Reading Comics: Fart Jokes Are Funny
May 7th, 2012 by david brothers | Tags: akira toriyama, eiichiro oda, james stokoe, mitsutoshi shimabukuroIf I had to rank the human body in terms of comedic potential, butts would come in first place, followed by penises, and then noses would be back in third. I dunno why it is, but dirty, coarse humor sometimes hits the spot about as hard as the spot can be hit. Even the word poop, when it comes out of the mouth of an adult, is inherently funny, save for certain specific contexts. Movies like Bridesmaids and TV shows like Veep have had some pretty amazing poop jokes, but the danger with dirty humor on film is that it’s way too easy to go too far. The goal is to, at most, walk right up to the edge of making your audience retch, and movies often fly past that mark and right into disgusting territory. Death at a Funeral, for example, went way too far.
Something about comics, though, makes it a great delivery system for coarse humor. It’s probably the basest form of comedy, really, but whenever it pops up in a comic, I tend to get a childish chuckle out of it. I think the childishness is what makes it work, honestly. I love smart people jokes or whatever, Louis CK and Chris Rock and them. Sarcasm, droll humor, whatever whatever. I laugh at that. But there’s something to be said for dick jokes and fart jokes.
Anyway, here’s some butt-related jokes from the past three or four months of comics that I have been looking for an excuse to post (gotcha), and then a classic one about dirty butts from Dragon Ball that I tripped over recently.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece chapter 663:
James Stokoe’s Orc Stain 7:
Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro’s Toriko 178:
Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball 1:
(i think the Orc Stain one might even be a reference to a similar, but fart-less, scene from Moebius & Jodorowsky’s The Incal, which would be amazing)
:negativeman:
How my sides and I feel after reading this.
by Larry May 7th, 2012 at 10:38 --replyMy favorite butt joke in DB, and possibly any comic ever, is the “Now you have a tail too!” bit from when that ninja fights Kid Goku in Muscle Tower.
by Josh May 7th, 2012 at 11:04 --reply@Josh: Not quite from the original comic, but here is the scene in the anime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=comB1t8ZVUM
by Ryan Johnson May 7th, 2012 at 22:10 --reply@Ryan Johnson: Uh, shit, I did not think it would inline that…
by Ryan Johnson May 7th, 2012 at 22:11 --reply@Ryan Johnson – Ahaha, just the press-play-freeze-frame on the vid alone got me laughing.
by Josh May 8th, 2012 at 06:30 --replyCan’t think of any butt jokes that have made me laugh, but I love gross humor. Particularly Chew, just for how far a lot of Rob Guillory’s images go. Amelia using her gifts in #3 to induce vomiting in some food-terrorists, and Tony being so clearly smitten with her even as he gets covered in spew, was the moment where I fell in love with that comic.
by Andrew May 8th, 2012 at 12:42 --reply