Do little children need to learn that farts are totally fucking hilarious, or is it a genetically determined innate neuronal control program?
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8 comments
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Blue Gal
January 2, 2010 at 8:24 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
They know that butt, fart, poop, underpants, peenee, and vulva are funny right out of the bucket. Pee pee too. The Captain Underpants books are highly recommended for this group.
Professor in Training
January 2, 2010 at 9:26 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I think it’s genetically predetermined as my nephew thinks his farts are hilarious. His parents, on the other hand, I don’t find quite as amusing.
ScientistMother
January 2, 2010 at 11:51 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Monkey LOVES toot tooting. And telling me proudly that he just did it.
Sven DiMilo
January 3, 2010 at 12:39 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Farts are funny by definition. Totally innate. Hardwired.
My hypothesis is that farts were the evolutionary root of all humor. Long before there was language, or even gestural humor, our forebears cracked each other up around the ol’ cave with hilarious flatulence.
becca
January 3, 2010 at 4:56 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Not innate. At 4 months, Little Goofball gets Fartin MAD when he can’t do something. So farting would be associated with NOT AMUSED!!!11
Of course, arguably, he simply does not have a sense of humor yet. Although he’ll giggle at the quacking attack of a stuffed duck, for unclear reasons.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that his bizarre genetic background has made him, effectively, a rare mutant strain that is not indicative of humanity as a whole.
Dr. Jekyll & Mrs. Hyde
January 4, 2010 at 11:34 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
More biologically, do we like the smell of our own farts because we learn to associate that smell with relief, or is that hardwired by some fancy IgG molecules too?
Katharine
January 4, 2010 at 11:45 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The oldest joke in the world is a fart joke.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL129052420080731
bikelib
January 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
In the beginning, the earth was without form and void. But there were farts. And God said they were fuckin hilarious. The end.