Brown note

What is up with this so-called “brown note”? Supposedly, upon hearing it people…um…produce droppings/mess their pants/take a $h!t/etc :eek: . Is this true? Could I learn to play a certain intstrument, join an orchestra, “accidentally” hit the wrong note, and ruin the evening? :smiley:

You realize of course a very long, drwn out prank that will be difficult to set up (but worth it :slight_smile: ) is riding on this!


“Whenever a man hears it
he is young, and Nature
is in her spring;
whenever he hears it, it
is a new world and a free
country, and the gates of
heaven are not shut
against him”
–Thoreau, on
the song of the wood thrush

The “brown note” was a plot device in a recent episode of South Park. Somehow, I doubt there is such a thing in real life.

This was discussed here in January. The answer is something like probably not.

The Brown Note


Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

I asked a few friends that play everything from netal to orchestra and the only person that has heard was in the orchestra. Like Ursa Major said it was a plot device in South Park. other than that its B.S.

I don’t doubt that it’s bullshit. But I have been given an eyewitness report from a friend who said that he has experienced it himself. Supposedly, the waveform couldn’t be generated directly, but it would appear in the interference pattern between two other waveforms such that when one was standing in the right spot where two huge speakers were sending off these two different frequencies of sound, you would find your sphincter relaxing or vibrating open or something like that. Supposedly this is the `resonant frequency of the human body.’

I heard this story before I was in the habit of raising my eyebrow at every crazy thing I heard, so I didn’t press the question of what exactly counts as the `resonant frequency of the human body’ such that it would, of all things, open up the sphincter.

Johnny, if you read my link of the previous thread in which this was discussed, you may find something similar to what your friend described.