Flatulence humor

Farting in good cheer, 1798

Flatulence humour or flatulence humor refers to any type of joke, practical joke device, or other off-color humor related to flatulence.

History

Although it is likely that flatulence humor has long been considered funny in cultures that consider the public passing of gas impolite, such jokes are rarely recorded. Two important early texts are the 5th century BC plays The Knights and The Clouds, both by Aristophanes, which contain numerous "fart" jokes. Another example from classical times appeared in Apocolocyntosis or The Pumpkinification of Claudius, a satire attributed to Seneca on the late Roman emperor:

At once he bubbled up the ghost, and there was an end to that shadow of a life…The last words he was heard to speak in this world were these. When he had made a great noise with that end of him which talked easiest, he cried out, "Oh dear, oh dear! I think I have made a mess of myself."

He later explains he got to the afterlife with a quote from Homer:

"Breezes wafted me from Ilion unto the Ciconian land."

German peasants greet the fire and brimstone from a papal bull of Pope Paul III in Martin Luther's 1545 Depictions of the Papacy.

Archeologist Warwick Ball asserts that the Roman Emperor Elagabulus played practical jokes on his guests, employing a whoopee cushion-like device at dinner parties.

In the translated version of Penguin's 1001 Arabian Nights Tales, a story entitled "The Historic Fart" tells of a man who flees his country from the sheer embarrassment of farting at his wedding, only to return ten years later to discover that his fart had become so famous, that people used the anniversary of its occurrence to date other events. Upon learning this he exclaimed, "Verily, my fart has become a date! It shall be remembered forever!" His embarrassment is so great he returns to exile in India.

In a similar vein, John Aubrey's Brief Lives recounts of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford that: "The Earle of Oxford, making his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his return the Queen welcomed him home, and sayd My Lord, I had forgot the Fart."

One of the most celebrated incidents of flatulence humor in early English literature is in The Miller's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, which dates from the 14th century; The Summoner's Tale has another. In the first, the character Nicholas sticks his buttocks out of a window at night and humiliates his rival Absolom by farting in his face. But Absolom gets revenge by thrusting a red-hot plough blade between Nicholas's cheeks ("ammyd the ers")

"Sing, sweet bird, I kneen nat where thou art!"
This Nicholas anon let fle a fart
As greet as it had been a thonder-dent
That with the strook he was almost yblent (blinded)
And he was ready with iron hoot
And Nicholas ammyd the ers he smoot.

The medieval Latin joke book Facetiae includes six tales about farting.

François Rabelais' tales of Gargantua and Pantagruel are laden with acts of flatulence. In Chapter XXVII of the second book, the giant, Pantagruel, releases a fart that "made the earth shake for twenty-nine miles around, and the foul air he blew out created more than fifty-three thousand tiny men, dwarves and creatures of weird shapes, and then he emitted a fat wet fart that turned into just as many tiny stooping women."

Benjamin Franklin, in his open letter "To the Royal Academy of Farting", satirically proposes that converting farts into a more agreeable form through science should be a milestone goal of the Royal Academy.

In Mark Twain's 1601, properly named [ Date: 1601.] Conversation, as it was the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors, a cupbearer at Court who's a Diarist reports:

In ye heat of ye talk it befel yt one did breake wind, yielding an exceding mightie and distresfull stink, whereat all did laugh full sore.

The Queen inquires as to the source, and receives various replies. Lady Alice says:

Good your grace, an' I had room for such a thundergust within mine ancient bowels, 'tis not in reason I coulde discharge ye same and live to thank God for yt He did choose handmaid so humble whereby to shew his power. Nay, 'tis not I yt have broughte forth this rich o'ermastering fog, this fragrant gloom, so pray you seeke ye further."

In the first chapter of Moby Dick, the narrator states:

...I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck. For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim)...

The Pythagoreans led an ascetic lifestyle which included a prohibition against the consumption of beans.

In the 1940s a clandestine record called "The Crepitation Contest" was produced, allegedly by Canadian Broadcast Corporation staff (narration by sportscaster Sidney S. Brown, who identifies himself in the closing seconds of the original unedited recording, and "sound effects" by his producer, Jules Lipton). The recording is in the manner of a seemingly real radio broadcast of a live sporting event, complete with pre-game interviews of the contestants (the “champion”, Lord Windesmear and the challenger, Paul Boomer), detailed descriptions of all aspects of the competition as it unfolds, including the rules and traditions associated with the sport, play-by-play reporting, and crowd sounds reacting to the drama. The listener also hears a game official on the field as he announces scores attributed to the flatulence sounds emitted by each contestant in the competition.

Australian comedy musician Kevin Bloody Wilson released his song "Mick the Master Farter" on his 1984 album Return of the Yobbo. The song contains references to his schoolfriend Mick's uncanny ability to fart, and how it solved various situations, e.g. helping his team win a school rugby match, playing the trombone at a Kamahl concert when the trombone player did not show up, and winning the America's Cup yacht race.

