Farts in Stand-Up Comedy: From Richard Pryor to the Feminist Fart
Stand-up comedy has a special relationship with bodily humor — and the fart is one of the genre's oldest and most reliable tools. From the American stand-up pioneers who used physicality as political statement to modern comedians who deconstruct the fart as a feminist act: the history of the fart onstage is a story about who gets to laugh, and at whom.
Origins: Physical Humor as Liberation
Stand-up comedy as a genre emerged in the US in the 1950s and 60s, when comedians like Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory began addressing personal, raw, and taboo subjects in clubs and theaters. Bodily humor was from the start a means of provocation: a fart joke onstage was not primarily slapstick but transgression. In an era of strict broadcast codes (the Hays Code for film, similar self-imposed rules for television), an explicitly stated fart onstage was a statement. Lenny Bruce was arrested multiple times — for other content than fart jokes, but the spirit was the same: the comedian as rule-breaker who puts the audience's physicality into words and thereby questions social norms.
Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and the Democratization of the Body
Richard Pryor (1940–2005) is considered one of the most influential stand-up comedians of all time. In specials like 'Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip' (1982), he used bodily humor — including explicit gastrointestinal jokes — as a vehicle for describing the experience of Black masculinity in America. The fart wasn't the punchline — it was the vehicle. Eddie Murphy continued this tradition with 'Delirious' (1983) and 'Raw' (1987), establishing bodily humor as the trademark of an entire comedian type. In Europe, Benny Hill served a similar function — his explicitly physical humor on BBC was both beloved and rejected by the establishment, which only amplified his popularity. The bodily humor of this generation was democratic: it pointed to a shared, class-transcending human experience.
Europe: The Political Fart and the Philosophical Flatulence
European stand-up has developed different traditions. In German-speaking countries, fart jokes have been present in cabaret for decades — Karl Valentin, Loriot, and Gerhard Polt each engaged with physicality in their own way. Loriot's sketches about the awkwardness of the bourgeois body — the embarrassing moment during dinner conversation, the inevitable bodily function — are classics of German comedy. In British stand-up of the 1990s ('Alternative Comedy'), the fart joke was often an expression of anti-establishment attitude: Billy Connolly and Ben Elton used bodily humor to highlight class differences. In France, the tradition du spectacle vivant has its own niche: La Petomane (Joseph Pujol, 1857–1945) is not stand-up, but his legacy echoes in French comedy culture to this day.
The Present: When the Fart Becomes Feminist
An interesting development in modern stand-up: female comedians have reclaimed the fart joke as political territory. Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Hannah Gadsby, and others have explicitly addressed female physicality in their specials — including flatulence — while pointing out the double standard: a man who talks about farting onstage is a 'regular guy'. A woman who does the same is breaking a social norm. Amy Schumer addressed this double standard directly in 'Mostly Sex Stuff' (2012) and later specials. The punchline is not the fart itself — the punchline is that it's still more edgy for women onstage than for men. The fart as an equality indicator: an unexpected analytical category for cultural studies.
Did you know?
- Lenny Bruce was arrested in the 1960s for 'obscene performances' — bodily humor included — as part of political resistance to stand-up censorship.
- Eddie Murphy's 'Raw' (1987) is one of the best-selling stand-up specials ever with over 100 million copies sold — bodily humor central.
- Loriot elevated the physicality of the German bourgeoisie in sketches to an art form — the inevitable embarrassing moment as a mirror of society.
- Comedians like Amy Schumer use fart jokes as deliberate commentary on the double standard: what is 'buddy-like' for men is a taboo breach for women.
Fun Fact
George Carlin, one of the greatest American stand-up comedians, once said in an interview: 'The very existence of a fart joke is proof that the human animal has a sense of humor.' Carlin himself used bodily humor sparingly but precisely — as a contrast agent that made more serious points about language, censorship, and society appear sharper. His most famous routine, 'Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television' (1972), is a direct engagement with which bodily functions and body parts are socially speakable — and which are not.
Sources
- Double, O. (2014). Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy. Bloomsbury.
- Zoglin, R. (2008). Comedy at the Edge. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Brodie, I. (2014). A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. University Press of Mississippi.