Flatulence humor, (more commonly known as fart jokes) refers to any type of joke, practical joke device, or other off-color humor related to flatulence.
Flatulence humor, (more commonly known as fart jokes) refers to any type of joke, practical joke device, or other off-color humor related to flatulence.
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. It has been suggested that one of the oldest recorded jokes was a flatulence joke from the Sumerians that has been dated to 1,900 BC. [1]
Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.
Two important early texts are the 5th century BC plays The Knights and The Clouds , both by Aristophanes, which contain numerous fart jokes. [2] [3] 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." [4]
He later explains he got to the afterlife with a quote from Homer:
"Breezes wafted me from Ilion unto the Ciconian land." [4]
Archeologist Warwick Ball asserts that the Roman Emperor Elagabalus played practical jokes on his guests, employing a whoopee cushion-like device at dinner parties. [5]
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. [6]
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. Upon his return home, the Queen greeted him, reportedly saying "My Lord, I had forgot the Fart." [7]
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. [8]
The medieval Latin joke book Facetiae by Poggio Bracciolini 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." [9]
The plays of William Shakespeare include several humorous references to flatulence, including the following from Othello :
CLOWN: Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?
FIRST MUSICIAN: Ay marry are they, sir.
CLOWN: O, thereby hangs a tail.
FIRST MUSICIAN: Whereby hangs a tail, sir?
CLOWN: Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. [10]
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. [11]
In Mark Twain's 1876 pamphlet 1601 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. [12]
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." [12]
In the first chapter of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 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)... [13]
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. [14] 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: [15]
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?"
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. [16] This is done as a prank or by accident to one's sleeping partner. [17] The book The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox discusses the Dutch oven, as well as a phenomenon it refers to as the "Dutch oven surprise", that "happens if you force it too hard". [18] The Illustrated Dictionary of Sex by Keath Roberts refers to this as a Dutch treat. [19]
A connection between relationships and performing a Dutch oven has been discussed in two undergraduate student newspaper articles [20] [21] and in actress Diane Farr's relationships/humor book The Girl Code. [22]
Paul Oldfield, who performed under the name Mr. Methane, [23] performed a stage act that included him farting the notes of music. [24] Joseph Pujol, who performed under the name Le Pétomane, [23] which translates to "fart maniac", [23] performed a similar stage act for the Paris music hall scene. [23]
Fart is a word in the English language most commonly used in reference to flatulence that can be used as a noun or a verb. The immediate roots are in the Middle English words ferten, feortan and farten, kin of the Old High German word ferzan. Cognates are found in Old Norse, Slavic and also Greek and Sanskrit. The word fart has been incorporated into the colloquial and technical speech of a number of occupations, including computing. It is often considered unsuitable in formal situations as it may be considered vulgar or offensive.
Flatulence is the expulsion of gas from the intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting or trumping. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swallowed environmental air, and hence flatus is not entirely generated in the stomach or bowels. The scientific study of this area of medicine is termed flatology.
Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour, is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, diarrhea, constipation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other bodily functions.
Joseph Pujol, better known by his stage name Le Pétomane, was a French flatulist and entertainer. He was famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles, which enabled him to seemingly fart at will. His stage name combines the French verb péter, "to fart" with the -mane, "-maniac" suffix, which translates to "fartomaniac". The profession is referred to as "flatulist", "farteur", or "fartiste".
Low comedy, also known as lowbrow humor, in association to comedy, is a dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery and other riotous activity. It is also characterized by "horseplay", slapstick or farce. Examples include the throwing of a custard pie into another's face. This definition has also expanded to include lewd types of comedy that rely on obvious physical jokes, such as, the wedgie.
"The Miller's Tale" is the second of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1380s–1390s), told by the drunken miller Robin to "quite" "The Knight's Tale". The Miller's Prologue is the first "quite" that occurs in the tales.
[Date: 1601.] Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a short risqué squib by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and finally acknowledged by the author in 1906.
