Why Do Outhouses Have a Crescent Moon on the Door? (And the Literal Deadliest Flatulence in History)
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In this video:
In all the years we’ve been answering questions from our abnormally attractive readers, one that has popped up in our inbox and in comment threads more times than any other is some form of the question “What’s the deal with crescent moons on outhouse doors?” Well, after nearly a decade of doing this, we’ve finally decided to look into it. So here we go.
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Hello there...
FYI Simon, here in Sweden the absolutely most common image/cutout on the outhouse door is a ❤️!! I’ve gotten the explanation from every single Swede is it’s a heart because you’re so happy you made it to the door.
BYW In 35 years of living here I still haven’t come across an outhouse door with a moon cutout.
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Yeah. Right then Dollar shave club? Nah! Expensive tat a bit like those God awful watches that get spouted every so often🙄 As to the heart shape being reminiscent of buttocks over a hole, that would only be the case if you didn't have legs. AHA! NO LEGS like this version of Simon. I prefer the more advanced mobile version displayed on business blaze.
i've always heard that the moon on an outhouse, was for the light from your candle or lantern to show "occupied" at night.
That does make sense,
Same. I'm from Northern Minnesota and outhouses are still in use in some areas
@@dedpoptart they are also used in rural areas out west
Yup! That's what my grandma said.
That and so your farts don’t back up and explode due to the candle
This woman farted in my house once, the carbon monoxide detector went off. My cat has never been the same, turned very violent.
That woman was your wife wasn't it?
My cat has never been the same 🤣🤣
I'm crying
LMFAO!!!!
What a woman. She smoke cigars and chug beer too?
Because if it’s a full moon, it would be a glory hole.
If it’s a glory hole than the dudes were either spider man or the were just really tall
😂😂😂😂😂
@@natsudragneel2258, a ladder was involved.
Ha! To funny
💀💀💀
35 years ago as a young lad, I did some casual work on a very large cattle station outside of a town in Australia called Broken Hill. The owner of the station was in his 80's at the time. His grandfather immigrated to Australia in the mid 1800s and did odd jobs in country towns to support himself which included remote stations that included accommodation and food. Every station he worked at, his regular job was digging the long drop and moving the outhouse over the newly created hole - generally every 1-2 months. His 'story' included the history of the crescent moon shaped handle being shifted from the side of the door where we now commonly see door handles to the top third of the door in the middle . The moon shape was the handle to open the door but allowed 'peeping' toms to see within. Moving the moon stopped the peeping eyes but still allowed the use of a handle, vent and night time illumination from the candle to show it was in use. At some stations, there was no crescent shaped handle on the outhouse - but the top of the door was at least 5 inches lower than the top to allow for all the before mentioned. Interestingly, these were quickly adapted when younger, much shorter kids became permanent residents. The addition was a small round hole, approximately the size of a door knob to allow fingers pull to open. The opposite side was the sliding wood latch to keep it locked when in use and to block the view. I've always remembered the story he told from this as he was proud of the empire his grandfather built on the back of digging long drops and moving the outhouse. They called it their shit building empire. True or not, it makes sense and is a great story. Especially if you are proud of your families beginnings.
Every outhouse I encountered as a child in Australia had a gap at the top of the door and a gap at the bottom of the door. No cutout of any kind. That was spending the annual holidays of the late-'70s and early/mid-'80s in campgrounds around Victoria.
The small doorknob sized hole is sus
an all-important job, nonetheless!!
@@lucasjohnstone6419 🤣
How would moving the hole exactly to eye level prevent peeping Toms from looking in?
"The fart that killed..."
Ok! I clicked.
Meto.🤔😖
Right? I thought for sure it was click bait, but they delivered.
That's quality.
Makes two of us.
I thought it was guna be a buildup of fart gasses and this particular one last fart sent these gasses into a dangerous level of concentration which killed explosively... or suffocation...
I didn’t even make it to “that” I clicked right at fart.
Proud of it too
"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster, and your father smellt of elderberries!"
"Now, piss off or I shall taunt you a second time!"
I love how utilitarian quotes from the Holy Grail are, I'm honestly surprised how sparse memes are.
@@PMickeyDee the younger ones need to be exposed to it hahaha. Then again you might just get called a boomer... No matter your generation lol
_You small-minded wiper of other people's bottoms._
What my father smelt like is none of your concern!
Now I bid you good day Sir!
Never before has the phrase "butt crack" been spoken aloud so majestically, with such prestige.
Give Simon the Presidential Medal of Freedom! 😁
Yes that's it. I caught it too but could not put it into words. Lmbo!
👍
Huzzah!
Would not the term "gluteal cleavage" be more appropriate?
I’m a local historian in Indiana. We have several pictures of country school houses with outhouses in the background as far back as 1902, and none of them have a sun or moon carved into the door.
My great grandma asked in all seriousness, why is it people want to crap in the house and cook outside now. Seems backwards to me
because we don't wanna go to the bathroom outside through bad weather and we don't want cooking smells inside the house?🤷♀️
@@velvety2006 Also privacy and common decency. Oh and don't forget to easily discard poop through the sewage system.
velvety2006 who doesn't want cooking smells in their house?
@@DefScream189 depends on what you're cooking tbh.
@@DefScream189 Sometimes cooking smells linger too long and mix with other smells and then it does not smell as yummy anymore 🤣
So it's one in the morning And I'm listening to a man ramble on about outhouses. I'm doing alright.
