One of the more fun than useful applications available in Apples App store for the iPhone is iFart. It does what it says on the tin and produces a fart sound from the iPhone. Great fun at parties if you go to that kind of party, but like the whoopie cushion before it, it soon loses its amusement quotient and becomes downright bloody annoying.

I’ve seen a comment about this application along the lines of “I wish I could generate a profitable business based on the hilarity of farting”, and it reminded me of Joseph Pujol.

Joseph was a big hit in 19th century France and throughout Europe. Known as Le Petomane he was described as a “Fartiste”, famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles, which enabled him to fart at will. He was a star attraction at The Moulin Rouge where he commanded a fee of 20,000 francs per show.
Some of the highlights of his stage act involved sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms, as well as playing ‘O Sole Mio and La Marseillaise on an ocarina through a rubber tube in his anus. He could also blow out a candle from several yards away.
The climax of his act was a farting impression of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

With the outbreak of World War I, Pujol, horrified by the inhumanity of the conflict, retired from the stage and returned to his bakery in Marseille. Later he opened a biscuit factory in Toulon. He died in 1945, aged 88, and was buried in the cemetery of La Valette-du-Var, where his grave can still be seen today. The Sorbonne offered his family a large sum of money to study his body after his death, but they refused the offer.

For the best account of Joseph Pujol’s life and career read Le Petomane, A Tribute to the Unique Stage Act That Shook and Shattered the Moulin Rouge and the World (Hardcover)