There’s a foul, vile, and noxious mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane, and various volatile sulfur compounds. Is this some dangerous new chemical from a mad scientist’s laboratory? Not at all. It’s simply a fart.
Breaking wind is one of those things people have always found embarrassing or funny, depending on the circumstances. Flatulence humor has been around a long time and transcends cultures. It seems to have always been good for a laugh in ancient Greece and Rome. Farting was a staple of medieval English literature. There was no shortage of it later in the scribblings of the French Renaissance, either. Then in the 1700s, flatulence became a favorite weapon in political cartoons!
Generally, farting is involuntary. Even if it’s held in, it has to come out sometime. However, there have been people with an unusual degree of control over their flatulence. No less a figure than St. Augustine wrote about a man with that talent, over 1,500 years ago. In the late 1800s, Frenchman Joseph Pujol had the same ability and made a career in vaudeville out of it!
The canine digestive system isn’t fundamentally all that different from our own. So yes, sometimes it really was the dog who did it! If a dog is excessively gassy, it might be related to diet: low-quality dog food, table scraps, and lactose are possible culprits. Whatever the dog you’ll see in the video posted below was eating, she was having a very “productive” day. As the woman who posted the video explained, “To my own amazement, I was able to capture a video of my 7 month-old white German Shepherd dog, Lucy, experiencing one of her many, MANY farts that day.” What’s absolutely priceless is Lucy’s expression of horrified confusion when it happens.
You may not ever admit it, but you probably good a good laugh from this. Feel free to confess in the comments at Facebook. Be sure to like and share: your friends will giggle, too!