A flatulist, fartist, or professional farter is an
entertainer
An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms.
Types of entertainers
* Acrobat
* Actor
* Archimime
* Athlete
* Barker
* Beatboxer
* Benshi
* Bouffon
* Circus performer
* Clown
* Club Hostess/Host
* Co ...
often associated with a
specific type of humor, whose routine consists solely or primarily of
passing gas in a creative, musical, or amusing manner.
History
There are a number of scattered references to
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
and
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
flatulists, who could produce various rhythms and pitches with their
intestinal wind.
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
in ''City of God (De Civitate Dei)'' (14.24) mentions some performers who did have "such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at will, so as to produce the effect of singing."
Juan Luis Vives
Juan Luis Vives March ( la, Joannes Lodovicus Vives, lit=Juan Luis Vives; ca, Joan Lluís Vives i March; nl, Jan Ludovicus Vives; 6 March 6 May 1540) was a Spanish ( Valencian) scholar and Renaissance humanist w ...
, in his 1522 commentary to Augustine's work, testifies to having himself witnessed such a feat, a remark referenced by
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
in an essay.
The professional farters of medieval
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
were called braigetoír. They are listed together with other performers and musicians in the 12th century ''Tech Midchúarda'', a diagram of the banqueting hall of
Tara. As entertainers, these braigetoír ranked at the lower end of a scale headed by
bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to prais ...
s,
fili, and
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orch ...
ers.
An entry in the 13th-century English ''Liber Feodorum'' or ''
Book of Fees
The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs'), being a listing of feudal landholdings or fief (Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, but f ...
'' lists one
Roland the Farter
Roland the Farter (known in contemporary records as Roland le Fartere, Roulandus le Fartere or Roland le Petour) was a medieval flatulist who lived in twelfth-century England. Roland the Farter's given name was George. He was given Hemingstone ma ...
, who held
Hemingstone manor in the county of
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, for which he was obliged to perform ''"Unum saltum et siffletum et unum bombulum"'' (one jump and whistle and one fart) annually at the court of King
Henry II every Christmas. The ''Activa Vita'' character in the 14th century allegorical poem
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un- rhymed, alliterativ ...
appears to number farting among the abilities desirable in a good entertainer, saying: "As for me, I can neither drum nor trumpet, nor tell jokes, nor fart amusingly at parties, nor play the harp."
In Japan, during the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...
, flatulists were known as "heppiri otoko" (放屁男), lit. "farting men."
The term
He-gassen (屁合戦), "farting competitions", is applied to Edo-period art scrolls depicting flatulence.
Notable flatulists
*
Mr. Methane, contemporary flatulist
*
Le Pétomane
Joseph Pujol (June 1, 1857 – August 8, 1945), better known by his stage name Le Pétomane (, ), was a French flatulist (professional farter) and entertainer. He was famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles, which enabled him ...
, performed in France from 1887 until 1914
*
Roland the Farter
Roland the Farter (known in contemporary records as Roland le Fartere, Roulandus le Fartere or Roland le Petour) was a medieval flatulist who lived in twelfth-century England. Roland the Farter's given name was George. He was given Hemingstone ma ...
, flatulist in the court of King Henry II of England.
* Will the Farter, from the ''
Howard Stern Show
''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 10 ...
'' (2007–08).
*
Terrance and Phillip of the US comedy cartoon
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand ...
.
See also
*
Flatulence humor
Flatulence humor, or Rude humour (more commonly known as fart 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 conside ...
*
Toilet humour
Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour (compare scatology), 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. It sees su ...
References
Notes
{{reflist
Further reading
* Valerie J. Allen; ''Broken Air'
Exemplaria(2004).
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems ...
version)
*
Jim Dawson; ''Who Cut the Cheese?: A Cultural History of the Fart'' (Ten Speed Press, 1999)
* Steve Bryant; ''The Art Of The Fart''
* G. Ramsey; ''A Breath of Fresh Air: Rectal Music in Gaelic Ireland'' in Archaeology Ireland Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 22–23 (2002)
Entertainment occupations
Flatulence humor
Comedy