WEBVTT - The Fartonomicon 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:15.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.040 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.440 Let's not dally up, bit. We've got to get right 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.680 into it today because I know you are ripping to 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.040 talk about the connection between demonology and flatulence. That's right, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.000 I mean, it's it's it's hidden in the title itself, right, 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.440 the Fartonomicon. We're going to be discussing not only the 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:38.159 actual science of farts, but this this fascinating connection between 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.120 demonology and flatulence. And I want to note by the 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.440 way that the word fart predates flatulence and goes back 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.640 at least to the fourteenth century. And of course the 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.240 reality of human flatulence is is far older than humanity, 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.040 of course it is, and it goes deep, deep into time, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.200 just as demons seem to do. Uh So, Yeah, demonology 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:01.840 does him to have a whole lot of farting in it. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.400 And this is one of the funny things, you know. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.760 When I was growing up, I was taught at church 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.560 not to say cuss words, and cuss words included a 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:15.199 lot of potty language and words for defecation and things 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.600 like that. But if you go back into say the 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.480 Renaissance or the medieval period before that, you will actually 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.679 find a lot of pious holy men writing about theological 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.480 topics who are also quite potty mouthed. Yes that they 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.760 have their head. They have their head both in the 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.479 heavens and in the toilet at the same time. Yes, well, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.280 that connection between heaven and the toilet is something we'll 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.800 discuss here. You know, one of my my favorite accounts, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.600 and this, of course, is a medieval account from one 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.720 of the great works of medieval literature, and particularly Italian 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:51.920 medieval literature, uh, Dante's Inferno, of course. Uh. To refresh everyone, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.640 of course. In in Dante's Inferno, Dante himself is guided 0:01:55.680 --> 0:02:00.800 by the deceased poet Virgil through hell, through the underworld 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.240 in a journey that will eventually take him back up 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.560 to Paradise. Now, I love the Inferno, but I honestly 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.959 did not remember the farting segments. Oh man, the Inferno. 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.400 So Robert, you're gonna you're gonna have to illuminate me, 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.280 educate me on the farting. All right, well, I'm gonna 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.280 set the stage here here we have our duo venturing 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.400 into the Mala Boga the as a region of the 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.720 hell with all these uh, these these pits, these boulders 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.840 in which various tortures are taking place and roaming about 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.760 are the Malibranchia, the the evil clause. This is a 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.760 group of demons that are patrolling about and you know, 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.160 torturing uh as part of their job. And they all 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:45.560 have fabulous names like Scarmiglion, which means troublemaker, and Malacotah, 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.520 which means evil tail. And he's apparently the leader of 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.800 the group. So I'm gonna read just a bit here 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.120 from this encounter. Oh me, what is it, master, that 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.760 I see pray? Let us go? I said, without an escort, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.000 If thou knowest how since for myself I asked none. 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.480 If thou art as observant as thy want is, dost 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.680 thou not see that they do nash their teeth and 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.240 with their brows are threatening woe to us. And he 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.760 to me quote, I will not have the fear let 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.560 them nash on according to their fancy, because they do 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.040 it for those boiling wretches Along the left hand dike. 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.560 They wheeled about, but first had each one thrust his 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.760 tongue between his teeth toward their leader for a signal, 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.640 and he had made a trumpet of his rump. Trumpet 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.600 of his rump. That is like the ultimate hell signal. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:41.760 Now we see that kind of blasphemous behavior also in 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.240 the Monty Python animations, you know, in Monty Python and 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.400 the Holy Grail, there's a scene depicting like cartoon versions 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.600 of the heavens, and it definitely includes people playing musical 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:57.040 instruments with their butts. And then, of course I can't 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.000 help but think of the French insult uh I fart 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.280 in your general direction. Oh yeah, there's that too. The 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.480 funny thing about about this uh trumpet of his rump 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.520 business is that scholars have actually argued for more than 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.160 a century. It seems like the last century has really 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:15.839 been the period in which this has been a matter 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.560 of scholarly debate over whether this is supposed to be 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.920 funny or not. Why would it not be funny? I know, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.159 I mean I vaguely remember my college Dante professor thinking 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.960 it was funny and generally enjoying the the humor that 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.200 is to be found throughout Inferno. Especially, things get less 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.400 funny as you get up to towards the paradise. But 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:37.880 there there are plenty of moments that I think we 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.960 can legitimately say are funny within Inferno. Yeah. Well, I 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.040 mean it's it's definitely there. In the same time that 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:50.160 Dante is