aNewDomain — I took my family to the movies recently to see Coco, a second time for me. And it was great.
But the previews! If they emitted a smell, let me tell you, they’d have stunk to high heaven.
You know, I don’t recall that kids’ animated films used to rely on fart jokes as much as they do now. And it’s not Disney, either. Dreamworks, Universal and the rest are doing it, too.
He who smelt it dealt it
What, you may wonder, is so wrong about a little fart joke?
Why not just let the kids have their fun?
Those are good questions, sure. But what we are talking about here isn’t the mere existence of fart jokes in animated kids’ features. Disney characters have been passing gas en masse ever since Pumbaa first broke wind
My complaint is, rather, with the frequency of the farting in these films. It makes me wonder about how creativity level could be in a film that wastes so many precious minutes to flatulence. Yes, yes, I know the years of labor that goes into Pixar films — I read Ed Catmull’s book like everyone else?
But really: Cheap jokes are the mark of film that stinks. And what’s cheaper than a fart joke, after all?
This whole putrid topic makes me think of the comedian George Carlin, who once famously explained that “kids know farts are fun. Farts are shit without the mess.”
And there you have it.
For aNewDomain, I’m Dennis D. McDonald.
Below, find a couple of Dutch YouTube videos we found that round-up fart jokes in movies and animated films. Not for the squeamish:
An earlier version of this piece ran on Dennis D. McDonald’s DDMCD site. Check it out here. Ed.