Edit: so glad I'm not the only one with a fucked up sleep schedule
Somehow same
Reading this comment at 12:25am, and I'm just chaucer
Literally me rn
1:30 a.m. I hope it's worth it!
7:27pm, for once I'm the most together person!
When I was a child I asked my great grandmother why her outhouse didn't have a moon in the door and she thought that was a strange thing to ask. She had never heard of anyone actually having one. Her home, by the way, was in Kentucky and had no running water or electricity. When helping to do some repairs we found that the newspaper used as insulation in the wall of the kitchen dated back to 1914.
David Woodard The one at my grandparents house in Pennsylvania didn’t have one either.
That's interesting....guess Simon is right?
We used to go up to my great aunt's house 8 hours away from where we live then we drove and this is back in the 60s the only thing between where we lived and getting up to her house a little side drives that where your rest stops and all that was there were outhouses I don't remember any of them ever having any kind of got out of any kind and when you went to use them you made sure that you looked around to make sure there was no animal inside of it or a spider or spiders on the seat and after use the outhouse you had to go around pump water literally pump water so you can wash your hands and get a drink and most of them tasted like they had a mass of iron in them what fun times
Thx
@@wendyhaase4401 Similar at my grandparent's house. Latches on the door and on the lids on the 'plank', but you still wanted to look for spiders, snakes and etc before peeling layers.
They also had an "axe-handle pump" on the cystern for washing. We hauled water with buckets into the house and heated it on the coal stove for washing.
Before I was born, they installed a modern bathroom in the house as a gift for my grandmother, but the toilet was too much of a draw on the cystern so it wasn't used. We used the sink, but no hot water from the taps. (They sold the hot water heater to a neighbor who needed one and had a well.)
The bathtub was used as a washtub -we warmed the water on the stove and poured it in and took baths in succession, cleanest to dirtiest.
When an outhouse is moved because the hole is full its amazing to see what happens if a tree is planted over it. I saw a sequoia that had been planted over on and it was bigger than the ones planted by a lake shore 30 years earlier.
"Believe me, Donkey. If it was me, you'd be dead" -Shrek
Its brimstone
@@ballinbalgruuf8198 we must be getting close.
"Shrek! I'm looking down!!"
My mouth was open and everything
In Australia we have a step up from mooning. We spread the cheeks and call it chucking a 'Brown Eye'
Yep.... we're all class.
That's why it's called down under 🥁🥁💥
I like Australians.😁
If the brown eye winks your in for 2weeks of rain
Macca mac lolololol
Goatse
"Lol let's try making a video about farts"
~~
*Dollar shaving club running at you full speed* "I WANT TO SPONSOR THIS"
They sponsers Whang! and he talks about some of the nastiest stuff on the internet.
And your beard
interesting marketing strategies
In O gauge model railroading, Plasticville, a product line of plastic buildings, introduced an outhouse in 1950 for model train layouts. It has two stalls, one marked 'His' the other marked "Hers" and both doors do have a crescent moon on the doors.
7:22 And the earliest recorded mooning involved a dude named Cumanus!?
🚽) " 🤫 " (🚽
LoL 🤣
You were expecting Biggus Dickus?
.... or Incontinentia Buttux?
Assenius buttus analus
Huge Jainus
How appropriate that I watch this while on the toilet.
That’s what’s UP👍😁
I never believe people when they say they're doing what the video is about. I always call bullshit.
Same here... do you ever think about how when you are sitting on the pot, that your butt is technically connected to giant network of other interconnected butts?
_Doug is the type of person to be alone in the house and on the toilet, fart and say excuse me._
Eton Bachs why not? I’m pooping right now
I grew up with a out house and we didn't have anything cut into the door. Ours have sealed door and insulation in it, with a heater. Cold winters here in Alaska
No holes in the door in the northern contiguous states either. One vent high in the wall on the lea-side. [If it was really cold, we'd put a milk-house heater in there. Otherwise, you just hurried! :-) ]
Exactly. When I was in a dry cabin in Alaska, you want that outhouse to be sealed up tight. Even with a slab of foam insulation laid down as a toilet seat, using an outhouse in the winter is cold business 🤣
The toilet paper was stored in a metal tobacco can, so the mice wouldn't get into it, or get wet
@@theartofwanderlust It was kept in the house, on the porch by the back door... although old newspapers and phone books lay in the outhouse for energencies.
That sounds nice atleast! I grew up on mt land a forest service guy used to build a cabin from job's scrap logs, and that outhouse was about as close to the things in movies
My sister and I made a trip all around West Virginia - mostly remote parts to hunt down ancestors’ graves on my mother’s side. We came across a few 19th century churches (early- to mid-19th I would hazard a guess, based on construction styles) that had outhouses near them, or old abandoned buildings near some of the gravesites. None of them had crescent moons cut out on the doors or sides, and all were in remote enough areas and seemingly forgotten that no one would bother to retrofit them. In case you wanted more confirmation.
NOTHING makes me click faster than a video titled “The Fart that Killed 10,000 People”.
1FokkerAce
It’s worse case than corona virus!
Literally this is my first vid on this channel. I read fart that killed. Insta Click
I'm 9 minutes in and no fart
Did he ever cover it?
My grandparent's called heading to the outhouse "going to Florida". Because when you had to go, it was a long way
huh i would of thought it would of been because crazy shit always happens there
@@btd5ninja64 heh "crazy shit" nice one.
@@btd5ninja64 Lol!
It had to be far away from the house and the well.