uh depicting and sometimes very lavish and excruciating 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.919 detail the terrors and tortures of Hell, he sometimes also 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.600 seems to be sort of satirizing the foibles of humanity. Yeah, 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.880 and skewering his personal enemies. Yeah. Yes. So for instance, 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.440 those demon names that I mentioned earlier, Alex Scarmiglian, Apparently 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.640 these these names are plays upon various family names that 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.559 that Dante took issue with as well. Right now, in general, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.919 we should add there there's a lot of butt action 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.960 when it comes to Christian demonology. Lots of demons speak 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.159 from their butts. Uh. They seal packs with their butts, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.159 and of course they're all about doing things too human 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.120 butts in hell depending on the depictions. Uh, and you 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.279 can have a field day teasing apart all of the 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.200 various elements wound up in this sort of butt centric 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.800 myth making. Folks, if you haven't already figured it out, 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:35.880 this episode is gonna be heavy with a lot of 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.280 like butts and flatulence. So if you're not interested, uh, 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.400 you may be warned to tune out now because it 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.440 will continue, Yes, it will. It will not stop until 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.839 we reach the end. Uh. So another thing I should 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.040 point out this idea that you know, this link between 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.800 demons and flatuents. There is this idea that you see 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.800 where demons use flat uns against the faithful. I did 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.560 run across this account of fourth century Christian monk I 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.279 vag Risks of Pontus warning that demons may bloat the 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.560 faithful with flatulence to distract them from religious observation. That 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.400 is an insidious tactic. Did that go in the screwtape letters? 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.920 That's that's smart it should have. Incidentally, I did run 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.159 across a contemporary ride up where I think the the 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.240 author was arguing for the demonic powers of yoga and 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.640 how it was. It was one of these wonderful accounts 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.160 where the like, yes, I too have been to a 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.080 yoga class, and I thought it's connections to to a 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.400 non Christian religion was was harmless. And then they talk 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.400 about some of the the signs that you may have 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:41.599 demonic spirit annual in. One of them is flatments. Really, yes, really, yes. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.080 It is kind of odd to see in the modern 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.240 day people associating an evil spirit or kind of a 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.719 I don't know. I feel like generally the idea of 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.919 an evil spirit has been more abstracted these days, But 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.120 it is very true if you go back into history, 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.760 there's a very physical kind of quality to it that 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.599 it that it is embodied by bad smells and bad 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.400 physical forces and excrement and things like that. Yeah. And 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.600 yet still you have to realize that all of these individuals, uh, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:16.280 they experienced flatulence as just a regular aspect of their 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:20.680 lives and everyday reality of their biology. Yeah. If this 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.520 guy gets flatulence in church, is that also a demon 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.520 possessing him? Yeah? I mean, let's let's not be silly 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.000 about it, like that those those guys are gonna fart 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.560 in church. It's just going to happen, no matter how 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.600 holy the monk, Uh, there is going to be a 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.560 bit of a flat us in play. Now. It's obvious 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.920 that many people in the Middle Ages, and lots of 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:44.400 people involved in creating Christian theology and mythology have been 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.560 interested in the idea of flatulence and the role that 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:51.200 plays in demonology. But sometimes it goes beyond the demonology. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.320 I mentioned earlier that that some of these theologians really 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.160 do seem to have their head in the toilet. And 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.200 who I mainly had in mind was Martin Luther, because 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.720 I know Martin Luther loved some potty humor jokes, and 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.080 he he was he had a he had a wicked, 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:09.840 witty pin and he would fling just powerful volleys of scatological, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:14.800 excoriating invective against his enemies. Yeah, they're a number of different, 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.320 uh Martin Luther quotes that use scatological references, probably with 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.840 the most famous one is quote but I resist the devil, 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.480 and often it is with a fart that I chase 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:30.440 him away. That's great because so it's not just a rebuke, 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:34.520 but it's also like a an implied diminishment of the 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.840 power of the devil. Right, It's like, I don't need 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.880 powerful spiritual forces or strong weapons or anything like that 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.800 to chase the devil away. I dismissed the devil. Yeah, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.720 it's not just merely a get behind me satan um. 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.200 It's get behind me satan. Now here comes a tuot. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.280 And of course there are other examples of this as well. 