# Excuse Me, I Just Farted on the Senate Floor

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270 "2005-06-21T23:22:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DuhCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@DuhCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DuhCow)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270/1 "2005-06-21T23:22:59Z")

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has any senator or political figure, or for that matter, any public figure on television ever audibly farted during a live broadcast? if so, who? i feel robert byrd has been a victim of this several times over.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270/2 "2005-06-21T23:27:32Z")

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Probably many, but microphones are usually designed to pick out sounds from the mouth, not the other end: they wouldn’t detect it.

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270/3 "2005-06-22T00:01:48Z")

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Must…avoid…political…joke…

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**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270/4 "2005-06-22T00:08:14Z")

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I hope this appropriate for this board, but I think most Senators fart out of their mouths. (Notice I said MOST)

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excuse-me-i-just-farted-on-the-senate-floor/309270/5 "2005-06-22T00:24:02Z")

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Seriously, though, **RealityChuck** has it right, the mics the Senate uses are probably unidirectional. Omnidirectional microphones are more expensive and more difficult for the sound engineer to manage. So if a sound doesn’t originate within a small arc around the centerline of the mic, it probably won’t get picked up.