Flatulence ignition is the practice of setting fire to the gases produced by flatulence. It is practised primarily among young men, but discouraged for its potential for causing injury. Lighting such gas can result in burns or explosions. Clothing or hair may catch fire and sensitive tissues can be damaged.
Such experiments may occur among young men on camping trips or in single-sex group residences such as dormitories or fraternity houses, but the flammability of bodily gases has caused serious problems in the operating room and also in slaughterhouses.
At least one patient is known to have exploded while undergoing cauterization of a rectal polyp . An electric spark ignited the patient's intestinal gases, resulting in a six-inch (15-cm) hole in the patient's large intestine. However, this was sewn up, and the patient recovered [1].
References in popular culture
Many find a comedic value to lighting of farts. The activity is often represented in pop culture.
- In the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the character Kenny McCormick kills himself attempting to light one of his farts (Kenny's deaths from odd causes are a running gag in the series). After lighting his fart, Kenny goes to the hospital; through a series of events they replace his heart with a baked potato and it explodes, killing him and sending him to hell because he saw the movie which suggested this instead of going to church. Also, in the very first episode (Cartman Gets an Anal Probe), Cartman shoots fire out of his ass by virtue of an alien satallite inserted in his rectum.
- 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 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.
- British comedienne Victoria Wood sang a humorous song that included the words: I wanted love poems but you couldn’t write them,/ My ear lobes nibbled but you wouldn’t bite them. / You’d only fart and then attempt to light them. / It would never have worked.
- In the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot", all the world's robots are gathered on the Galapagos Islands for destruction for causing global warming. Just before the electromagnetic pulse arrives that will destroy them, the robots are instructed to aim their exhausts upward. This had the dual effect of moving earth a little further from the sun, thus cooling the planet, and moving the robots out of the way of the EMP. The action of aiming their exhausts upward is intentionally analogous to lighting farts, and is intended to be quite humorous, particularly when Bender aims his and it is the biggest blast of all.
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