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.360 I was looking at a book titled luther Man Between 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:00.000 God and the Devil by he ik A Oberman, who 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.200 points out that Luther often used poopy language against the 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.520 Devil and his work. So here are just a few examples. Uh, 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.640 and and Joe, maybe you can you can read these 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.480 with me. Uh. Here's one. But if that is not 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.440 enough for you, you devil, I also have and wipe 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:21.280 your mouth on that and take a hearty bite o ruh. Okay, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.680 we got another one here. A slanderer does nothing but 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.720 ruminate the filth of others with his own teeth and 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.319 wallow like a pig with his nose in the dirt. 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.920 That is also why his dropping stink most surpassed only 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.200 by the devil's. And though man drops his excrements in private, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.960 the slanderer does not respect this privacy. He gluts on 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.320 the pleasure of wallowing in it, and he does not 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.000 deserve better according to God's righteous judgment. When the slanderer whispers, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.440 look how he has on himself, the best answer is 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.440 you go eat it. He's almost there's almost like a 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.679 childish glee. It is that is that is present in 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.640 these quotes. Yes, and of course Luther being the author 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.680 of the Christian Reformation, you know, the birth of Protestantism. Luther, 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.640 of course, had a lot of farty invective for the pope. Quote, 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.199 I will give a fart for a staff you Satan, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.040 Antichrist or pope can lean on it a stinking nothing man. 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:20.560 This is making me think I would not want to 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.000 make enemies with Martin Luther. Yeah, I mean, he's going 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.320 to really let you have it, maybe physically. Now, all 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.120 of this makes me think that you could actually write 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.400 a whole book on the cultural significance of farting in 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.640 Middle Age Europe. You could, And in fact, Valerie Allen 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.440 did just that, Yeah, in her book on Farting, Language 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.120 and Laughter in the Middle Ages, published in two thousand seven. 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.640 And Uh, this is just this is a rich tone. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.040 This is truly a part anomicon, uh in its own right. 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.440 So I just wanted to pull a few choice tidbits 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.079 from the text. So she she, for instance, mentions uh 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:03.079 the fourteenth century Icelandic tale of uh poor Stein's pattern Skulks, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.800 in which a demon arises from the depths of a 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.000 twenty two seat toilet to confront our hero whoa So 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.439 is it like the number of seats is proportional to 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.000 the depths of degradation that the toilet embodies. I guess, 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:18.400 so you know, because I'm guessing that those twenty two 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:23.920 seats share a common pit of foulness, and it's it takes. 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.600 It's that sort of foulness from which the demon must arise. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.440 She also notes that late medieval art often depicts demons 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.800 is covered in fecal matter, as well as the mystery 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.440 plays of the time. So an example of this from Alan, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.240 she says that in the drama The Fall of Lucifer, 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.800 as Lucifer quote thuds to his stinking sty, he wails 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.360 for fear of fire, I crack a fart, and then 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.199 in the Fall of Man you have this character Diabolos, 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.440 and he cries out, and this is of course the translation. 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.240 On account of this fall, I am starting to quake 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.079 with a art my britches I break, which again is 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:07.199 just kind of another almost like grade school poopy insult 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.120 or parody leveled at at the devil. It has some 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.160 of the wit of the couplets you see in like 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.240 Dryden and Alexander Pope. Yea more like Alexander poop, though 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.880 I'm alright, um, so I want to share one more 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.400 quote from Valerie Allen because she she sums up a 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.680 lot of this very nicely, and and she says the 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:32.200 following quote. If in the popular theatrical imagination, Satan's descent 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.760 to bottomless perdition is punctuated by flatulence, it is a 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.760 natural consequence to picture him as the load that Heaven 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:46.679 discharges into Hell the show of the Cosmos. I I 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.400 just love that because it does it just sums up 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:52.760 so much of this this energy and inner interconnectedness between 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:58.560 bodily movements and flatulence and these demonic entities and just 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:04.840 the overall like theological structure of the universe. Christian cosmology 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:11.200 reduced to us your everyday bowel movement on the potty. 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.200 And of course, the Christian tradition is not the only 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.920 tradition to to play with flash lens, not at all. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.400 So yeah, we will leave the Christian tradition for a 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.120 moment and look at the fact that fart humor goes 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.040 way back and covers pretty much the entire world. There 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.400 are fart jokes everywhere, and they go deep into history. 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.120 There's actually a writer and academic named Paul McDonald who 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.840 he teaches at the University of Wolverhampton and he was 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.280 involved in this list that came out a few years back. 