I watch programs on the Cooking or Food channel, (or one of the other five networks they have now) plus shows like Modern Family, Big Bang Theory and well, that's about it. I found Animaniacs on the Hub being run at 10 at night, so the DVR snags those up. I pretend that the show is for the kids, but I think I get more enjoyment out of the humor than the kids. Granted when fart or burp jokes are part of the skits, my kids will laugh uncontrollably, and the fart or burp isn't even the truly funny part.
This baffles me. Why is it that burps or farts (mostly farts) are hilarious to kids and to be honest, most adults? I remember when I was younger and that song about who farted, left me and my mother in tears from laughter. Why?
In my opinion it's because everyone does it, but for some reason when you get caught, it's embarrassing. Mostly because when it accidentally happens, you are in a place or situation that farting would not be appropriate, even frowned upon (if people weren't currently laughing at you). Even if you manage not to get caught with the sound, your body seems to know ahead of time that it needs smell so you don't get away with this natural occurrence.
So you sit there, in the few seconds after you got away with the quiet, hoping beyond all hope that it doesn't smell. Then someone downwind wrinkles their nose, and then you know. Your body then in an act of defiance makes your face or ears turn red and you start to sweat, because it's only seconds before someone points the finger at you, for that noxious gas now filling the board/classroom.
It's funny because you have been there, we have all endured this at one time or another, especially if Taco Bell is in your diet. It's funny, just because this one time...it wasn't you. You get to share in someone else's misery.
After sitting down with Little Dude and subjecting him to Good Eats with Alton Brown, all it took was one episode to make him a fan. If you have seen the episode concerning yeast, then you are aware of his yeast sock puppets. These sock puppets eat sugar then proceed to burp all over the place. This display shows the science in why/how bread rises.
Little Dude and I were watching an episode about muffins, when he brought up making English muffins which use yeast. Alton recalls his yeast episode with one sock puppet and gives him some sugar. Knowing that Little Dude hadn't seen the bread episode I knew this would make him laugh. The yeast sock puppet eats the sugar and then does the signature burp, while Alton is explaining the science behind the gas. This is when the episode takes a turn I didn't see coming.
The sock puppet, after burping, twists his little sock body, tilts to the side and farts. (It makes you wonder if they rehearsed with the sock puppet in order to best represent a tubular body lifting its butt cheek to fart.) I thought Little Dude was going to pass out, from laughing. He was literally laughing so hard his face would get a little blue before taking that all important breath in. I was of no use, because I too was laughing. The fact that the sock body lifted it's theoretical butt cheek was hilarious.
Once again, we've all done it, (yes, everyone has even lifted a cheek at one time or another) so there isn't any real reason to be ashamed. However, until we can get everyone else to stop laughing, and your body to stop acting in complete defiance of keeping gas expulsion a secret, it will always be embarrassing.
Even with all my thoughts about why it's funny, there are sometimes when the question of "who cares?" comes to mind. I now have an episode that I can recall at a moment's notice, in order to make me and my kids laugh. There are some days when you just need to laugh, because it truly is the best medicine. Even if that medicine is laughing at a sock puppet farting.
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