/SPBLUdraft8.htm
- TV.com web site
- http://members.tripod.com/~scriptsg_den/dumbanddumber.html
- http://www.tv.com/beavis-and-butt-head/butt-flambe/episode/58379/recap.html
- Callaghan, S. (2005; “Family Guy Viewer Mail #1.”, 152–155.). Family Guy: The Official Episode Guide Seasons 1–3. HarperCollins, New York.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - http://www.duncans.tv/2005/bud-light-beer-sleigh-ride