Toilet or Scatological Humor

On the one hand, toilet or scatological humor is ostensibly that genre of comedy with the most stigma: In polite society one must refrain from even mentioning bodily functions, let alone performing the communicative act of joking about them. On the other hand and rather paradoxically, scatological humor is that brand of comedy that figures most prominently into many of the most revered works of the literary canon. From the Greek playwright Aristophanes to Chaucer to Rabelais to Shakespeare to Rowan Atkinson's persona, Mr. Bean, the fart joke seems a stinkily ascendant art form.  

Despite their ubiquity, I am not sure that I have ever found toilet humor very funny, but as the father of a young child, my understanding of the genre has broadened. Scatological humor allows us to chuckle about something taboo, and perhaps in this case Lord Shaftesbury's "Relief Theory" of humor seems the most compelling understanding of how the joke functions. The theory was later adapted by better known thinkers like Sigmund Freud and the American philosopher John Dewey. The "Relief Theory" of humor suggests that when we laugh, laughter releases nervous energy that had otherwise been applied toward repressing certain psychical mechanisms. (From Freud's perspective this made the world of comedy akin to that of the world of dreams as in these two seemingly liminal spaces repressive mechanisms lost their hold; for more, see his intriguing and thoroughly readable Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious [1907].) Thus, when I joke by even saying the "potty word" of "poop" with my four-year-old daughter, perhaps we both laugh because of the seemingly transgressive nature of the word. She is not allowed to use it at school for one reason or another because it is taboo, but as her mother and I explain to her, at home only the context renders it taboo. If we are eating dinner together, "poop" should most certainly not be mentioned; however, at any other time the saying of the word (within moderation!) is fair game. 

Louis C.K. explains to Jon Stewart why fart jokes are funny [Louis C.K.: "You don't have to be smart to laugh at farts, but you have to be stupid not to."]

As the great Roman playwright Terence (185-149 BCE) famously wrote in his play, Heauton Timorumenos, "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto," or "I am human, and nothing human is alien to me." If humor bridges the gap between human experience and our collective fears about the human condition, then any subject matter that we encounter seems within the domain of the joke.

This week I would like you to share your favorite examples of scatological humor. The jokes can be as offensive or harmless as your stomach (or bowels) can handle, as long as they pertain to the more disgusting, corporeal aspects of human experience, i.e. peeing, pooping, puking, et al. I also request that we hold off on sex jokes this time around, but do not worry, their time will come (pun VERY much intended!!!).

Q: Why don't you fart in church?
A: Because you have to sit in your pew.