A gag where something that sounds like flatulence (i.e. a low horn or Blowing a Raspberry) leads to someone accusing someone else of farting, despite the other's protests that they didn't.
A Sub-Trope of Grossout Fakeout, Fooled by the Sound, and Toilet Humor. A Whoopee Cushion is often used to invoke this. A Butt-Monkey (no pun intended) may be especially prone to being blamed for this. If the character who gets blamed is a gasshole, there might be overlap with Not Me This Time. Cringe Comedy might come into play if it's especially awkward. Could overlap with Gassy Gastronomy if someone eats, or was thought to have eaten, a food stereotyped as making people fart like beans or chilli.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: Subverted. When Fry sits on Krabappel's chair, the sound of a fart is heard. All the students laugh at it and think Bart put a Whoopee Cushion on the chair. However, Bart realizes he didn't do that, causing Fry to embarrassingly apologize and thus admit he did fart.
Films — Animated
- Atlantis: Milo's Return : When the team finds the Atlantean settlement in the Arizona Desert, they get assaulted by fumes. Mole apologizes and says he's to blame for the stench, but then he takes a sniff himself and takes his word back. The fumes turn out to be the homemade sleeping gas Carnaby made out of a prairie grass mixture.
- Finding Nemo: When the sea mine field where the sharks live explodes, a bubble from the blasts breaks on the surface, right beside a pelican. His companion looks at him with a disgusted expression, sarcastically declaring "Nice" before flying away.
- Subverted in Flushed Away. A balloon makes a rude noise as it deflates, and Spike accuses Whitey of farting. It turns out that Whitey did fart; he was taking the opportunity.
- Madagascar: Marty, Melman, and Gloria hear a foghorn and Melman briefly thinks Gloria farted.
Melman: Oh, G-Gloria...
Gloria: That was not me, okay? That was the boat. - Robots: The robots in Aunt Fanny's house start making armpit farts. Aunt Fanny assumes they're having a farting contest, so she lets out a real fart. A real, really long one, that rattles the block, sets off some car alarms and apparently kills the street lamp outside; it's last seen passing out choking and has a Chalk Outline in the morning.
Piper: We were using our arms! Ew...
- Shrek: When Shrek and Donkey are nearing the dragon's keep, Donkey smells brimstone and thinks that Shrek just cut one. Shrek responds "If it was me, you'd be dead."
- Tarzan: When the jungle animals first hear a gunshot, Tantor says, "Wasn't me, I swear."note
Films — Live-Action
- In Madeline (1998), the girls work together to stop Lord Covington from selling their boarding school by sabotaging it. One of the ways they do this is by hiding a wheel of Hélène's foul-smelling cheese in the music room. When Lord Covington shows two potential buyers the music room, the buyers smell the stinky cheese, and the wife looks sternly at her husband, who says "Don't look at me!"
- One film from On The Lot explored this. A man on a plane is thought to have broken wind (he knows he hasn't) and thinks about how guys usually deflect accusations of passing gas and how long it's been going on. He finally claims that the sound came from a bottle of shampoo he brought on the plane. When it's pointed out this is illegal now, he's apprehended by security and a pretty woman tells him "It was me."
- Played for Laughs in Scary Movie 3. Cindy sits on a vinyl chair. What follows is a squeaking sound that she quickly claims was the chair. Someone sits on another chair, resulting in a very loud fartlike noise (implied to not be a result of the chair).
Literature
- The Last Ditch: While scouting the Mechanicus shrine, Magot glares at Jurgen with the demand "Who let that one rip?". The smell was actually from the volcanic vents powering the shrine (though since we're talking about Jurgen, it wasn't a bad guess ...).
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
- In "The Ugly Truth", when Greg pranks his great-grandma, Gammie, with a Whoopee Cushion, everyone at the dinner thinks she actually farted, even Gammie herself. In her apology letter, she wonders if her latest surgery made her gassier.
- In the Do-It-Yourself Book, the Fart Police think a man farted and he says a duck probably crawled into his pants. They initially don't believe him, but then a duck pokes its head out of his pants.
- Geronimo Stilton: In "The Secret of Cacklefur Castle", Geronimo sits on a chair and a noise that sounds like flatulence is heard. He sheepishly apologizes, but Creepella reveals that Booey the prankster ghost put a Whoopee Cushion on his chair.
Live-Action TV
- In the episode "The One With All The Resolutions" of Friends, Ross buys some leather pants. Unfortunately moving around on a vinyl couch wearing leather pants can create some suspicious sounds...
Ross: That was just the pants on the couch.
