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<div class="rich-text">We weigh in on the serious science behind... whoopee cushions.
</div>

We weigh in on the serious science behind... whoopee cushions.

April Fool's! We weigh in on the serious science behind... whoopee cushions.

Why Fart Sounds Are Funny

<div class="rich-text">We weigh in on the serious science behind... whoopee cushions.</div>

Tech & Engineering

<div class="rich-text"><h3>
 Why Fart Sounds are Funny
</h3>

 Published April 4, 2018



 Onscreen
 
 : Today we honor the whoopee cushion. We even found an expert to weigh in.



 Trevor Cox
 
 : You know, it’s a bit odd to be a scientist who studies whoopee cushions.



 Onscreen
 
 : This is the guy who, up until 2008, held the world record for the largest whoopee cushion (roughly 6 feet in diameter, if you’re wondering). Trevor conducted a massive survey to determine what makes regular whoopee cushions funny.



 Cox
 
 : About 70,000 people listened to various whoopee cushion sounds and rated how funny they were.



 Onscreen
 
 : The results? The longer the sound, the funnier it is. Sounds with more whine are funnier.



 Cox
 
 : We also found that children find them more funny, which may be not that surprising.



 Onscreen
 
 : And the more times you hear a whoopee cushion, the funnier it gets. But there’s also a serious side to the whoopee cushion.



 Cox
 
 : The whoopee cushion has the same science as happens in your vocal system or in musical instruments like trombones and trumpets.



 Onscreen
 
 : To understand, you have to know how a whoopee cushion works.



 Cox
 
 : You’ve got this sort of bladder holding air.



 Onscreen
 
 : When you compress a whoopee cushion, air pressure builds up inside until some of that air blows out the neck of the cushion. As the air rushes out, the air pressure in the neck drops, and the higher pressure outside the cushion re-collapses the neck.



 Cox
 
 : Which gives you the intermittent sound you get out of a whoopee cushion. Acoustic waves, after all, are changes in pressure. So you need this intermittent pressure flow to actually give you sound.



 Onscreen
 
 : The same principle governs our voices.



 Cox
 
 : What drives the vocal folds open is the air coming out of the lungs. And what pulls them back together again is the drop in pressure.



 Onscreen
 
 : This movement of the vocal folds creates the initial buzz that gets shaped by the vocal tract and becomes speech. The same goes for some musical instruments.



 Cox
 
 : It’s exactly the same as the whoopee cushion.



 Onscreen
 
 : And that’s where the seriousness ends. Because, as even Trevor admits, there’s only so much research you can do on these things.



 Cox
 
 : I think in terms of whoopee cushions, I’ve probably reached my peak whoopee-cushionness!
</div>

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