Am I the only one who came to find out how a fart killed so many people?
Nope
that's why literally everyone came
Ditto
Yeah, that would be the only reason anyone clicked.
that's the only reason I'm here
“many moons have passed since you were here last!” = tons of people have sat their asses (moons) down here and shat (passed) lol
My grandma still had an old outhouse with a circle cutout on her property in Puerto Rico in the late 90's early 2000's. She did tell me that was to ventilate and cause nobody wants to sh*t in the dark 😂
The crescent shape was to make the opening narrower to prevent animals from entering the outhouse.
The large narrow crescent shape was to narrow to crawl through.
Yet allowed light and air to pass through.
My grandparents had an outhouse that had 3 holes. I was always thinking "Why would anybody want people sitting next to them while they poop?" 😄🤣😄🤣
@@warpath6666 Mine too. One of the holes was smaller (children sized) and that outhose had an actual glass window.
With quite a lot of people, it was good that the storage capacity was large.
As soon as I hear the words Dollar Shave or Squarespace, I involuntarily hit skip 3 times. Its Pavlovian.
tOdAyS sPonSoR iS nOrD vPn
@@sabbs_ Raid: Shadow Legends wants to know your location.
Do you want premium quality earbuds for a low price? Raycon-
You want to not forget your passwords?
-dashlane
You want to hear how you're not a dish?
Here in Ukraine and post-soviet states, a lot of outhouses had a heart-shaped cutouts on the doors.
Same here in norway
Same in The Netherlands. Must be an American thing.
Same here in Austria.
Interesting.......🤔👍
As a german a also only knew of the heart shaped cut out.
When growing up in the 50's everyone in my neighborhood (in the country) had outhouses. The old church had one, too. I don't know how old the one at the church was but it was real old. None of these outhouses had moons on them. Our outhouse was the fanciest because it was a 2 holer! I never asked my dad why he made it with 2 holes... That seems weird to me (sorry dad). My mom said it was so my dad and I could do our business together... hahaha!! Oh, we had running water but the well would go dry most summers so we would have to use the outhouse and get our water from a spring.
Please tell me more about your life in the 50s. Make a video
It was 2 holes because one was for him and the other was for her.
"...and spake such words as you might expect upon such a posture."
The first time I watched this I thought he just swore at them; just now am I realizing this means he farted directly at them. :D
Curious how many times you watched it 😂
Instead of in his "general direction"? (Monty Python, anyone?)
Did you realize yet that the guy he mooned was named "Cumanus"?
Plus, the crescent moon offers more privacy than a circle, star, diamond, heart, etc., and would look like an actual lit moon in the sky when sitting inside an otherwise unlit tiny wooden box. :D
Outhouses don't have lights in them. I like the idea but it sounds like you've never taken a shit in an outhouse, a candle wouldn't be bright enough to make that image
Did you read his comment?
Now I did. Moons usually aren't blue but if they are you're probably shitting in an outhouse
I Am Will wtaf?
Hes right though. It acts as a peephole and ventilation without being a full on window for privacy and became a traditional way to spot said outhouse. Not all had them, it wasnt that big a deal for poor folk and yes, I'm from Kentucky, I've shit in plenty outhouses.. mostly at the chicken fights.
"From this day forth all the toilets in the kingdom will be known as...Johns...Take him away."
Under appreciated Mel Brooks, for sure.
@@nomine4027 One could argue that Men in Tights is the best Robin Hood movie.
@@TheCorpsehatch Mel loved his fart jokes. A great movie maker! Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Mad, Mad World etc.
Definitely. That's why I said it was underappreciated.
@@nomine4027 Mel Brooks will never be under appreciated in my household.
My papaw was told to "modernize" his toilet facilities, so he put electric lights in his outhouse...
That would of been a great addition! In the 1950's, things were rather dark inside the old privy at the corner of our old farmhouse yard in very rural Iowa. Although reading would not of been a big reason, especially in winter when you could easily see your breath because of the cold. A heater would of been a great option! Oh how happy I am that those years have been "left behind" me. A water closet and water lines were run into that old farmhouse in the late 1950's. WOW, were we ever living it up then! I have to just snicker to myself when anyone tells me how bad the house is that they live in. Most of them haven't seen anything.
"Brother, you have surrounded your given name with a foul stench! From this day forth, all the toilets in the kingdom shall be known as... johns!" King Richard to Prince John, Robin Hood - Men in Tights
lol Only in a Mel Brooks movie!
Lmaoooooo great movie
Love 💕 that movie 🍿, I repeatedly watched it as a child.
Yeah and rottingham became a latrine Formerly known as shithouse
Actually the inventor of the flush toilet was a plumber by the name of John Crapper.
Why do public restrooms have a gap on the door?
People be like " Here's Johnny "
So you don't get too comfy. They want you in and out as quick as possible
@@jackpumpkin Yeah well that's not very efficient when you have a shy bladder and all that jazz, is it?
They don't have that gap in British, Egyptian or Czech toilets.
AHHHHH
So the people who sell car warranties can reach you.
"I fart in your general direction"
(A)Monty Python (B) Princess Bride (C) Willow (D) Kids in the Hall
@@erinmcquade4715 (A)
Niiiice.
@Quentin Shock now go away or I shall taunt you a second time
*kills 10000 people*
"Don't go round tonight, it's bound to take your life, there's a bad moon on the rise.." Credence Clearwater Revival
Theres a bathroom on the right. Lol
Great, now you’ve cursed me. (Check H3 for reference)
“You have offended me, and now I shall fart in your general direction.” - people of antiquity.
