he who smelt it dealt it

English

Alternative forms

• whoever smelt it, dealt it
• you smelt it, you dealt it

Proverb

he who smelt it dealt it

1. (colloquial, originally) A person who calls attention to or complains about a flatus is likely trying to pretend it wasn't their own.
2. (colloquial, by extension) Used to suggest that a person calling attention to or complaining about a given problem may in fact be the source of the problem.

Usage notes

• Non-rhyming variants with smelled rather than smelt are almost completely unattested, even in forms of English that otherwise prefer smelled.

Synonyms

• he who denied it supplied it

Coordinate terms

• he who said the rhyme did the crime

Translations

a person calling attention to or complaining about a fart

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 賊喊捉賊／贼喊捉贼 (zh) (zéihǎnzhuōzéi)

• Esperanto: kiu ĝin flaris, faris
• French: premier senteur, premier péteur
• German: Wer den Furz zuerst gerochen, dem ist er aus dem Arsch gekrochen.
• Japanese: 言い出しっ屁 (いいだしっぺ, iidashippe)
• Latvian: kas atzinās, tas nopirdās
• Lithuanian: vagie, kepurė dega
• Polish: kto pierwszy poczuje temu się snuje
• Portuguese: quem cheirou, que resolva
• Russian: кто признался тот и обосрался (kto priznalsja tot i obosralsja)
• Sicilian: cinca la ntisa te culu na scisa
• Slovene: kdor ga zavoha, ta ga tudi spoha
• Spanish: el que lo huele, debajo lo tiene
• Swedish: den som nämnde det, han klämde det, den som nämnde't, han klämde't

See also

• cut the cheese
• protest too much