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.720 That was where they were trying to find the oldest 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.640 jokes known in history, and it turned out that, according 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.920 to this University of Wolverhampton list, the oldest known joke 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.760 at the time was a fart joke. It is a 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.400 fart joke from ancient Mesopotamia. It's a Sumerian joke that 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.360 traces back to about nineteen d BC e, making it 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.400 almost four thousand years old. And it reads in translation 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.240 as the following quote, something which has never occurred since 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:14.200 time immemorial. A young woman did not fart in her 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:20.560 husband's lap. Okay. I think maybe like the the particulars 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.360 of the joke don't don't carry well across you know, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.480 more than four millennia. But it does seem to, yeah, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.520 it's lost something in in translation, maybe language wise and 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.640 definitely culturally. I don't know if this is topical humor 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.600 for the time. Is it like there was a big 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.520 problem with I don't know, dudes getting married and then 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.240 their wife farting in their lap. I don't know, but 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.760 that's what it seems to suggest it's like everybody will 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.200 be like, oh, yeah, that always happens. Uh. It's sort 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:53.560 of a mandatory contemplation here. Do you think that the 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:58.000 presence of an ancient fart joke like this supports uh, 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.200 the idea of of the camera a mind Julian James's theory? 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:04.880 Or is it? Or is it? Or is this uh? 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.800 Or is this some some ammunition one could use against it? 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.400 I don't know. I guess i'd say it's neutral. Yeah, 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.520 I certainly wouldn't say supports okay, But but I do 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.760 wonder what would one, given the particulars of of the 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.840 bicameral theory, would would one have to be conscious as 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.320 a modern human is conscious in order to make a 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.760 fart joke like this? That's a good question. I don't 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.800 know how humor would play into the presence of consciousness. Yeah. 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.560 I will say though that I love Julian James's theory, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:36.640 and I would I would hate it if it were 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.520 an ancient fart joke that truly brought it down, like 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.520 this was the this was the arrow that managed to 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.760 to kill the beast. That's the nail in the coffin. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.600 It's a fart joke, Yeah, sorry, James could be well, 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.560 I say, we look elsewhere for more fart jokes in history. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:55.080 One of the best that I have come across is 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.080 actually not a verbal joke, but it is a series 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:03.760 of amazing illustration sans from medieval Japanese art. So, Robert, 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:08.080 have you seen these medieval Japanese fart scrolls? I had 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.560 not until you showed them to me this morning. I mean, 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.000 I've seen so many different bits of Japanese art that 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.040 depict basically just all sorts of body horror, be they 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:21.200 in the form of yokai or other monster stories, or 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.680 or even just like the magical testicle based ability of 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.160 the raccoon dogs. So in Edo period Japan, which is 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.120 the early seventeenth to mid nineteenth century, some artists or 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.160 group of artists created a collection of artworks that have 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.160 now been digitized and you can find them at the 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:42.400 website of Waseda University Library. And these artworks are contained 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.320 on a scroll known as hay Gassin or Fart Battle, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:50.200 and the name says it all. You've got dudes blasting 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.680 each other with farts in every way you can imagine, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.840 but not just any farts. These are kind of a 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.320 supernatural high powered fart that appears to have the power 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.960 to knock people over and do all kinds of damage. 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.040 It's represented in the artwork as a kind of spreading 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.880 beam of darkness that comes out of the butt. And 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.680 so it's you've got dudes farting and enemies while riding 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.760 on horseback. You've got dudes farting through holes in the walls. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.440 You've got farting on cats, I don't know why, sometimes 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.360 farting at cats and the cats are like And then 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.280 you've got people farting into bags and then releasing the 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.120 bags on rivals and then repelling farts with handheld fans. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:33.440 That's pretty smart, like Mortal Kombat. Yeah, right there, all 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.199 kinds of havoc and destruction. And this particular scroll actually 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.720 appears to be part of a larger tradition of fart 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:44.800 battle artworks. I found one academic article discussing medieval Japanese 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.639 fart battles in art, and it was by Akiko Yano. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.480 The article was called Historiography of the Fallic Contest hand 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.680 scroll in Japanese Art in the Japan Review, and Yano 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.719 describes one art scroll housed at the Mitsui Memorial Museum 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.280 in to Kio, which is known as catchier a maki, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.560 and it's a hand scroll that contains both the phallic 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.119 contest component that was in the title of the paper, 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.160 which is a competition quote among men with surrealistically huge 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:17.520 male members, and then it's also got a fart battle component. