REMEMBERED FOR FART

A NEWSCASTER steps into a spotlight. He reads an obituary out loud.

NEWSCASTER

Obituary for September 15, 2009. Marty Carlyle, 92, a lifelong educator in the town of Danbury, CT, who helped cement proper enforcement of the American for Disabilities Act and was a father of ten, died today of a heart attack. He was best known for having loud flatulence on live television in front of the President of the United States.

NEWSCASTER

Mr. Carlyle was a respected teacher, principal and eventual superintendent in Danbury, where he was born in 1917. A popular and respected man, he spent much of the 1970s lobbying for the city to spend necessary money to install wheelchair-accessible ramps in all of its public schools - an unpopular initiative at that time. His success in this led him to be thanked by then President Jimmy Carter on national television, during which Mr. Carlyle experienced pointedly loud flatulence as the president shook his hand.

NEWSCASTER

Although the unfortunate flatulence  lasted just a few seconds, it cemented itself into America's pop culture almost immediately. Mr. Carlyle soon became known as "Farty Marty," Ridiculed nightly on such comedy shows as The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, Carol Burnett and even the drama The Waltons.

NEWSCASTER

References to Mr. Carlyle were pervasive throughout all media -- he was parodied in commercials such as Xerox, in which two monks copying the Bible by hand shake each other's hand and then experience flatulence, or on the television comedy Welcome Back Kotter, when the character Horseshack meets his long-lost father only to experience flatulence while shaking his hand.

NEWSCASTER

Perhaps the most notable evidence of Mr. Carlyle's fame was when Anwar Sadat and the Shah of Iran re-created the moment during a press conference announcing a new Middle East peace initiative. Mr. Sadat and the Shah shook hands for the cameras and during that moment each made flatulence-like noises with their mouths.

NEWSCASTER

Mr. Carlyle reached the peak of his fame in 1981, when astronaut Roger Butron became near-fatally injured while piloting the space shuttle Columbia and passed out. Unable to rouse the pilot, technicians in Houston eventually found through trial and error that Butron would respond to transmissions of Mr. Carlyle's famous flatulence. The pilot woke up and safely landed the shuttle. NASA technicians continue to use this strategy for incapacitated astronauts today.

NEWSCASTER

Besides his status as inadvertent pop culture icon, Mr. Carlyle continued to somberly campaign for ADA compliance. He won Teacher of the Year several times and worked for the school system throughout his retirment.

NEWSCASTER

Mr. Carlyle famously would not comment on his accidental flatulence despite thousands up thousands of requests for intervies or public appearances. He refused to acknowlegde it or to draw any more attention to that day. Still, "Farty Marty" wsa named the number two most memorable moment on telvision, just ahead of the Moon Landing and just behind Walter Cronkite's report of the Kennedy assassination.

NEWSCASTER

Mr. Carlyle's last words are not known. As he expired, a reporter for Variety was on his deathbed playing for him a tape of the moment he farted in front of President Carter.

NEWSCASTER

He is survived by ten children and 14 grand-children. He farted in front of President Carter. He farted in front of President Carter. He farted in front of President Carter.