- Ross gets hit with this again at Chandler and Monica's wedding when he rearranges the seating chart and accidentally ends up at the kids' table. His chair keeps squeaking and makes the kids think he's farting.
- NCIS: Abby has a plush hippo that makes a fart noise when squeezed. It surprises people the first time they hear it.
- On the Lot: In one film, a man on a plane is thought to have broken wind (he knows he hasn't) and thinks about how guys usually deflect accusations of passing gas and how long it's been going on. He finally claims that the sound came from a bottle of shampoo he brought on the plane. When it's pointed out this is illegal now, he's apprehended by security and a pretty woman tells him "It was me."
Radio
- Inverted, then played straight in one episode of Hamish and Dougal involving Hamish and an inflatable Santa:
Mrs Naughtie: Mr Hamish, you can let down the inflatable Santa.
Hamish: Right you are.
[Extended hissing / flatulent sounds are heard]
Hamish: Right, now where's that inflatable Santa?- A few lines later:
[The same hissing / flatulent sounds are heard]
The Laird: Hamish!
Hamish: I'm just letting down Santa!
Dougal: Hamish, you're letting everybody down.
Webcomics
- Awkward Zombie: In one comic, Katie, while riding in an airplane, scrapes her foot on the ground and it makes a fart sound, causing Katie to fear that people will do this. She ends up trying to recreate the sound in order to make herself not look weird and gross, and while she succeeds, she also makes herself look weird anyway.
Western Animation
- Bob's Burgers:
- Happens to Teddy during the B-plot of "Lice Things Are Lice" when he sits down on some new barstools Bob bought for the restaurant. Turns out the stools act like whoopie cushions until they've been broken in... in about a year or so. Unfortunately, Mort has talked a funeral service into holding their wake at Bob's that afternoon, so time is a big factor.
- In "The Frond Files", during Gene's story, he plays a farting sound effect on his keyboard, and the students mistakenly think Mr. Frond was the one who cut it.
- Camp Lazlo: At the beginning of "The Weakest Link", Lazlo smells a gas leak, and Raj initially accuses Clam of passing.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: In the episode "Operation: P.O.O.L.", water bubbles around Numbuh 2 in the pool, which leads Numbuh 3 and 5 to think he farted in the pool, to which Numbuh 2 denies. Then their Mirror Universe counterparts drag them underwater...
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
- In "Busted", Madame Foster blows a raspberry at Mr. Herriman, causing the latter to mistakenly think Bloo cut loose. He gives Bloo a warning after the latter apologizes.
- In the episode, "One False Movie", Mac films a video about the imaginary friends who live at Foster's, which Bloo adds armpit fart sound effects to, specifically during the scene where Mac interviews Eduardo. This causes Eduardo to think he has a "Pooting problem", despite Mac trying to tell Eduardo otherwise. This is why Eduardo refuses to take part in the movie Bloo films for the film festival Mac's principal enters Mac in, and Bloo has to replace him with CGi effects. Eduardo also sends a letter to the writers of Lauren is Explorin' for a solution to this problem, prompting them to write A Very Special Episode dealing with it.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: The episode "Duck!" centers around an Underworld duck, who only its chosen victim can see, that constantly blows raspberries so that others will accuse the victim of farting in inappropriate times, and subsequently landing them in jail.
- In The Loud House episode "The Price of Admission", ten whoopee cushions fall on Lincoln in the dark. Since Lincoln is paranoid from having seen a movie about a guy who harvests organs, he thinks they're his sisters' disembodied colons still farting.
- The Mighty B!: In "Toot Toot," Bessie goes to the cafe and the chair she's sitting on squeaks when she stands up, causing everyone else to gasp in shock. Bessie insists that it really was just the chair.
- The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show: In the episode with Mozart, a chair that Sherman is sitting on creaks, which Mozart mistakes for him breaking wind. This gives Mr. Peabody an idea; they can teach Mozart about real fun via music.
Mozart: (giggles) Your arschengluten just made a sound in the key of G!
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: In "Pac to the Future", Pac's baby self soils his diaper while he and present day Pac are spying on Commander Betrayus and Corporal Hineyheadnote . Betrayus gets a whiff of this and asks Hineyhead if he ate chili for lunch again.
- PAW Patrol: In "Pups Save a Stinky Flower", Mayor Goodway gets a whiff of the titular Stinky Flower and says that Chickaletta should eat less corn, implying that Chickaletta is normally a Gasshole if she has corn.
- Peg + Cat: In "The Scrap of Map Problem", Baby Fox blows a raspberry. Peg asks Cat if that was him, and he says it wasn't, but he briefly wonders if he unknowingly farted.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
- In "Reeking Havoc", a sentient flatulence cloud flies through the city. A window washer takes a whiff of this and asks his partner if he had cabbage borscht for dinner, implying that he thought it was him.