To be honest, this would be more offensive than the middle finger. And longer lasting. And probably more well remembered. Yikes.
Sounds like a Monty Python skit.
I'm not bragging... but on occasion, I can muster a silent but deadly rip....
April Moore Females have the silent but deadly advantage for some reason. 😏 I blame them on the guinea pig...
@@Seredetia lol! Yes!!! I'm not bragging - well, maybe tooting my own horn just a tad... lol!!
J Dial She’s married. She should at LEAST blame them on you. 🤪
Back in 1975, I was camping at a Canadian campground somewhere on the Eastern side of Lake Nipigon & carved into the wood wall of one of the outhouses was "Don't wait for me. Godot".
We already learned the origin of toilets being called "Johns" from the historical documentary Robin Hood Men in Tights.
My favorite movie
Me: farts in the car
family: "The fart that killed 10,000 people"
On a long country trip with my best friend’s family as a teen, I let one rip just as we approached a sewage treatment plant. Everyone gagged and opened the windows, only to discover we were downwind and the plant was malfunctioning.... I got teased (and cussed) for weeks on end!
The deadliest fart in history is certainly nothing to sniff at.
Best comment.
Rip
That joke was a gas.
😂😂😂
Perhaps the first instance of a chemical weapon?
My grandfathers outhouse when I was a young lad had two crescent moon shapes one on each side of the outhouse. I watched them move it by placing large wench like hooks in the holes to lift the house on a pulley tied to a tripod, while sliding logs to roll the house to its new location. Never seen one on a door or located anywhere else but the upper sides. But then never thought it was moon shaped but shaped so the hook would fit and hook without slipping out.
In Bavaria (Southeast Germany), too, the heart shaped cutout is the standard; never seen a different one. So the crescent moon seems to not be ‚continental‘.
I would like to recommend the book Fifty Yards to the Outhouse by Willie Makeit and illustrated by Betty Wont.
Don’t eat the yellow snow…… by, I P Freely
Then there’s “Revenge of the Tiger” by Claude Balls …..
At least jakes comment was funny
Oh if only the last outhouse we had, had been that near. To be below the well, it was out in a pasture. Then the landlord decided to put cows in there... which turned out to be rather territorial.
What about brown spots on the wall . By who flung poo.
A fart caused a riot? This might be the greatest thing I've ever heard.
New bucket list item acquired.
The fart heard around the world 😝
Ive seen a similar thing happen while incarcerated. Not really a riot, but violence ensued and multiple people took part. On account of the cramped quarters and horrific smell it was almost justified. Sometimes its good to give a warning or excuse yourself from the company of others if possible. Crop dusting, while funny at times, isnt a good idea in certain situations either.
Less a riot, and more a panic.
@@-TheDude- That's why in prison and in jail you do what's called a courtesy flush, repeatedly. You never leave your shit in the toilet even while your sitting on it. You flush it if you're shitting or farting. Not doing this can quickly result in your ass getting beat down. I can speak from authority on this matter.
The crescent Moon cutout is similar to the Vikings having horns on their helmets simply was not true
Yea na they had horns in their pants
Minnesota Vikings have horns on their helmets
When I was a kid (1960's) I wrote to the New York Times research department and asked them this very question (you could do that back then). They wrote me back to say they were essentially stumped!
“The fart that killed 10,000 people.”
Me: “How do I harness this power”
Taco Bell. That or true Indian food
Goals
Sauerkraut
You sound a bit like Thanus 🤪
My dog has this power 🤭
"Let us offer our own hypotheses"
*ad starts for a heart-shaped chocolate for Valentine's day*
I. Almost. Died. Laughing.
Actually yes. The commercial heart is supposed to be the shape of a woman's but as she is fully bent over. That's why it has 2 cheeks and fades down... You know rather than having 4 chambers and looking vaguely like a fist
What do you mean, an ad started? Like, in the middle of the video, the stopped and an ad started? I've literally never seen that before. How annoying would that be? I'd probably not watch YT if it did that. I watch hours of YT a day, never once seen an ad interrupt a video. If you think I don't skip the ads that they insert as part of the video, you'd be horribly mistaken as well.
@@kindlin How do you do that on a phone?
@@LSSYLondon
Literally never watch youtube on my phone. I browse articles or play minesweeper on my phone, at worst. My phone, unlike some folks I know, takes up but a small fraction of my day. PS: fuck social media, entirely and without lube.
@@GrifoStelle i laugh every time i see a sign in a neighborhood that reads "drive slow we
I’ve always just assumed the moon was for moonlight. Dark in there otherwise.
well why the hell is it a moon though? why not a heart? doesn't answer my question if they specifically made it for the moonlight it would be better designed btw.
"Abnormally attractive".... I hope he talks about his wife like that 😂
Agreed!
Could be husband these days... Js
@@joeh470
He has a normal voice
@@joeh470 in a Business Blaze video Simon mentions his wife.
@@cooliipie that doesn't always tell if they're gay or not
"men would just do their business in the great outdoors as God intended..."
😆😆😆
Amen haha
Real men shit in the woods like bears
@@alisaurus4224 well, sure, haha
@@alisaurus4224 suit yourself bud! 😁
I'm nearing 60 and during.many of my early years had to make use of outhouses in places without running water (even businesses) and can't remember a single outhouse with a moon cutout. Most cutouts just had 1" holes across the top.
