Every year, a story breaks that sends shockwaves throughout the country. It's all anyone can talk about. Twitter and Facebook are consumed by it. TV hosts discuss it on their shows. You'd have to live under a rock not to have heard about it.
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The year 2019 was no different. The sports world found out the Houston Astros were cheaters. Tiger Woods turned back the clock and won The Masters. Antonio Brown absolutely went off the deep end.
Still, even those headlines did not cause the ripples that ESPN First Take's Max Kellerman did when he farted on the show AND tried covering it up by coughing.
No, really.
ESPN Host Farts & Coughs To Hide It
How did I miss this, Max Kellerman tried to cover up his fart with a cough😂😂😂😂pic.twitter.com/g3L7Gr9WYP
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 16, 2019
ESPN's Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith typically yell at each other on the set of First Take, the popular debate show that covers the most-pressing topics in sports. One will make their point then pass the conversation to the other.
On April 16, 2019, something else was being passed: gas.
Viewers of the show were shocked when Kellerman appeared to force an awkward cough, which was followed by a very audible (and long) fart on live TV. He and Smith were discussing Kevin Durant's ejection in Game 1 of the Golden State Warriors-Los Angeles Clippers NBA playoff series when he apparently simply couldn't hold it in anymore.
A reddit user, Yaboimirakek, was the first to discover the fart that was anything but "silent but deadly":
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN -- an update on the fart investigation involving @maxkellerman that is currently rocking ESPN and @LeBatardShow. Here is iso footage of Max yesterday. Do we think this a sneeze or a cough with ulterior motives? pic.twitter.com/9XpJqRmuIs
— Ryan Cortes (@Ryan_Cortes) April 16, 2019
Take a look at 5:45 of the original video to hear for yourself:
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Oh yeah, I've seen that move before. Family Guy taught me the age-old trick of coughing while farting. The whole point is you're supposed to do it while cutting the cheese, not before.
Now, here's the thing: Kellerman denied it.
He went on The Dan Le Batard Show and said it absolutely was not him. He couldn't even hear the moment of flatulence when playing the video again.
"Right before I got off the set I saw this during the last commercial break and I tried to listen for it and I couldn't hear it. Even just now when you played it I couldn't hear it. But let's say there was that noise. I don't know who dealt it. It wasn't me. That's all I can tell you." — Kellerman on The Dan Le Batard Show.
Yeah, sure.
Someone definitely farted. Kellerman definitely coughed. Smith was talking at the time. Moderator Molly Qerim's voice doesn't sound like the cougher's. How in the world was that not Kellerman who cut the cheese?
Even he admitted he's farted during the show before.
"I have farted in the past. That is true," he told ESPN's Dan Le Batard, who tried getting to the bottom of the story.
One point to reiterate is that Stephen A. is the real hero of this whole hilarious breaking wind fiasco. He doesn't even break stride while talking despite that cheek flapper being extremely loud (seriously, how did a mic pic that up?). THEN he tells producers to break out a video, possibly to distract viewers from what was going on.
Look, farting is natural. We all do it. We've done it at work. In the elevator. By the office water cooler. Even Mike Ditka ripped one on live TV.
But rule No. 1 is don't get caught. The infamous Max Kellerman fart is a perfect example of what not to do. Or, just own up to it. Who cares?
