Blowing smoke up your ass

Mar 20

daveEveryday, Leisure, Life, Maritime, Oddities 7 Comments

Definition:

to flatter, embellish, lie

Description:

The Smoke Enema:

Smoke Enema

was used to push smoke into a drowning victim in order to warm the victim from the inside-out.

“…A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke into the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase “blow smoke up one’s ass.” Search on “tobacco smoke enema” for illustrations of the apparatus.”

Source:

Ratings:

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  • Ed Kelly

    I really like this explanation, it is so absolutely ludicrous that it is good. 5 stars.

    Ed Kelly

  • davelin10017

    Glad you like it.

  • Cathy

    But this still doesn’t explain why that became a term for false flattery.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Lin/553250609 David Lin

    Well, if you think about it, the purpose of the device of blowing smoke up your ass is to warm you up… kinda like giving someone the “warm and fuzzies” (another word I should look up), which may be analogous.

  • Ray

    This
    cropped up in the FT magazine 25/Sept/11 in the piece on the Welcome Trust
    collection of medical curiosities, complete with similar picture to the one
    above. Apparently in the 1700′s they were actually stationed along the Thames.

  • Steve Zink

    In David Mitchell’s novel which he heavily researched: “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”, he gives an example of demonstrating to a medical class using western medicine this technique of using a bellows full of smoke. The explanation is to detect blockages in the colon after blood is detected in the stool. If the smoke is unimpeded, it comes out of the patient’s mouth, otherwise an operation is necessary to repair the damaged colon.

  • Colmhall

    Because the blowing of smoke up one’s ass did not really resuscitate people. It was not true, and had no such effect. Hence, if someone is telling you something about yourself which is not true, they are not really saying anything of worth to you. They are worthless words. In the same way, the blowing of smoke up someone’s ass may appear to be helping them, but wasn’t really helping them at all. An equally worthless activity.