First Chorus from the song:

Mick, me mate the master farter
Brought the art back into farting with his custom-tailored farts
Mick, me mate the master farter
Broke new ground with breaking wind, with his double-jointed arse

The bawdy rugby song "Twas On The Good Ship Venus" includes a verse about a flatulent first-mate:

The first-mate's name was Carter
By Christ he was a farter
When the wind didn't blow
And the ship wouldn't go
They got Carter the Farter to start 'er

Inculpatory pronouncements

The sourcing of a fart involves a ritual of assignment that sometimes takes the form of a rhyming game. These are frequently used to discourage others from mentioning the fart or to turn the embarrassment of farting into a pleasurable subject matter. The trick is to pin the blame on someone else, often by means of deception, or using a back and forth rhyming game that includes phrases such as the following.

• Rhyming phrases:
  • He/She who declared it blared it.
  • He/She who observed it served it.
  • He/She who detected it ejected it.
  • He/She who rejected it respected it.
  • He/She who said the rhyme did the crime.
  • Whoever spoke last set off the blast.
  • Whoever smelt it dealt it.
  • Whoever denied it supplied it.
  • The next person who speaks is the person who reeks.
  • The smeller's the feller.
  • He/She who introduced it produced it.
  • He/She who inculpated promulgated.
  • The one who said the verse just made the atmosphere worse.
  • Whoever's poking fun is the smoking gun
  • He/She who accuses blew the fuses.
  • He/She who refuted it tooted it.
  • He/She who pointed the finger pulled the trigger.
  • He/She who articulated it particulated it.
  • He/She who deduced it produced it.
  • He/She who was a smart-ass has a fart-ass
  • He/She who sniffed it biffed it.
  • The slanderer made the gland error.
  • He/She who eulogized it aerosolized it.
  • Whoever makes the joke makes the ass smoke.
  • He/She who rapped it cracked it.
  • Whoever rebuts it cuts it.
  • Whoever said the rap did the crap.
  • Whoever spoke it broke it.
  • Whoever asked it gassed it.
  • Whoever started it farted it.
  • Whoever explained it ordained it.
  • Whoever described it supplied it.
  • Whoever thunk it stunk it.
  • Whoever whiffed it biffed it.
  • Whoever resented it, presented it.
  • Whoever accused it, effused it.
  • Whoever spoke the words is baking the turds.
  • He/She who did the verse made it worse.
  • He/She who painted fainted.
  • The one who smelled is the one who expelled.
  • The smeller's the feller that turned the propeller.
  • He/She who circulated it perpetrated it.
  • He/She who refuses it diffuses it.
  • Whoever is squealing is concealing.
  • He/She who enjoyed it deployed it.
  • He/She who policed it released it.

Assigning blame to another can backfire : a joke about royalty has the Queen emitting flatulence, and then turning to a nearby page, exclaiming, "Arthur, stop that!" The page replies, "Yes, Your Majesty. Which way did it go?"

Practical jokes

A Dutch oven is a slang term for lying in bed with another person and pulling the covers over the person's head while flatulating, thereby creating an unpleasant situation in an enclosed space. This is done as a prank or by accident to one's sleeping partner. The book The Alphabet of Manliness discusses the Dutch oven and a phenomenon it refers to as the "Dutch oven surprise", that "happens if you force it too hard". The Illustrated Dictionary of Sex refers to this as a Dutch treat.

A connection between relationships and performing a Dutch oven has been discussed in two undergraduate student newspaper articles and in actress Diane Farr's relationships/humor book The Girl Code.

Popular culture

• Terrance and Phillip from South Park - A fictional Canadian comedian duo who use farting.

Fart humor and information books

There are dozens of books about fart history, fart jokes, and fart culture. One of them (see Farts: A Spotter's Guide, below) even has its own electronic fart machine with 10 fart recordings. Walter the Farting Dog is a children's book that reached No. 1 on The New York Times's Bestseller list. Who Cut the Cheese? is probably the most comprehensive history of flatulence in literature, humor, religion, films, etc.

• 1990 Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School (Enthea Press) edited by Carl Japikse, ISBN 0-89804-801-X
• 1994 Oh, Vulgar Wind: A Sympathetic Overview of the Common Fart (Culture Concepts, Toronto) by Munroe Scott, ISBN 0-921472-47-1
• 1998 Tailwinds: The Lore and Language of Fizzles, Farts and Toots (Michael O'Marra Books Ltd) by Peter Furze ISBN 1-85479-2911
• 1999 Who Cut the Cheese? A Cultural History of the Fart (Ten Speed Press) by Jim Dawson, ISBN 1-58008-011-1
• 2001 Walter the Farting Dog (Frog Ltd) by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray; illustrated by Audrey Colman, ISBN 1-58394-053-7
• 2006 Blame It on the Dog: A Modern History of the Fart (Ten Speed Press) by Jim Dawson, ISBN 978-1-58008-751-3
• 2007 On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages (Palgrave MacMillan) by Prof. Valerie Allen, ISBN 978-0-312-23493-5
• 2008 Farts: A Spotter's Guide (Chronicle Books) by Crai S. Bower; illustrated by Travis Millard, ISBN 978-0-8118-6609-5
• 2011 The Art of Fart (ebookpartnership.com) by Dougie Brimson, ASIN B006MISNFI

See also

• Flatulist
• Hundeprutterutchebane
• Pull my finger
• Whoopee cushion