Why do people's farts smell like their houses?
January 21, 2008 7:05 PM Subscribe
Why do people's farts smell like their houses?
Serious question. I've noticed this in a great number of fart scents -- a lingering scent of the gas passer's abode. Is it the flatulence moving through house-scented clothes that creates the similar smell, or is the air trapped inside their gullet tinged with the aroma of home. I've wondered this from a young age.
Serious question. I've noticed this in a great number of fart scents -- a lingering scent of the gas passer's abode. Is it the flatulence moving through house-scented clothes that creates the similar smell, or is the air trapped inside their gullet tinged with the aroma of home. I've wondered this from a young age.
This post was deleted for the following reason: . -- jessamyn
I've got two answers, too:
One, what?!?!?
Two, I don't think that they do, although I haven't done a controlled study to determine the outcome.
posted by SciGuy at 7:12 PM on January 21, 2008
One, what?!?!?
Two, I don't think that they do, although I haven't done a controlled study to determine the outcome.
posted by SciGuy at 7:12 PM on January 21, 2008
Yeah, I think you've got some things backwards. People's clothes and farts are not really "house-scented." The scent of the clothes and the houses and the farts are all affected by the food that they cook and eat, the detergent and deoderant other scented products that they use at home, and their own natural body odors.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:16 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by ludwig_van at 7:16 PM on January 21, 2008
I must add my WHAT THE HELL to this, although I laughed as hard as I have at any AskMefi question.
I think the house scent -- I do know just what you mean -- could be any number of things that a person has too much of, or doesn't know that they exude. A certain perfume, a food too often cooked, unventilated cat boxes -- those are house scents, and any of these things could be conflated with the smell of farts.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:28 PM on January 21, 2008
I think the house scent -- I do know just what you mean -- could be any number of things that a person has too much of, or doesn't know that they exude. A certain perfume, a food too often cooked, unventilated cat boxes -- those are house scents, and any of these things could be conflated with the smell of farts.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:28 PM on January 21, 2008
If by "people" you mean "bees," and by "houses" you mean "hives," I think I have an answer for you.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:32 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:32 PM on January 21, 2008
Response by poster: Why do bee's farts smell like their hives?
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 7:34 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 7:34 PM on January 21, 2008
I am curious about the smells of your friends' houses.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:35 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:35 PM on January 21, 2008
Yeah -- if your friends are all early 20s guys with apartments or shared houses, the mystery is lessened.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:38 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Countess Elena at 7:38 PM on January 21, 2008
I have two cents:
$.01 = I love this question.
$.01 = Are you extra-sensitive to odors? Otherwise, I'd say, asn an experiment, you could have a subject go home, hang out for 24 hours eating beans or the like, and then transport them to a somewhat sterile room, dressed in a sterile robe, and then go in and do your sniffin'. I have a feeling that the home smell may be infusing the fabric of their clothes, which is being dislodged when the fart passes through the underwear and trousers.
Disclaimer: I know guesses are not helpful in AskMe, only informed answers. But I just had to take a shot. And now I'm going to check out your AskMe history. :)
posted by not_on_display at 7:40 PM on January 21, 2008
$.01 = I love this question.
$.01 = Are you extra-sensitive to odors? Otherwise, I'd say, asn an experiment, you could have a subject go home, hang out for 24 hours eating beans or the like, and then transport them to a somewhat sterile room, dressed in a sterile robe, and then go in and do your sniffin'. I have a feeling that the home smell may be infusing the fabric of their clothes, which is being dislodged when the fart passes through the underwear and trousers.
Disclaimer: I know guesses are not helpful in AskMe, only informed answers. But I just had to take a shot. And now I'm going to check out your AskMe history. :)
posted by not_on_display at 7:40 PM on January 21, 2008
A) This is ridiculous
B) Assuming your blatantly un-true observation is true, just for the fun of the argument, my theories would be:
i) They fart in their house a lot, so their 'house smell' is actually just 'seeped in fart smell'
ii) They cook & eat foods that smell up their houses, and then they fart out farts that smell exactly the same as the food they just ate.
(As my grandfather used to say: "Ya ask a stupid question, ya get a stupid answer!")
posted by Kololo at 7:46 PM on January 21, 2008
B) Assuming your blatantly un-true observation is true, just for the fun of the argument, my theories would be:
i) They fart in their house a lot, so their 'house smell' is actually just 'seeped in fart smell'
ii) They cook & eat foods that smell up their houses, and then they fart out farts that smell exactly the same as the food they just ate.