Outhouses in Australia were spider motels. Remember being so scared just have to doing a night visit to one as a kid. Horrific.
Agreed. I've used many and never seen the crescent moon. My family still had one for nostalgia at our summer house in Vermont. Never a moon. Lol
All outhouses in America had them...
@@rogersmith4042 this is 100% untrue. Like the original poster said, I too have seen and used many outhouses and I've never seen a moon on one.
I think this question came from idiots memories blurring with cartoons. I actually take photos of out houses often. Never a moon.
People are stupid and have false memories
If you used an outhouse with a moon on it, you were probably entertaining the creep that cut it.
@@diegodonjuan Growing up in Kentucky I used a few of them and zero had moons. The most common vent I saw was a circular hole with a piece of screen stapled over it. And yes, spiders absolutely loved to come say hello once the door shut.
The cutout is an emergency exit for the flies, when You really mean business...
😂😂😂😂
LOL
7:47 His name was cumanus??😂
Sorry, I'll grow up now.
Wait a minute omg
Lol
I LOL'd too
I shit you not, that was his name.🥁
Cumanus was like,
"Come on Jews. Come at us. You comin' us?"😏
Lived in Alaska for years, most of my cabins were dry and had an outhouse. Never once did I see a functioning outhouse with ANY opening in the door. I'd guess it would let bugs in, and a cold draft in the winter!
Okay- here’s the actual origin of the moon shaped cutout. When building an outhouse, the door is made of several planks of wood arranged vertically.
To make a simple opening to act as a handle, you would naturally cut the simplest shape you could, so you would take ONE plank and, using a coping saw, cut a chunk out of one side of it roughly large enough to stick four fingers thru. This cutout would be a simple curving line like the second stroke in drawing a letter D. You would then lay this plank adjacent to an uncut plank in nailing the door together, leaving a simple hand hold in the shape of a capital D. City folk with indoor plumbing, who don’t build things out of wood, while visiting the country and seeing such a shape in an outhouse door might draw the association with a HALF MOON. When those same city folk decide to lampoon rural hicks thru cartoon depictions of an outhouse, they might well draw a somewhat more exaggerated image of a moon on the door simply because they had no understanding of why the hole in the door might look like a moon. This became a trope, and folks started thinking the hole was intended to depict the moon, and so it became more crescent shaped. An expedient and low cost solution to a door handle got mis-interpreted as an intentional graphic embellishment and was assigned the to the closest pattern that matched in the imagination of folks who could fathom no other reason for it being there.
Cool. And, good thinking!
PS- and 1 other reason why you cut a hole in the door, rather than mount a door handle. The hole in the door is around eye height for anyone sitting inside the outhouse and this allows anyone using the outhouse to SEE someone approaching the outhouse, so they can call out that it’s occupied before that person yanks the door open and embarrasses them.
Makes perfect sense.
This is a very plausible story, but have you any references or evidence?
Joycelin lgbtQ - my reference would be Occam’s razor. Since there is NO documentary evidence whatsoever to support the notion of an origin of Moon shapes cut in outhouses to intentionally represent the moon, then the most likely scenario is that the shape cut in an outhouse door was Mistaken for a moon by someone because of human pareidolia. Someone describes to someone else that outhouses in rural areas have Half Moon shapes cut in their doors... in a game of telephone that person doesn’t understand that it’s just a half moon “shape” and tells someone else outhouses have half moons cut in the door. In cartooning an outhouse, drawing a half moon looks to the artist like someone might take it for a letter D in a graphic, and so to make it more clearly a moon draws it as a crescent.
And so, as a person who builds things out of wood, I ask myself, WHY would the hole cut in the door as a handle and peephole be that shape? It’s because any other shape would be more time consuming and difficult to cut.
If it had originated as a representation of a moon, then there would be stories about that. Failing that... its most likely from folks seeing stuff that isn’t actually there.
It then becomes a meme, and now folks building outhouse purposely put crescent moons in the doors because they have been told they’re supposed to be there.
Another example of this telephone drift from simple origins is the idiom “spittin’ image”- I have seen overcomplicated videos explaining how it originated from some greek story of a god literally spitting out their son...
But in fact it’s much simpler. It’s a lazy mispronunciation of the phrase “spirit and image” - as in, ‘you are the spirit and image of your mother.’ Meaning you both look like and behave like them. This got slurred into spirit’n’image... and thence Spirt’n image... which children misheard as spittin image and grew up saying that without understanding what spit had to do with its meaning.
When you hear the explanation that makes human sense... it has the ring of truth.
And BTW- the idiom ‘ring of truth’ originated in the stone quarries, where artists and masons wanted to determine which stones were worth buying. If you strike a stone with a hammer and it returns a dull thud sound- then it has a fracture hidden somewhere inside- it will break when you carve it, or under load. However, if the stone is ‘true’- without flaw, it will literally ring like a bell. Doing this is called ‘sounding’ the stone and stones that are worth their cost will Ring True.
Even though you can not see thru the stone... you can KNOW it is true.
Hence the modern meaning of something that ‘rings true’, and a ‘Sound investment.’
Hey TIFO, how much change is in my pocket?
TIFO: "Coins go back to ancient times, their first known use is...
...10 minutes later.
So in conclusion, after researching your family, friends and all available online data,
We can safely say that you don't have any change in your pocket as you're broke AF."
