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22 BIZARRE EXAMPLES OF MEDIEVAL TOILET HUMOUR

15/9/2015

11 Comments

 
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Nowadays, most people pretend to be too mature and sensible to be amused by the scatalogical. 

Those of us who do revel in the comedic potential of, say, holding down your own father and trumping onto his eyelids, are seen as juvenile, puerile, somehow less sophisticated. 

And yet, a few hundred years ago, farting was seen as such a legitimate form of entertainment that there were even professional farters employed by royal courts.

Most of us have heard of the great French flatulist Le Petomaine, who died in 1945, but go back even further and you'll find the likes of Roland le Fartere entertaining King Henry II (and making a good enough living from it to be able to afford a 30-acre estate in Suffolk), and references to "musical farters" in the book City of God - written by no less than Saint Augustine himself. 

William Langland's 14th Century allegorical poem, Piers Plowman, even appears to rank farting as a valued social attribute akin to playing the harp: "As for me, I can neither drum nor trumpet, nor tell jokes, nor fart amusingly at parties, nor play the harp".

Indeed, farting - and other bodily functions - can often be found illustrating medieval manuscripts. Here's a whole bunch of them (NSFW, if your employer is likely to be appalled by mostly bad drawings of monks having a poo).

22. THE BELLOWS
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At least... we're assuming that's a bellows. It could just as easily be a gourd. Either way, it's little wonder the fellow bent over the table looks so miserable. He only dropped in for a pedicure.
21. A 21 BUM SALUTE
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You don't see this at the Horse of the Year show. More's the pity. More's the pity...
20. PICK YOUR OWN
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"Careful with it! They don't grow on trees, you know...". Except... in medieval England they apparently did.
19. MONKEY MEAL
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These two look worried that they're about to be caught out, like they're playing a prank on someone. "Eee! Eee! Here are your sausages, master!"
18. THE MORNING AFTER
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Apparently, the first curry recipe was published in the UK in 1747. This illustration, dating from several hundred years before that, begs to differ.
17. THE SNIFFERS
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Coming soon to the CBeebies channel...
16. MY BEAUTY
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Who he is, and why he is doing that, is negligible. But would you just look at those calf muscles? Somebody's been working it old school at G-A-Y...
15. MONKEY BUSINESS
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Is the one at the back blowing or sucking?
14. DINNER TIME!
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Old Red Shirt on the left there has a smile on his/her face, like they know what they're doing is wrong on a number of levels. Still... a boar's gotta eat. 
13. A DIRTY RAM
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Look at the ram-thing's face. Whatever he's pumping out isn't coming easy to him.
12. NO IDEA
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Let's just move on.
11. PLEASE FORGIVE ME
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"You shouldn't be doing that!"

"Put some clothes on, Geoffrey, and then you can lecture me. Amen."
10. BAD MONKEY
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"Dave... Dave... what are you doing up there? Why are you doing that? Daaave!"
9. ANOTHER DIRTY RAM
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Look at that guilty face. It's like somebody's told him to do it against his better judgement.
8. MOONING THE GAMES NIGHT
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Uh-oh. The guy on the left is feeling pretty neglected that he wasn't invited to the big chess game...
7. FLORAL FARTING
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Beautiful. And isn't that Dipsy out of the Teletubbies?
6. NO NO NO... TOO MUCH
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"This?"

"No no no."
5. FACE-ARSE
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Forget the musical cherubim on the right there. What's going on with that bird?
4. MORE FLORAL FARTING
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Everybody's going for those kinky boots, kinky boots (boop, boop)...
3. JAPAN'S FART WARS
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Japan also had a bit of a culture of "heppiri otoko" - or "farting men" - during its Edo period... as illustrated by these beautiful and touching paintings.
2. FARTING THROUGH A DOOR
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This is quite the tableaux. It makes western flatulism quite tame by comparison. Or, at least, significantly less powerful.
1. FARTING AT A CAT
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Not just farting at a cat... but farting a cat into the air, while eating a Peperami. Slik skillz, blud.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • 20 AWFUL VHS VIDEO COVERS
  • 32 BIZARRE AFRICAN MOVIE POSTERS
  • 20 VINTAGE ALBUM COVERS THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU FEEL ILL

11 Comments
I've got a doctorate in this sort of shit
15/9/2015 11:20:22 am

re: Penis tree, this is actually a manuscript of the Romance of the Rose (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. Fr. 25526) made not in England, but in Paris, and quite unusually we know the workshop who made it was the husband-and-wife team Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston.

After Richard's death, these rather bawdy illustrations keep appearing in the workshop's output so it's usually considered that Jeanne was the illustrator while Richard was only the scribe.

It has no direct relationship to the text but is probably intended to be some sort of commentary on spiritual vs. carnal love along the lines of the poem. Also nuns and willies I think we can all agree are legitimately very funny when paired together.

Reply
Mr Biffo
15/9/2015 11:22:36 am

So Jeanne was the one with the bawdy sense of humour? Imagine her husband getting irritated that she kept defacing his manuscript with willies. But yes - thanks for that. Genuinely interesting!

Reply
Jon Downes link
15/9/2015 12:34:17 pm

You know what, Biffs. I cannot think of a better way of starting the working week than staggering into the office three hours late with a hangover, eating a load of chips brought in by one's secretary and reading a slew of medieval bottyjapes. I salute you sir.

Reply
Mr Biffo
15/9/2015 12:37:33 pm

This... this is what I'm aiming for.

Reply
Picston Shottle
15/9/2015 03:55:00 pm

Yes! This has made me look very stupid on a conference call with a very big client; I should have been listening to them drone on, but I did a big belly laugh instead and they asked what was so funny.

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Mr Biffo
16/9/2015 01:09:22 pm

Did you show them?

Lewis Packwood link
15/9/2015 01:14:42 pm

Is number 7 Tingle? Explains a lot.

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Mr Biffo
15/9/2015 06:06:10 pm

It explains everything... EVERYTHING.

Reply
Stuart N. Hardy
16/9/2015 04:51:34 pm

Number 16: medieval goatse?

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Mr Jonny T
16/9/2015 07:37:09 pm

Just saw someone reading over my shoulder on the train... they look confused.

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Richard Freeman link
27/9/2015 02:15:05 am

The farting bull thing is a Bonnacon a legendary bull that has deadly dung. The dung burns anything it touches and can cover an area of two acres.

Reply



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