- In "Get Back Jojo", a younger version of the Professor tricks his classmate Matthew into sitting on a Whoopee Cushion, which makes a flatulent sound. Their teacher thinks Matthew broke wind and makes him sit in time-out.
- The Powerpuff Girls (2016): In "Mini Golf Madness", Blossom and Bubbles hear an explosion from outside (which is caused by Owlie Boop). Blossom gives Bubbles an annoyed look and says they "both know what that was". Bubbles says she didn't do that, and then she proceeds to fart for real.
- Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: “Happy Birthday House!” contains a truly bizarre example- Buddy and later Louis notice a soft pinging sound (which turns out to be the muffled noise of pipes rattling in the basement) and ask Krupa (an anthropomorphic drum) about it. Judging by his reaction, they seem to be accusing him of whatever the drum equivalent of flatulence is.
- Inverted in the Rick and Morty episode Amortycan Grickfitti, when Jerry confesses to farting in the car when Rick gets out and starts sniffing. In reality, Rick didn't even know that Jerry had farted — he was sniffing the adventure coming from his spaceship (It Makes Sense in Context).
- The Simpsons
- In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Mr. Burns goes on a Howard Stern-like radio talk show to improve his image, and the host plays fart noises while he speaks.
Mr. Burns: Stop that! Attention wireless listeners, most of the sounds you are now hearing are not being made by me! Oh stop! Stop! Won't someone please stop the farting!
- In "On a Clear Day, I Can't See My Sister", Bart pranks Lisa by placing a walkie-talkie in Lisa's backpack and making fart noises into the other end while she's giving a speech about greenhouse gases.
Bart: The only gas is coming from Lisa's butt!
- In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Mr. Burns goes on a Howard Stern-like radio talk show to improve his image, and the host plays fart noises while he speaks.
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- In "Suction Cup Symphony", SpongeBob mistakes Squidward's clarinet playing for "gastrointestinal distress" and makes a lot of noise to cover up Squidward's shame.
- In "Perfect Chemistry", Plankton invents a machine that can turn living beings into gaseous forms, a side-effect being that the gassed being leaves behind a smelly stench. He later teams with Sandy to modify it so that it teleports people to the Krusty Krab, with SpongeBob as their guinea pig; he constantly freaks Squidward out and brings in Mr. Krabs to show him, but all he smells is the stench and accuses Squidward of farting.
Mr. Krabs: Neptune's trousers, Squidward, maybe you should just lay off the broccoli for a while!
- In "Restraining SpongeBob", a customer mistakes the sound of SpongeBob squeezing an empty mustard bottle for Squidward passing gas.
Customer: Do you... need a break or something?
Squidward: What? Oh, no! Wha—? No-ho, that was not me, I swear.
(sound repeats, causing the customer to walk away in disgust)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
- As the Turtles and the Underground Mutants are making their way deeper underground in "Notes from the Underground, Part 2", Mikey takes a whiff and asks who cut the cheese. Donny replies the smell comes from the sulfur pool they need to cross.
- As the Turtles, Master Splinter, April and Casey barricade themselves in a closet at the end of "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2", Shredder sets the building on fire and slashes a gas line open. When Raph sniffs the smoke, Donny states he smells the gas, leading to Raph accusing Mikey of passing wind before Donny clarifies he didn't mean that kind of gas.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: The short "The Horn Blows at Lunchtime" has L'il Sneezer in the basement blowing some sour notes out on a trumpet while eating smelly Limburger cheese. As the awful smell wafts up into the Looniversity's air ducts and drifting into the cafeteria, leading to everyone there to accuse one another of passing gas.
Babs: (voice showing irritation) Who wrote this?
- Total Drama: In the first episode of Pahkitew Island, Beardo (who can perfectly imitate any sound) makes a flatulence noise when Sugar sits down, embarrassing her as Sugar worries she farted. Chris calls out Beardo for having done this during his elimimation, pissing Sugar off.
- In WordWorld, Ant thinks Bear did this when it was really Dog attempting to play his tuba.
- In an episode of Yvon of the Yukon Yvon walks by Tommy and his girlfriend with his horrible stench, causing her to think Tommy farted. He blames it on his dog.
Other
- A birthday card shows a man laughing while sitting next to a confused looking woman. The interior reads: "If you can still laugh at the sound of a leg being rubbed against a vinyl sofa, you're not too old."
Real Life
- Whoopee Cushions were designed to invoke this.
- During an interview, Eric Swalwell
apparently farted loudly, but has denied this, and that instead it was an audio error or a cup being dragged.