Gotta reach that sweet 10 minute mark
@Carlos Bunn The ten minute mark thing is a myth for a variety of reasons we cover in our How It's Made video. The real reason is because making a video that says "You have 25 cents in your pocket" isn't interesting to anyone, nor educational in any way, so fails to either entertain or help you learn something new. We are an edutainment channel and we take the "education" side very seriously, and of course hopefully also entertain you in the process. -Daven
@@TodayIFoundOut I respectfully disagree.
If you made a 10-minute video with the title "You have 25 cents in your pocket",
I would watch it and probably find it interesting.
You guys have a habit of filling in that 10 minutes with stuff I didn't know that I wanted to know.
@@TodayIFoundOut Noy being American I don't have 25 cents.
The pain is real.
I used to have an outhouse in my backyard when I was a kid, and I used it quite frequently when I was playing outside and didn’t wanna walk back to the house.But I live in the south, so that pretty much explains that lol
Our property was also duly equipped with a 2-holer, but it was long ago relegated to storing outdoor toys and a few tools. That didn't prevent us kids from peeing in there quite often because what else would kids do?
We have one in the yard where we live,and I live in the south too!
😂😂😂
I'm from the Adirondacks and my first memories has outhouses in them. My grandma still had one late as 1964 as she never had indoor plumbing until after the North way took her house. And the magazines wasn't in there for reading. Years later my uncle George would hold himself until he came into town and stopped where I worked at to use our outhouse. When I asked him why, he told me it was peaceful and reminded him of home when he was in there.
My great uncle lived on a river and had a lot of land. He had an outhouse on his land near the beach. His house was about a mile away. This was in the South, too.
We had a two seater also. Behind the coal shed right before the burn pile. I'm from east Kentucky. Fun times. Lol
My grandfather was born in 1893. When we (grandchildren) were little (late 60's to early 70's) we would play in a small wooden shack with two holes inside next to each other. We had a great time climbing through the holes going in and out of the "shack". All we knew was it was a good place to have a great time.
Several years later we understood what it was and how it was used. To be honest it didn't really bother us when we found out. It was not too large and as stated earlier, it was a "two hole'er". It did not have any design on the door however it had large cut out areas at the top of two of the walls just under the eve's so the smell could leave as quickly as possible.
My grandmother said Pop Pop refused to use the indoor toilet because the outhouse provided a place of piece and quiet. They had 4 children. The house was built in 1932 and had no toilet when it was built. Then in 1969 the back porch was enclosed and converted into a bathroom. It wasn't until my grandfather was very old that he used the indoor outhouse.
My grandmother also said how proud he was to have a double holed shitter. Back in the 30's-50's it was not uncommon for my grandfather to be in the middle of taking a crap when someone would open the door, come in and do their business next to him. My grandmother said he enjoyed the company and it never bothered him. One side note, my grandparent's neighbor was jealous of the outhouse so they had one made of brick just to out do them.
This is the first time I’ve actually heard of a brick shit house aside from the saying “built like a brick shit house”
"The fart that killed everyone"
"The fart that killed everyone part 2"
"The fart that killed 10,000 people"
This is a prequel.
@@ninjabaiano6092 the Saga expands, I for one welcome an expanded Universe
And the modern prequel reboot: “The Fart”
Half my family is from Rural Michigan. Until the 70's, all of them had outhouses. I have never seen any crescent moons, or suns, on any of the doors. Even at historical town sites, I don't remember ever seeing any. Most just had a smallish square window on a side wall for some light.
I do remember seeing hundred year old outhouses, for "women", that had a longer, wider, seat for skirts. One even had two holes, one with a wider and higher seat, and one small low seat for children. At least that's what the old timers told me they were for.
The outhouse would always have lots of old newspapers and catalogs in them for reading and wiping.
At night people just peed in a pot, and mom would empty it in the morning. Families weren't all weird about who peed where. Hell, kids often bathed in the same metal tub, boys bathed first, girls last. It only stopped at puberty.
So gross that the girls had to bathe in the dirt of the boys. I don't care if it takes more work, I would have changed the tub water between the different genders bathing. My great-great-grandmother would apparently take the extra time and effort to do that, and the story goes that her kids smelled and looked better than the other local children as a result.
I was born in rural Georgia in the 50's. Before my parents bought a house, most of the houses we lived in had out houses as did the homes of most of my friends and relatives. I never saw a moon on an outhouse
@SoothingTouch WellnessCenter
Why wouldn't it work inversely?
Typically, the boys are the ones who engage in rougher, dirtier games and activities. The girls tend to just play hopscotch, skip rope, etc.
I'm from northern Wisconsin and grew up on my greatgrandparents' land. We hauled our outhouse to the dump in the late 80s. It was used for nearly a century. It had no cut outs.
My mom and her family didn't have running water till the 70's or 80's here in the ozarks and had a outhouse, parents, 3 siblings, 2 bedrooms and a outhouse, she told me they moved it from time to time.
Me: See mom, I mostly watch intelligent videos
TIFO: Here's a picture of soldiers taking a dump.
I was wondering when someone was going to get around to mentioning that photo.
@@davegreenlaw5654 It is no wonder diseases like typhus thrived on the battle grounds.
just imagine with me for a moment what his search history must look like.
Probably a lot like mine... any question that pops into my danged head! (We're both on ten watch-lists.)
It’s also great for maximum light and least “peepability” in that it’s a narrow shape that isn’t a vertical line, which could give you a full view by passing by it rapidly.
That's what I always figured as well.
Makes sense
Another example of historical retrofitting: Horns on Viking helmets.
