- In some situations, you really should hold it in.
Farts are inherently funny. No matter how highbrow you are, you have to admit — at one point or another, you’ve giggled because somebody let one rip.
But not every toot is a laughing matter.
In several cases, passing gas has resulted in more or less serious consequences. It has caused public condemnation, gotten somebody arrested, or even cost thousands of lives.
Here are 7 strange incidents that began with a fart.
1. The Flying Dog
In 2023, a couple boarded a Singapore Airlines flight from Paris to Singapore. They brought their dog with them, as it was small enough that the airline allowed it in the cabin.
The other passengers, however, weren’t enthusiastic about the pooch. Not only did it snore extremely loudly and drool profusely, but there was also obviously something wrong with the poor pup’s tummy. It simply couldn’t stop farting, and each eruption smelled worse than the last.
By the end of the trip, some passengers were so upset that they demanded refunds from the airline for allowing the stinky dog on board.
2. Berlin’s Fart Scandal
A bizarre policing scandal roiled Germany’s capital between 2016 and 2017. It all began in February 2016, when the police went to arrest people throwing an illegal public party.
One of the arrestees (who was potentially intoxicated) didn’t take kindly to the cops asking for his ID. In response, he passed gas twice, making sure they were nice and loud.
Incensed, the police slapped him with a $1,000 fine. The thing is, they waited 12 months after the incident before sending the bill to the man.
Refusing to pay, the man was summoned to court, where a judge dismissed the case as frivolous in less than 10 minutes. The incident caused a widespread debate in Berlin about the city police department’s behavior and waste of public resources.
3. The Cyberfarting Arrest
The U.K.’s courts made history in January 2025. In a landmark case, a judge found a 25-year-old woman guilty of “cyberfarting,” the first such sentence in the country’s history.
Rhiannon Evans was not happy with how her then-boyfriend’s ex, Deborah Prytherch, was handling their breakup. She decided to get back at Prytherch through stinky means.
Over several days, Evans sent Prytherch multiple videos of her farting directly into her phone’s camera. In the end, she went far enough that Prytherch sued her for harassment.
Despite Evans describing the fart videos as a “drunken mistake” in court, she ended up making legal history. Evans was sentenced to community service, received a roughly $400 fine, and was ordered to refrain from drinking.
4. Teacher Arrested for Fart Stink
This case doesn’t technically include farting, but it does involve the stink. In September 2025, South Carolina teacher Alexander Robertson Lewis was arrested for terrorizing his school with fart spray.
Between August and September of that year, Lewis had reportedly used a foul-smelling gag spray in his classroom as a prank. We’re not sure what he sprayed, but it must’ve been some strong stuff considering the damage it caused.
Not only did some students get sick from the noxious stench, but the chemical was volatile enough to damage the school’s HVAC system. According to the school, the spray caused $10,000 in damage to the building’s air conditioning.
5. The Exiled Stinker
It was the 1570s, and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was in hot water. There’s no way to sugarcoat this, so we’ll just say it as it is — the English nobleman was a serial child molester.
His perverted activities had already made his position in Queen Elizabeth’s court precarious. But then, one day, while bowing deeply before the queen, de Vere let out a resonating, massive fart.
Shortly afterward, he was imprisoned and exiled from the court. The fart almost definitely wasn’t the ultimate reason for it, but it certainly didn’t help the twisted earl’s reputation one bit.
Yet, de Vere was able to eventually get back in the queen’s good books. And that’s how we know that the fart incident is likely historically true, as Queen Elizabeth is recorded as greeting the earl by saying: “My lord, we had forgot the fart.”
Which means she probably hadn’t forgotten at all.
6. The Infectious Dutch Oven
Giving someone the Dutch oven is a common prank. However, enclosing somebody within fart-filled blankets can have serious consequences, as this case from 2022 proves.
After her (now ex) boyfriend Dutch oven’d Christine Connell, she started experiencing bizarre health problems. Over the next seven years, she battled constant sinus infections.
Finally, a sinus swap revealed the cause — her sinuses were home to a stubborn population of E. coli bacteria. In case you’re unaware, E. coli is an oh-so-delightful bug living in fecal matter that can cause serious illness.
The bacteria had gotten into her sinuses as a result of the fart prank from years ago. Connell ended up needing general anesthesia so the doctors could get all up in her sinuses and scrape off the bacterial colony.
7. The Fart that Killed 10,000
So, we’ve seen that farts can cause illness. But this case from 2,000 years ago shows that they can also kill.
According to first-century Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, this incident happened on Passover in 44 CE. At the time, the Temple of Jerusalem still stood, and thousands of Jewish people had gathered there for the festivities.
However, at the time, Jerusalem was under the power of the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers overseeing the temple had little respect for the Jewish tradition, and one of them decided to make his feelings clear.
According to Josephus, the soldier “pulled back his garment, and cowering down after an indecent manner, turned his breech [that is, his bare butt] to the Jews.” He then used his breech to speak “such words as you might expect.”
In other words, he let one rip.
His blasphemous antics enraged the pious Jewish crowd, which began to riot. The ensuing violence caused what we today call a crowd surge, which Josephus states led to 10,000 people being trampled to death.
Want to learn more about farts and other gross (but fascinating) things your body does? Check out our list!