The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States over the last hundred years, including in secular Jewish culture. European Jewish humor in its early form developed in the Jewish community of the Holy Roman Empire, with theological satire becoming a traditional way of clandestinely opposing Christianization.
All Aussie Adventures, also known as Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures, is an Australian mockumentary television series that parodies the travel-adventure genre. Comedian Glenn Robbins plays Russell Coight, a survival and wildlife expert who charts his disastrous travels through Australia, spreading misinformation and causing accidents.
Enjoy! is the third studio album by American punk rock band Descendents, released in 1986 through New Alliance Records and Restless Records. It was the band's final album with guitarist Ray Cooper and only album with bassist Doug Carrion, both of whom left the group after the album's first supporting tour. Enjoy! was marked by the use of toilet humor, with references to defecation and flatulence in its artwork, the title track, and "Orgofart". It also displayed a darker, more heavy metal-influenced sound in the songs "Hürtin' Crüe", "Days Are Blood", and "Orgo 51". Reviewers were critical of both the scatological humor and the heavier songs on the album. Enjoy! features a cover version of The Beach Boys' "Wendy".
Crepitus is an alleged Roman god of flatulence actually created by Christians and used in their literature frequently as a fascinating subject to them. It is unlikely that Crepitus was ever actually worshipped. The only ancient source for the claim that such a god was ever worshipped comes from Christian satire. The name Crepitus standing alone would be an inadequate and unlikely name for such a god in Latin. The god appears, however, in a number of important works of French literature.
A flatulist, fartist, professional farter or simply farter is an entertainer often associated with flatulence-related humor, whose routine consists solely or primarily of passing gas in a creative, musical, or amusing manner.
"Spontaneous Combustion" is the second episode of the third season of the American animated television series South Park, and is the 33rd episode overall. It originally aired in the United States on April 14, 1999.
Paul Oldfield, better known by his stage name Mr Methane, is a British flatulist or "professional farter" who started performing in 1991. He briefly retired in 2006 but restarted in mid-2007. He claims to be the only performing farter in the world. He worked on the railways as a train driver. He took an early retirement after a trains brakes failed at Sheffield. After this incident he then started focusing on his flatulence performances.
"Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit" is a playground saying and children's song about the capacity for beans to contribute to flatulence.
Fartman is a fictional superhero, popularized and portrayed by American radio "shock jock" Howard Stern. The character first appeared in an issue of the National Lampoon humor magazine in the late 1970s. A recorded version of the character also appeared on National Lampoon's White Album in 1979. Stern began using the character on The Howard Stern Show in the early 1980s. According to the trademark that Howard Stern filed for the character on October 16, 1992, he first used Fartman in July 1981, when Adam West was a guest on his show, to which he made an impromptu Fartman outfit in five minutes, although the original outfit contained a toilet seat necklace which Stern later discontinued from his motif.
Roland the Farter was a medieval flatulist who lived in twelfth-century England. He was given Hemingstone manor in Suffolk and 30 acres of land in return for his services as a jester for King Henry II. Each year he was obliged to perform "Unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum" for the king's court at Christmas.
"Fart Proudly" is the popular name of an essay about flatulence written by Benjamin Franklin c. 1781 while he was living abroad as United States Ambassador to France. It is an example of flatulence humor.
The 2011 Malawian Air Fouling Legislation is a section of the Local Courts bill submitted to the parliament of Malawi in February 2011 that bans fouling the air. When the Minister of Justice claimed that the bill made flatulence in public illegal, the story made headlines around the world. Later, the minister retracted his statement.
The Facetiae is an anthology of jokes by Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), first published in 1470. It was the first printed joke book. The collection, "the most famous jokebook of the Renaissance", is notable for its inclusion of scatological jokes and tales, six of the tales involving flatulation humor and six involving defecation.
A 'Dutch oven' is when you are lying in bed with someone, you pull the covers over their heads and expel gas from the anus, thereby trapping them with your pungent gift
