On live TV, anything can happen.
And sometimes that thing is a famous person audibly passing gas into a microphone.
Strap in, because this may just be our classiest work yet…
These are the celebs that farted on live TV.
Mike Ditka
During a 2015 broadcast of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown, former Bears coach Mike Ditka very
well may have "released the hounds," but he's not fessing up, according to the New York
Daily News.
"I was from Philly but they got rid of me, so I'm goin’ with the Giants.”
[FART]
“Well see, if The Giants…”
Word of "Fartgate" rumbled through mainstream media, with Bleacher Report calling Ditka's
alleged under-burp "thunderous," and GQ analyzing how he quote "leans off his chair" as proof
of the poot.
Ditka defended himself, telling the Chicago-Sun Times:
"It wasn't me.
Believe me, I'm to the point in my life where it doesn't matter."
Whoopi Goldberg
The New York Daily News claims Whoopi Goldberg is something of "serial tooter" who has treated
fans of The View to at least three on-air outbursts.
"If you can't handle a fart, you can't handle me.”
When Claire Danes visited the show in 2011, she intently deconstructed her Showtime drama,
Homeland, saying,
"I think it's one of the first stories that really talks about our experience post 9-11."
Shortly after, Goldberg offered:
"I was actually, oh…
[FART] Oh excuse me!
I think I just blew a little frog outta there!”
Regis Philbin
Ok, really, what are the odds Regis Philbin would let one rip next to Kelly Ripa?
An unusually juicy Live with Regis and Kelly clip from 2006 went down like this:
"Anyway…”
[FART]
“Uh, next week is… we’re doing something around here called…”
“Yes, what is this all about?”
Alas, we all know what it's about: It's about how our bodies ultimately betray us.
Julianne Hough
Live TV isn't for the faint of heart.
A week after Marie Osmond reportedly passed out on Dancing with the Stars in 2007, fellow
contestant Julianne Hough gamely one-upped her by making an on-air rumpus.
According to The Hollywood Gossip, Hough had just caught wind of the judges' scores, before
she emptied her tank.
"And vote for them, call, text, log onto ABC.com.
[FART] Do whatever you have to do.
Remember, none of our stars can get through the competition without your help.”
You can thank her brother Derek for laughing hardest at that fanny flapper.
Larry King
Larry King reportedly kicked off one live 2006 interview on a very wrong foot.
In the aftermath of militant rocket fire on Israel, King asked his guests,
"Let's get first the thoughts of Congressman Rohrabacher and what you’ve heard so far.
You see any, [FART] any optimism here?"
AdWeek maintained this was business as usual, printing:
"Larry King was NOTORIOUS for breaking wind on the air."
But, ultimately, King may actually be amused by all this noise: In 2015, he asked the Twitterverse:
"Why is a fart funny?"
It was a question he also asked Rob Riggle in January 2018.
"Why are farts funny?”
“They'll always be funny.
It is low hanging fruit, but for whatever reason it's so juvenile it tickles everybody's
funny bone"
Meanwhile, according to GQ, rumors of a "flatulence problem" have long dogged King, with whispers
of a fan he kept under his desk to whisk away airborne antagonists, as well as a hidden
"fart button" he used to mute trouser trumpets during live broadcasts.
The latter must have gotten a lot of use, as Gawker reported King possibly farted during
a Star Jones interview and while shooting a documentary for CNN.
Reportedly, they stopped rolling "every 10-15 minutes" for King to clear the air.
Cheryl Cole
In 2010, The Mirror dutifully investigated pop star and judge Cheryl Cole's potential
poot on an episode of The X Factor.
The incident occurred as she sized up competitor Cher Lloyd.
"And sometimes with your stage presence and your…
[FART] sometimes pretending confidence, it's easy to forget that you're 17.”
Mirror staffers reportedly couldn't figure out whether the suspicious sound was indeed
Cole's, and OK!
Magazine also caught a whiff of the scandal, wondering:
"Did anyone else hear Cheryl Cole 'fart' after Cher Lloyd's performance?"
But the singer is no stranger to such accusations.
In 2012, she told The Sun that she's regularly blamed for mid-air mud ducks, saying,
"I know they're thinking: 'Cheryl Cole thinks it's OK to fart on a plane as she's special,'
and it's so not true.
[…] There should be a sort of aerosol that can be sprayed into the air and it would pinpoint
the guilty person."
But as far as The X Factor goes, Cole's lucky no such product exists.