Like A Fart In A Trance

[OneWingedBird]

Not an expression i'd thought about in a long time, in fact i don;t recall anyone except my stepfather using it, which is going back a good 25 years.

Then today i heard someone use it again, it came from a guy who's 61, so i guess a similar generation to my stepfather, and it jogged my memory.

The definition according to urban dictionary is:

Someone who acts slow or drowsy, and generally seems disconnected from reality or 'out of it'.

And according to English for Students:

Someone who's like a fart in a trance doesn't have much idea of what is happening around them.

I can't help wondering where that expression came from. It's not exactly like it's an actual thing.

 

[Pete Younger]

Something that hangs around anoying people? Actually, I remember it as a tit in a trance which is even more confusing.

 

[rynner2]

Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the Court of St. James's (aka Barry Humphries) used to speak of "hanging around like a fart in a phonebox"! 8)

 

[Moooksta]

And Billy Connolly said the brilliant, "As welcome as a fart in a space suit!"

 

[LordRsmacker]

My old man has always used the phrase "like a fart in a colander", which is another strange term when you think about it! :lol:

Roy Hudd's autobiography is called "A Fart in a Colander".

 

[MsQkxyz]

I remember hearing someone on tv describe meeting Margaret Thatcher as "Shes like a perfumed fart"
Thats my favorite fart expression

 

[GNC]

"Pissed as a fart" doesn't make much sense either, but as with "like a fart in a trance" and the others it's the descriptive language, the vivid visual metaphor, that makes it sound so appropriate. The language of Shakespeare, ladies and gentlemen!

 

[Bigphoot2]

I work with someone known as The Fart in a Trance. He is probably one of the most useless, annoying idiots I have ever met. He's constantly shunted from one department to another because nobody seems to have the gumption to sack him. I've even been asked by his line manager "What does he actually do?" The answer to that is all the jobs he's not supposed to do.

We have similar sounding names and he often gets people calling him by mistake and instead of passing them on to me, he'll get invovled and then at the last minute, when things go pear shaped, tell them they've got the wrong person. And muggins here is left trying to sort out the mess.

 

[tilly50]

Our family used the phrase "like a fart in a hurricane", meaning something ineffectual. It was mostly used by my grandfather when referring to his brother-in-law.
I must have led a sheltered life as I have never heard the phrase "fart in a trance" before.

 

[mrpoultice]

wow

Reading this, I really hadn't realised how many times the humble "Trouser shout" gets used in popular figures of speech.

 

[amyasleigh]

Before reading this thread, the only time I'd ever encountered the (IMO marvellous) "fart in a trance" wording, was in one of the late George MacDonald Fraser's splendid "Flashman" novels -- the Indian Mutiny one, "Flashman in the Great Game". Flashman, the anti-hero and narrator, holds most of "the great and the good" of his time, in contempt. This goes for Lord Canning, the then Governor-General, subsequently Viceroy, of India; Flashman dismisses his attempts to cope with the crisis, with words to the effect of "that clown Canning, bumbling around like a fart in a trance".

I find these novels a grand treasure-house of pithy and colourful expressions...

 

[rynner2]

OK, we've had the literary angle, now for some science:
Sniffing farts makes you live longer - and doing them prevents dementia
By Plymouth Herald | Posted: April 30, 2016

Farting helps us live longer - and keeps our friends healthy, say trump-studying Devon scientists.
Yes, according to boffins at Exeter University breaking wind actually prolongs your life.
And the smellier the stinkbomb, the better the medicine.

The bum-burp brainboxes reckon heart attacks, strokes and even cancer can be staved off by trumps.
It's all because the gas which leaves the body in a toot has been linked to the control of inflammation.

Professor Matt Whiteman from University of Exeter's medical school said: "When cells become stressed by disease, they draw in enzymes to generate minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide.
"This keeps the mitochondria ticking over and allows cells to live. If this doesn't happen, the cells die and lose the ability to regulate survival and control inflammation.
"We have exploited this natural process by making a compound, called AP39, which slowly delivers very small amounts of this gas specifically to the mitochondria.
"Our results indicate that if stressed cells are treated with AP39, mitochondria are protected and cells stay alive."

Fellow researcher Dr. Mark Wood, who was also involved in the 2014 study, added: "Although hydrogen sulfide is well known as a pungent, foul-smelling gas in rotten eggs and flatulence, it is naturally produced in the body and could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a variety of diseases."

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Sme...ing-prevents/story-29203939-detail/story.html

I'll probably live for ever if all this is true!

 

[Frasier Buddolph]

One of my favorite quotes from Abe Lincoln: "You can't manure a field by farting through the fence."