I though the horns were there to differentiate the Viking from other soldiers in Operas
Yes and no. Horned warriors are depicted on the Sutton Hoo helmet which predates the Viking era. There are also examples of actual horned helmets from the bronze age into medieval times in Danish artwork. But these are ceremonial depictions. There is no evidence of actual battle helmets having horns.
@@Markle2k would have been a good weapon though,for headbutting your opponent
The extremely popular comic strip (at the time) "Lil Abner" had crescent moons carved into their outhouse doors. They were a farcical depiction of "hillbilly life". It ran from August 1934 to November of 1977. This is largely where the idea of crescent moons carved into outhouse doors came from.
When I was a child my Grandmother still had a working outhouse in her backyard. It had the crescent moon. I have no idea when it had been built but it appeared quite old-at a guess, knowing how buildings aged in that area, at least 30-40 years. And this was in the 1960's. My earliest memory of it would of been about '62 when I was 4.
"A fart in the general direction of someone".
"I fart in you general direction!" - Monty Python, Search for the Holy Grail
Right so. Happy that someone else is versed enough in Pythonology to remember that great moment with the French.
Could have been Kids in the hall, Willow, Princess Bride as I remember similarities to some of the silly things said in those, but of course they all were made after Search for the Holy Grail🤪🥰
Tristyn Russelo: what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
@@FrankJGZ An African swallow or a European swallow?
@@whowantstoknowido "I don't know that!" :flies into pit:
*sees shrek's house on thumbnail*
*sees “deadliest fart”*
*hears all star playing from Bluetooth speaker*
Oh yeah
lmao
It's all coming together.
Job michael Osugay you got to it first... so well done good sir, also great pfp, loved that game
Crescent moon on the outside, full moon on the inside.
Nothing like a guy who doesn’t shave, selling razors...
Edit: I get it now..... he shaves his head!
I'm about to watch a 13 min video on outhouses... I'm rethinking the life choices that have lead me here... oh well, on with the video
Especially when conducted by a guy with full beard and mustache sponsored by Dollar Shave Club.
I'm here for the fart soooo.....
Odd that the outhouse picture used several times has the bar lock on the outside of the house! I guess if you really dislike someone you can lock them in!
That’s so that you don’t find any wild animals in there. I’m a descendant of a long line of hillbilly’s.
George Burkhard
The lock usjust a price of wood on a nail and can be knocked off easily if you get locked in. Children did however, lock people in.
There is a string on the bar that enters a hole just above the wood bar or handle. Pull the string from inside, bar moves vertically to open from the inside.
George Burkhard
Cade83642
thank you.
I’m glad we have a host who can present this video so professionally.
In Germany outhouses traditionally had a heart shape outcrop in the door. The light you took to the light house could be stood or hanged in such a way, that the outcrop was illuminated and showed the occupancy of the outhouse....
"The Deadliest Fart In History" should be a stand-alone short! 🤣
Right?!
2:05 that sounded pretty legit!👀 I always thought it was cuz you need a breathing hole somewhere and the full circle is a little invasive, and the half circle" on the front door" was so you can still see it's occupied without making full eye contact with each other, and being the breathing hole, the old two birds one stone
Had many older relatives back in the day who had out houses, not a one had a cut out of any kind on the doors.
I asked my grandfather about the moon on outhouses back in the 90s, and he said he wasn't sure, but the one he used on the farm was convenient if someone needed to pass a newspaper though, either to read, or to reuse for a more important purpose.
I seem a lot of rural outhouses in the USA and the only ones I've ever seen with a crescent moon on the door were in cartoons.
I've seen a lot of outhouses in rural USA and a lot of those had crescent moons.
Same here.
I have spent a lot of time in rural america and I have only seen 1 outhouse and it was reclaimed by nature along with the actual house it was for.
The funny thing though it was an outhouse built for two (abreast).
And I thought it was simple decoration as they don’t always have a moon crescent in my part of the world...Not something I really questioned but that is why I enjoy this channel
The person that added central heating to my 100 year+ old cabin put the ac unit on stilts(in case of floods). I boarded it up with old barn wood and turned it into an outhouse.
Did you put a crescent moon on the door?
You should place an outhouse at least a hundred feet from the nearest structure. Otherwise you're liable to garner one heck of a mess.
So, the fumes from your shit can rise directly into the intake for the A/C. Great idea!
Every thing is collected in a bag that goes in a big plastic garbage can I cut to fit under it. I only used it while I was remodeling.
Guys, I think he meant it just aesthetically looked like an outhouse, not that he is actually shitting in his air conditioner.
"This is the deadliest fart in history and we challenge you to beat it"
Nikocado avocado: hold my cheetos
Hey! Dont be bringing great grandma into this! It's amazing she can even work a computer at 101 let alone send a chain letter!
Man: I built you an outhouse!!!
Woman: What's that Moon shaped hole on the door?
Man: It's... uuuuh... It's to let people know that it's made for the ladies. Yeah... That's it...
Woman: Oh. I was just worried that someone would look through it and see me doing my private business.
Man: ...
Woman: Are you okay? You're just staring at the door.
Man: _The hole should be lower..._
And then the glory holy was born 🤣🤣🤣
I just don't understand why people think it's funny to be manipulative creeps
@@Somebodyelse141 you must be fun at partys
Oh no! I put the door in upside down!
Lower and bigger 😂
"Deadliest fart in history"
You've never been to taco bell with me.
😂
Bruh! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
This comment is criminally under-liked! 😂😂😂
Help wanted. All positions open. Signs posted day after coroner allowed location to be reopened.
