Fart: A Documentary Movie Script

Man:

Lovely. Lovely.

My background field is actually American literature.

But I developed an interest in American humor.

I run the creative writing program here.

And I teach a module on how to write humor.

Farting, I happen to know, features throughout the history of humor.

I mean, I did a project a few years back where I went in search of the oldest joke in the world.

Um, we-- well, you can't actually find the oldest joke in the world but the oldest joke that I could find-- the oldest recorded joke, in other words, the oldest one-liner, if you like, is actually a fart joke.

( wind blowing ) ( chattering ) ( bongo drums playing )

Man:

Jim Dawson is my name, and I write books.

I write books on, uh-- mainly non-fiction books.

Well, farting was, it was-- it was a fairly unexplored topic back in 1997 and '98 when I wrote, "Who Cut The Cheese?" - Cut it!

- Who cut the cheese?

And when I pitched it to my agent, he-- he was extremely happy to state, he says, "I think we can sell this book." It seems to be, as far his humorous potential, it seems to be fair the ubiquitous, I think, across cultures and throughout history.

And so, the oldest recorded joke is a fart joke and fart jokes are featured in jest books throughout the ages.

It's about 4,000 years old.

And I'll tell you that joke if you want to hear it.

Female interviewer: Yeah, I do. I want to hear it.

It's not... - Don't expect too much of it.

- No, it's 4,000 years old.

It's all the-- exactly, and it's the-- like all humor, it's context dependent, I suppose.

But it goes, "Something that's never been known since time immemorial is a young lady who didn't break wind in her husband's embrace." - Now, you're not laughing, are you?

- No.

That's usually the response I get to that.

Well first of all, there's the sound of it.