An old saying teaches that one cannot live on the wind. At the end of the nineteenth century, the French artist Joseph Pujol proved that this is not necessarily true. Pujol made a living by farting in theaters. In England, the special artist was also jokingly called The Fartist.
Joseph Pujol was born in Marseille in 1857, the son of a bricklayer and sculptor of Catalan descent. After graduating from primary school, Pujol trained as a baker. In 1883 he married the mason’s daughter Elisabeth Olivier. Ten children were born from this marriage. His eldest son, Louis-Baptiste, later recorded several anecdotes about his father’s extraordinary life. In the mid-1960s, these memories were published by Jean Nohain and F. Caradec.
A special gift
Besides working in a bakery, before starting his career as a ‘farting king’, Pujol performed regularly in the variety theater as a singer and trombonist. One day Pujol noticed that he had the gift of controlling his anus in a special way. According to the surviving anecdotes, the Frenchman first discovered this during a swim in the sea. When he dived under the water and held his breath, Pujol was startled as water ran into his stomach through his rear. Startled, Pujol then dashed out of the sea, leaving a long trail of water behind. Finally, the Frenchman discovered that he could easily absorb water with his anus and then quickly discharge it again.
In 1887, Pujol took the stage for the first time as a ‘flatulist’, demonstrating to an undoubtedly amazed audience that he could fart as much as he wanted. In Marseille he soon grew into a great fame. Five years later, the Frenchman even moved to Paris where he gave regular performances in the famous cabaret theater Le Moulin Rouge. Pujol nicknamed himself Le Pétomane, a conjugation of the French word for ‘farting’: péter.
Fart Concerts
Just letting the wind blow was not enough for Pujol. He wanted to offer his spectators more and taught himself, among other things, to fart melodies and blow out candles with his winds. In Le Moulin Rouge, for example, he performed his own version of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise ” and was able to perform songs such as “O Sole Mio” and “Au clair de la lune”. Furthermore, Pujol could smoke a cigarette with his behind and play a whistle with it. The farts and fart concerts did Pujol no harm. In his heyday, he would have earned even more than the then very popular actress Sarah Bernhardt. In Le Courrier Français in 1892 the following was written about the artist:
“Had the fellow at first no money,
With his winds, it is said,
He also became wealthy.”
Le Pétomane was able to afford a luxury villa in Paris thanks to his performances. Private performances also brought in a lot of money. One of his greatest admirers was said to have been the Belgian King Leopold II, who often stayed incognito in Paris.
Joseph Pujol in 1900:
Medical science was also interested in the “case” Pujol. For example, in 1892 the physician Marcel Baudouin published an article in a medical journal in which he referred to the Frenchman as “An exceptional case of rectal aspiration combined with a musical anus”. In the piece he further noted:
“His appetite is excellent, his digestion is working as it should. No wind gas after meals, no excessive gas in the intestines, no belching.”
Baudouin suspected that Pujol couldn’t hold anything in his large intestine. Everything he took in through his anus, whether it was air or water, he had to let go immediately.
In 1895 Pujol parted ways with Le Moulin Rouge after a conflict. The theater director accused the Frenchman of performing outside the theater without permission. In Le Moulin Rouge, Pujol was succeeded by one Angele Thiebeau. She could also fart on command, but was unmasked after some time. Thiebeau had secretly hidden bellows under her skirts with which she artificially generated farts.
After his adventure in Paris, Pujol traveled through France for ten years with his own theater. During the First World War, two of his sons became invalids. After this, Pujol withdrew from the artist life. From 1914 he worked again in his bakery in Marseille. Later he started a biscuit factory in Toulon. Le Pétomane died on August 8, 1945 at the age of 88.
Several (short) films about Pujol’s life have been made. Well-known is, for example, Le Pétomane by the English director Ian MacNaughton.
Mr. Methane
Joseph Pujol is not the only ‘petoman’ or ‘flatulist’ in history. In Great Britain, for example, one Paul Oldfield has been earning a living for some time by farting on stage. This under the stage name Mr. Methane. In the twelfth century one Roland the Farter was also active in England. According to ancient sources, it performed annually at the court of the English king Henry II. He was also reportedly able to fart on command.
