For my book review, I read Valerie Allen's On Farting, a critical analysis of the use of flatulence to evoke laughter in the medieval period. However, what's great about Allen's analysis is how she connects much of the fart's significance to the present: farts--manifested physically, artistically, literarily, and historically--represent something so innately common to the human condition that laughing at a fart is essentially laughing at humanity. In other words, though her scholarly approach caters to an academic audience of either scatologists, medievalists, or both, the overall point resonates (was that a bad pun?) with even the five year old reader of the popular books Everybody Poops and Everybody Farts. This notion of equalization is like the Bakhtinian theory often applied to bodily releases, in that Bakhtin positions scatological actions as more a reminder of the social leveling of the body (i.e., all humans fart, poop, pee, etc. as methods of digestive self-regeneration).
Yet one thing I've pulled out of Allen's examination is the notion that farts are products of hyphenation; they are both intimate (in that they emerge from the inside of our bodies, and those we share them with become "intimately exposed" with our internal goings-on) and extimate (because they are now outside of us, their odor and sound become part of the air). And this hyphenated nature of the fart makes me think, in the context of this class, not only why farts are comical because they expose something intimately/extimately stinky about the human body but also why they are funny on a communal level that differs from Bakhtin's ideas. The fart is a hyphenated "insider-outsider." Yes, those who "let flee" (as Chaucer might say) the fart, and the fart itself, are often laughed at--as inferior outsiders. Or, if someone is farted on, the fart recipient is inferior, while the farter and the viewers are superior. Yet a certain equalizing element also emerges in the farter: the farter's expulsion of air from the rear is much akin to the laugher's expulsion of air from the mouth. In many ways, the hot air of laughter and the fart are identical (particularly if the laugher has halitosis!), and both spectator and spectacle are culpable. Moreover, the laugher and farter are both releasing something together, and they both often feel better for doing so; thus, the self-fulfillment is mutually collaborative.
At any rate, it seems that farts are funny on numerous levels. And perhaps that's why the fart joke (and the fart itself) remains funny--regardless of historical context.
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haha, fantastic. I had no idea there were entire books devoted to analyzing fart jokes. You've definitely put a lot of thought into this, and I agree with most of your ideas. A fart is definitely a universally communal and intimate experience. Everyone does it, and I do agree that to an extent we are laughing at our humanity- a fart is just a quirky trait inherent to our bodies.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think you might be generalizing a little too much in regard to farts as humor. The reception a fart receives varies drastically based on the groups/individuals that witness it. If I fart around a group of my guy friends, it's funny and we all chuckle and make snide remarks. But if I fart around my girlfriend and her friends... well, the reaction is a little different.
Social expectations, genders, age, and other distinguishing factors have a great influence over the reception of a fart (or fart joke). This includes (in my opinion) feelings of both superiority/inferiority and humor/repulsion.
Perhaps if Chris were at Carnival, the audience wouldn't matter so much, but he is right about the "place" for the fart joke, which in medieval times was probably quite different. The nineteenth century brought in with its burgeoning industrialization and rise of the middle class an equal and opposite reaction to "correctness" and a more prescribed view of the "polite". It will be interesting to see how the politically correct movement, with its emphasis on non-offense of religious, social or cultural groups will affect humor as it moves forward into the 21st century. While a fart joke was passe and perhaps vulgar in the 19th century, it was perfectly fine to make Polish, Irish, Italian, and "nigger" jokes until fairly recently in human history. Good post!
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