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.520 And in the fart battle section, the only text is 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.520 a few brief descriptions of what is happening in some 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:28.119 of the artworks. Examples of the explanatory text include quote, 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.879 they prepare to fart like arrows by drinking cold water 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:37.000 to chill their bellies, picking sweet acorns and eating them 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.840 with raw chestnuts. Their stomachs are chilled. Now they line 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.560 up to fart like arrows by eating hot rice porridge. Okay, 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:46.560 now this lines up with some of the science will 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.320 be discussing later. Yes, And finally they collect the farts 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:55.520 in a bag and prepare to volley fart arrows. Fart arrows, 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.040 fart arrows. All right. I really like the way that's written, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:00.760 as if it's like you should already know what a 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:06.840 fart arrow is. But yeah. Another interesting thing Yano points 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.280 out in the article is that many of the figures 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.720 depicted in these artworks releasing these huge sort of fart 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.840 Hadukins are supposed to be priests. They're dressed as priests, 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.040 so you have to wonder. It's like, is there a 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:22.399 satirical aspect to this? Yeah, I mean we see this 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.000 in East and West, right, this idea perhaps that you know, 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.080 no matter how holy this particular holy man or woman 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.720 may seem, we all know that they fart, and we 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.840 can imagine it, and sometimes, if we're lucky, we can 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.200 hear it, and it's it serves to sort of knock 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.560 them down a peg, at least in our minds. Okay, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.040 I got one more good one, Robert, did you did 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.199 you know previously about Roland the Farter? I had not 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.639 heard of Roland the Farter. No, do tell of Roland 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.160 the Farther. Well, there's a really great Warren Zevon song 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.760 about him. I'm getting confused for something else, roll on 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.080 the head of Thompson Gunner. Yeah. So there is a 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.080 section on good old Roland in the book A Social 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.359 History of England nine to twelve hundred, edited by Julia 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.080 Crick and Elizabeth van Houts, and this is discussing what 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.359 went on in the court of the English King Henry 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.040 the Second, who ruled in the middle of the twelfth century. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.000 So I'm going to read this quote quote at the 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:21.240 royal court, Christmas was evidently a time for special entertainments, 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.640 as suggested by the records of one Roland le Patur, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:30.800 also called rue Landas Lefarterre, who was granted a sergeanty, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.280 apparently of the late twelfth century. And aside, note, a 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.919 sergeanty was part of the feudal system, where a person 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.720 would be awarded control of a feudal estate in exchange 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.200 for some non standard service rendered. So basically it was 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.560 kind of like a feudal knighthood. You'd be given a 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.560 grant of land, except instead of being a night in 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.439 service of the King of the queen, you would do 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.520 some kind of other service. But going back to the quote, 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.320 his grant is typical of that given to favored entertainers 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.560 as well as to others of service to the king. 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.840 In his case, it included the requirement of performing saltum, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:11.120 siffletum petum, or a jump, a whistle a fart before 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.359 the king on Christmas Day. The phrase was a stock 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.040 expression and seems to represent standard buffoonery, the kind of 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:20.919 thing that would constitute a jester's performance, and so it 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.280 is likely that Roland the Farter was a royal jester 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.240 and the fart was his stock in trade. I wonder 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.960 if these were legitimate farts or were these like sort 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.119 of clown based farts. Did he have some sort of 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.520 cushioned devices at a poem in the armpit kind of thing? Yeah, 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.600 I would tend to suggest they wouldn't settle for anything 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.439 less than the real thing. Isn't that interesting because you 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.000 can in the same way that you know, we have 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.960 these these festivals in which the fool has made king 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.480 for for a day, you know, everything is the reverse 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:56.480 for the For the jester in the in the actual 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.280 king's court, to fart in the king's presence, Uh, could 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.840 be a extreme embarrassment. It could It could diminish your 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.680 standing in the royal court. And yet the opposite is 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:09.639 true for the jester. What it would if he has 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.120 called upon to to do his performance and he has 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.760 no flatuss upon which to call it? Could that could 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.639 be disaster? That could could cause his head to be 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.720 separated from his body. Yeah. I can't remember the details, 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.080 but you've just called to mind a story. I think 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:29.560 I recall about some lord or some some noble dignitary whoever, 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.320 who was appearing before Queen Elizabeth the First and who 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.600 I've heard this one farted in her presence and it 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.080 was so embarrassing that he essentially had to leave the 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.960 country or at least disappeared to somewhere somewhere far away 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.240 for a while, but then came back. Is the version 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.080 of the story that he came back years later and 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.679 it presented himself before the Queen and she said, I 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:58.040 remember you. You're the boy who farted again again if 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:00.600 it was, and it's your whole identity. Yeah, that's like 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:02.560 a I think that's a human fear like that if 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:07.000 if if you let one rip in the wrong context, Uh, 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.359