the.com/whoopee cushion
The sound of comedy's lowest common denominator, still landing after a century.
means An inflatable rubber bag that makes a farting noise when someone sits on it — a prank device designed to turn a quiet moment into a humiliating one.
from The device traces to the 1920s, reportedly developed by employees at the JEM Rubber Company in Toronto experimenting with scrap rubber sheeting — the kind used for medical cushions — when they noticed the air escaping made a rude, sputtering sound. The idea was supposedly pitched to Johnson Smith & Co., a famed American novelty company, though lore says Walt Disney himself turned it down first for being too crude before it found a happy home in gag catalogs. 'Whoopee' itself was slang for boisterous fun or illicit pleasure — as in 'making whoopee' — so the name simply married a word for good times to the sound of bodily betrayal.
- invented by
- JEM Rubber Co, pitched the idea to Disney
- disney passed
- deemed too vulgar, then copied it anyway
- ancient roots
- Romans allegedly used inflated animal bladders similarly
- real name
- poo-poo cushion in early patent filings