Every Writer Should Make Fart Jokes

The truth of the matter is that fart jokes exist. They're part of every culture. Even if you do not like them, you'll concede there are a bunch of people laughing at these jokes while you are making a scrunched up and disapproving face. Whether you consider this humor the lowest of the lows or not, you know someone will always laugh. Someone will ALWAYS laugh.

It turns out there's a long history of fart jokes. They're hardly a modern thing, as you can read about in James Spiegel's (Professor of Philosophy & Religion, Taylor University) article on The Conversation about why fart jokes never get old. Do you think they're new? Well, turns out you're wrong, as the earliest known joke, from Sumeria around 1900 BC is a fart joke. Think that fart jokes are the refuge of lazy, low brow writers? Then you have a low opinion of such writers as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, and Mark Twain.

I hereby suggest that every writer should go for the fart joke once in their careers. It's fun! It's low hanging fruit! It's liberating! Only within that great wind can you really see the eye of the fart hurricane. Of course, I say this as someone who has already pressed the Fart Joke button once in their career (Damned Lies #1, true believers!). But really, writers of the world, who are you that you're too good for a fart joke? People have been laughing at them for millennia. Relax and squeeze out that joke you've been holding in. Sneak a little flatus into your fiction.

From the Sumerians to Shakespeare to Twain: why fart jokes never get old