FREE GAS!
Grandpa: Back in my day we only had one house and it was an outhouse!
Grandkids: ***gasp***
Everyone: No $#!+?
My great uncle used an outhouse for over half of his life. When I was a kid I remember him telling me that the moon on the outhouse in his back yard was a symbolic pun for mooning, and this fit right in with his brand of humor which I assume was commonplace among his generation. I can best describe his humer as "loony-toons- esq" which makes sence considering the time frame of their release. He liked "potty humor", which for him ment, besides the moon on his outhouse, a wooden cutout of a young boy painted to appear like he was facing away from you releaving himself in the bush he was placed in front of with another cutout along side him of a girl the same age with a suprised/disaproving expresion and eyes turned toward him. This kind of humor is also in line with the dog pulling on the young girls swimsuit on sunscreen, and a number of other things that would make this comment even longer.
Lookup Norman Rockwell?
"... abnormally attractive viewers..."
Should I feel complimented or offended?
I'm going to choose complimented, I'm proud of being a weirdo.
Ah yes. Your entire life, Simon, had led to this video.
Hello! Here in Czech we have sign of heart on the doors of outhouses :D
In Norway we have cut-out hearts on the doors of our outhouses.
So it is in Germany
Interestingly the heart-shape might also represent a butt. Historically men would only use the outhouse for #2, which involves sitting down.
Who did you cut them out of?
@@MasterMalrubius Our enemies, of course.
Yep. As mentioned in the video, originally that was probably not meant to represent the heart. ;-)
I can assure you that in the early 1950s it was common for outhouses to have a crescent shaped cutout but not necessarily on the door.
Just like the cartoon they showed. Note it was not on the door.
South side so moon light could get in.
2,5 minutes in to this thing and all i can think of is: "Hank Green would have come to some sort of point by now..."
Back in 1971 I was twelve years old, and we were living on 580 acres in Prunedale California. It is a neighbor of Salinas just in the foothills. I am the 11th of 12 children, and there were still six of us living at home. On of my chores was to ride my horse around the perimeter of the property and repair fences. One of the fences actually ran close to the house. The house had eight or nine bedrooms, it was the first time in my life I had my own bedroom! Every bedroom had a door going outside the house, which had been built in 1896. The fence that was close to the house was positioned about a quarter mile away, just the other side of a huge wash channel below the house. This wash had such deep sides, that my little sister and I would slide down the banks on cardboard box panels. One day as we were playing, I found a piece of wood with a large patch of leather nailed into it. It was strange, because the wash was from the heavy rains that would occur every ten or so years, and there was very little debris that was man-made in the wash. Also the nails had square heads on them. I showed my father, and he told me the story of the house, it was an old speakeasy from the 1920s and 1930s when alcohol was illegal in California. He told me about the big drinking parties that used to occur at the house, it was apparently a very famous house in its day. So, he told me what I had found was the door of the original outhouse. The house had electricity and plumbing, but it was all installed on top of the walls, many years after the house had been built, so it was all exposed everywhere. Water came from a natural spring up the hill from the house about a half mile. Think of Green Acres, but the baths were inside, but that would be about the only difference, we used a wood burning stove for heating the house in the living room and a wood burning stove for cooking in the kitchen.
So, he told me that if I went back to where I had found the HINGE of the door, and started digging that I would find some glass bottles. So I did, and I DID! People would go to the house to drink, and the bottles, which were evidence of the illicit drink, were conveniently deposited in the one place no one was likely to look, the bottom of the Outhouse. I found other parts of the door, but it was very decomposed from years in the dirt (crap and dirt) but never found any indication of a moon shape. But we did find bottles, hundreds and hundreds of glass bottles, three form, hand blown, blues and greens, and yellows from age, bubbles in the glass. Lots and lots of curved whiskey glass bottles that were curved to match the shape of the human leg, so a person carrying the bottle in loose pants would not show with sharp corners and flat planes. By the time we moved from there to Fresno, California a year later we had brought up over seven hundred bottles each worth $3 to $7 at the time.
Not long after we moved out of that house, my oldest sister (16 years my senior) purchased it and the fifteen acres including the old outhouse site. The rest of the land was cut up and developed into acre and half acre lots. She stayed in that house until 2002 when she finally sold it and the land and moved to Redding, California. Before she did, she had recovered over 7000 bottles. I returned to that house and spent the summer with her when I was fourteen. She had the roof covered in bottles, getting them to change color in the sun, as the old glass will do when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Ten years ago I was talking with my little sister, and I told her I never got a single one of those bottles, she sent me one, and intended on sending me more, but she sadly passed after packing them and one of her friends tried to scam me into sending money to have the box shipped to me, but I offered to make the payment to the shipper directly and never got the others. I do have one whiskey flask though from that dig. I suppose in a way that it should have been turned over to archeologists to excavate for historical significance, but hey, it was the 1970's after all.
Gives a whole new meaning to “I fart in your general direction”
'Your father was a hamster and your mother smelled of elder berries!'
Pooping in the forest is all fun and games, until a damn skunk arrives...
And complains about the smell
Or a bear or rattler
Or you find poison ivy the hard way.
I'll have to agree, the snake is the worst... I knew a guy who got bitten on the sack while squatting in some random forest once, it wasn't a rattlesnake but he said it was the worst pain of his life.
Simon: "Abnormally Attractive Viewers"
Me: Wait that's not Brad Mondo...