(As my grandfather used to say: "Ya ask a stupid question, ya get a stupid answer!")
posted by Kololo at 7:46 PM on January 21, 2008
My house smells like roses. Coincidentally, so do my farts.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:47 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:47 PM on January 21, 2008
Response by poster: The food hypothesis is intriguing, but I have one friend in particular whose house smells like his cat and iron-y metal (he is a mechanic). His farts smell like his house, and I notice it most when he's not IN his house, which removes the similar-smelling environment idea.
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 7:50 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 7:50 PM on January 21, 2008
Now that you mention it, my farts smell vaguely sulfurous. Does that mean I live in hell?
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:53 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:53 PM on January 21, 2008
Just a note. Here is a couple of the question-asker's other questions:
A Question About Butt Hair
Seriously, What's Up With My Anus?
It's just a start, but think i see a theme forming...
posted by Kololo at 7:53 PM on January 21, 2008
A Question About Butt Hair
Seriously, What's Up With My Anus?
It's just a start, but think i see a theme forming...
posted by Kololo at 7:53 PM on January 21, 2008
Response by poster: Hey Kololo! Those questions were 100% serious. And for the record, a visit to my dermatologist cleared up the recurrent anal itching... but that's neither here nor there. I don't see how a legitimate medical condition that HAPPENS to by near the orifice from where farts originate lessens the validity of this question.
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 8:00 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 8:00 PM on January 21, 2008
Oh, it doesn't lessen the validity of the question. But it is funny that you seem particularly prone to facetiously worded questions about butts.
(I mean "funny ha ha" not "funny strange". It's actually quite amusingly comical.)
posted by Kololo at 8:03 PM on January 21, 2008
(I mean "funny ha ha" not "funny strange". It's actually quite amusingly comical.)
posted by Kololo at 8:03 PM on January 21, 2008
This is the greatest question ever.
Based on my own olfactory experience, most of my friends must live in a bowel.
posted by The Gooch at 8:05 PM on January 21, 2008
Based on my own olfactory experience, most of my friends must live in a bowel.
posted by The Gooch at 8:05 PM on January 21, 2008
Not that I fart or anything but, don't they all smell like farts? Wait, I can tell by the fart which of my three dogs it came out of. Nevermind.
posted by red_lotus at 8:05 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by red_lotus at 8:05 PM on January 21, 2008
Response by poster: Uh huh. I would expect this from a person whose foot looks like a non-hairy PAW! Disgusting!
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 8:07 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by (bb|[^b]{2}) at 8:07 PM on January 21, 2008
I think it will be easier to produce a scientific answer to this insightful question if we leave the OP's obsession with butts, Kololo's deformed foot, and my incontinence out of this.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:13 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:13 PM on January 21, 2008
Dammit! Ignore that last comment.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:14 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 8:14 PM on January 21, 2008
Is it worth pointing out that (bb|[^b]{2})'s username means "to be, or not to be"? That is the question.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 8:14 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by AmbroseChapel at 8:14 PM on January 21, 2008
If this were true, then wouldn't you be unable to tell that someone had farted if they did it in their house?
posted by Enroute at 8:38 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by Enroute at 8:38 PM on January 21, 2008
It's all related. People tend to keep food in their houses, which they prepare and eat. The food they eat sometimes causes gas in the colon which is released through the anus, better known in your vernacular as a "fart."
People's farts actually smell more like the food they ate than anything else (it's just combined with other chemicals to produce a noxious scent). So when they fart, they are emitting the gassy remains of their food.
People who live in home where there are strong food and other scents (e.g., curry or cigarette smoke) tend to smell like those things because the scent permeates their hair and clothing. Coupled with the smell of their flatulence, this may produce the odors that prompted you to ask this silly silly question.
posted by mynameismandab at 8:44 PM on January 21, 2008
People's farts actually smell more like the food they ate than anything else (it's just combined with other chemicals to produce a noxious scent). So when they fart, they are emitting the gassy remains of their food.
People who live in home where there are strong food and other scents (e.g., curry or cigarette smoke) tend to smell like those things because the scent permeates their hair and clothing. Coupled with the smell of their flatulence, this may produce the odors that prompted you to ask this silly silly question.
posted by mynameismandab at 8:44 PM on January 21, 2008
I must have intimacy issues, because I have no clue how my friends' farts smell.
And, WHAT THE HELL?!
posted by The Deej at 8:46 PM on January 21, 2008
And, WHAT THE HELL?!
posted by The Deej at 8:46 PM on January 21, 2008
Gee I hope someone posts the correct answer a fifth time.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:47 PM on January 21, 2008
posted by ludwig_van at 8:47 PM on January 21, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
One, what??
Two, I'd think it's more the houses smelling like their farts (or, more broadly, houses smelling like their inhabitants).
posted by danb at 7:08 PM on January 21, 2008