If a person farts and there is no-one to hear them, is there any point to it?
Asked by
janbb (
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August 14th, 2013
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52 Answers
Yes, you’ll probably feel better.
Did you know that our town has a Dutch Oven group? :).
Yes. It could be a wet fart.
Jan! You have stooped to a whole new level! lol
Farting is to release gas from the dark netherworld of the bowels, most of us do not welcome an audience. haha
For theists in the group: God is always around to hear it.
It was just a passing thought.
Yes, a breath of fresh air. haha
to paraphrase an oldie but a goodie:
There was a young man who said, “God
Must find it exceedingly odd
To think that this fart
Constitutes art
When there’s no one about in the Quad.”
REPLY
Dear Sir:
Your astonishment’s odd:
I am always about in the Quad.
And that’s why the fart
Still onstitutes art
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
GOD.
Is there reasons to do it? To get rid of that bloaty feeling. Because there is no one around. Simply because farting as always been a gas.
If I could think of a dignified way to answer this, I’d probably attempt a wisecrack about being locked in the john.
I wasn’t aware that the “point” of a fart was for someone else to hear and/or smell it.
What did the maxi-pad say to the fart?
You are the wind beneath my wings.
Amazingly thoughtful question!
Self gratification isn’t a good enough reason?
I think it depends on whether a tree falls when you do it or not.
It’s all the more satisfying when you don’t have to pretend you’re not farting. :p
If there is a point to one’s farts, then… I shouldn’t have to say this… it’s probably not a fart in the first place.
This question requires at least three serious Talmudic scholars as opposed to the frivolous ones) and a Kabbalist to be locked in a small room for a very long time
Maybe, maybe not. There’s certainly no reason to make a big stink over it.
I shouldn’t ask, but I want to know: didn’t anybody get my reference to John Locke—the philosopher who wrote the question about the tree falling in the forest? I know, too oblique, right?
@Jeruba I did, I did, just read it now! Haha Perfect!, right up there with the sound of one hand clapping. lol
It is better to fart
and bear the shame
than not to fart
and bear the pain.
Yes there is a point to it you can brag about afterwards… maybe ask a question about it on Fluther? So how did you experience your private fart? Was it a wet or dry vintage?
Ahh Wet farts, the bain of old age!
Just speculating here, but I took the whole question (including the topic tags) as a wry comment on the experience of sharing space with someone who seems to break wind as an act of aggression, maybe even with a certain deliberate pride. What happens, one might wonder, when that person is without an audience/victim? Does the urge even exist when there is no one present to inflict it on? The question is, of course, a philosophical one.
@Jeruba Got it and the paraphrased question exactly (although I didn’t know that the question was originally John Locke’s.) Thank you for understanding the philosophical nuances.
I don’t fart. I’m a lady. lol
Imagine farting in the Queen’s presence…
Queenie: “How dare you fart in front of me!?!”
ucme: “My apologies maam, I had no idea it was your turn first.”
@ucme oh but Mark Twain did in 1601
Ye Queene: Verily in my eight and sixty years have I not heard ye fellow to this farte.
Sir Walter: Most gracious Majestie, twas I that did it, but, indeed, it was so poor and fragile a note compared with such as I am wont to furnish, that in sooth I was ashamed to call ye weakling mine . . .
@KNOWITALL dare I ask what a Dutch Oven group is?
[all I know of Dutch ovens is a coverable opening in the brick surround of an old kitchen fireplace that could be used for slow cooking/baking in the 17th 18th centuries and probably before].
@anartist I wanted to ask that too but I’m not sure I want to hear what that has to do with farting.
@anartist: Can anyone besides the penguin ID the movie referenced here?
“This question requires at least three serious Talmudic scholars as opposed to the frivolous ones) and a Kabbalist to be locked in a small room for a very long time.”
@rojo It is better to fart
and bear the shame
than not to fart
and bear the pain.
Better to fart it and waste it,
than burp it and taste it.
Gas-o-lean
away from me
or I shall put arsenic in your tea
Gee – how did such a highminded question descend to this nonsense?
@janbb Yes, some pretty explosive content. lol
In hindsight, this question stinks.
^^ This is the high point of Fluther questions. ;-P
@rojo You’re such a commodian!
Hmm, I saw that movie ^^^ recently, but I didn’t recognize the quote. Good movie.
^^Quote is from me, quoting myself in reference to the movie. See PM
Now I’m confused, @gailcalled. I thought you were referring to this quote:
“This question requires at least three serious Talmudic scholars as opposed to the frivolous ones) and a Kabbalist to be locked in a small room for a very long time.”
and saying it came from the movie. Was this instead your comment about the movie?
@gailcalled I looked at “the Footnote” synopsis and it didn’t seem to be it because it just seemed to involve a father and a son. Is it a good movie?
@Jeruba: Yes, I made things more confusing and yes, I was quoting my comment about the movie with the Kabbalist thrown in for good measure and really meant as a private joke for the penguin.
@anartist: The story in its simplest form is about a father and son. I thought it was a very interesting and worthy movie, not without flaws (including the ending) but worth watching for both the story line and all the semiotics and sub-texts. Being interested in the back, middle and foregrounds, you might really enjoy it.
@anartist, I gave it four stars on Netflix. I’m really tight with my five-star ratings, so that’s a very good score in my book. I liked the scholarship angle and the view of the strange politics of academe as much as the exploration of the father-son conflict.
@Jeruba @gailcalled thanks. I’ll check it out.
@janbb just reread the Q. “Let alone the smell”—of course no smell—no one to smell it, just like no noise when the tree falls—no one to hear it. But gases and vibrations, mais,oui
@anartist If you do get it, pm me before watching and I will tell you about my inside connection to that film.
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