Often derided and unfairly critiqued, the fart joke has been looked down upon for decades by elitist film snobs.
However, if you go through a list of the best comedies of all time, you'll find most of them have an iconic fart scene you can point to.
This dichotomy has been recognized by, Adam McKay, the director of movies like Talledega Nights, Anchorman, and Step Brothers. McKay said of fart scenes, "To reach escape velocity with a fart joke, you’ve first got to bust through the shame wall. Everyone likes to think they’re smart and have highbrow taste in comedy, but the truth is, none of us do.”
So while the Academy can give Oscars to movies people never see, we can give you a list of the most explosively funny fart scenes in movie history — a much more productive use of our time. If you like this list, we think you'll like our list of movie poop scenes as well.
Note: We also consider ourselves experts in teaching people how to fart on command.
Maya Rudolph is looking for the museum of art, which in the future world of Idiocracy has been turned into the museum of fart. If you haven't seen it, we're sure you can guess what the exhibits do.
9. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob are being apprehended by a police officer on the suspicion of selling pot. After trying to convince the officer otherwise, he uses rolling papers as wipes (we might have a suggestion for him) and introduces us all to his "stink nuggets."
Lloyd Christmas is literally on fire in this scene, doing some holiday entertaining and impressing his crush Mary with his antics. For a closer he pulls out the oldest gag in the book: lighting your farts on fire. Don't worry, you can find Harry's infamous poop scene here.
Rodney Dangerfield's Al Czervik rips one at the club and blames it on a duck.
Tom Cruise's savant brother in Rainman, played by Dustin Hoffman, lets one rip while they're both in a photo booth by announcing, "Uh oh, fart." Cruise once divulged to Oprah that this scene was ad-libbed when Hoffman really let one go while filming.
Adam McKay told Will Ferrell while filming Step Brothers, "If we stick a fart in we're not getting good reviews. It's that simple." They did it anyway and went big, with one of the longest farts in film at 15 seconds.
4. Austin Powers in Goldmember
While the original Fat Bastard fart gag in the second offering of the Austin Powers trilogy is hilarious, Mike Myers upped the ante in Goldmember. Fat Bastard gives a full analysis of his own brand, describing it as a mixture of cabbage and throw up. Enjoy!
The iconic fart scene in Blazing Saddles was the first in modern American cinema. Since its release, it has cast a large shadow on any subsequent attempts to outdo 12 farting cowboys eating the magical fruit.
Buddy Love is thoroughly embarrassed by his family when Papa Klump starts a family symphony of farts that ends with Papa crapping his pants.
1. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
When the boys go to see the latest Terrance & Phillips movie, Asses of Fire, they experience one of the greatest songs in Canadian film history, "Uncle Fucker," which includes Terrance and Phillip traipsing through Canada farting all along the way.
We can quibble on what fart scene is the best or which scenes our esteemed DUDE panel left out. But after reviewing these 10, there's no doubt that fart scenes have been a part of some of our best comedies.
So for the smug elitists who turn their noses up at this bawdy fare, might we suggest smelling your own farts, as it seems you only stick to your own brand.
We fart connoisseurs will continue to carry the torch, always packing a DUDE Wipe for when a fart goes bad.
