Notable directors who loved to tweak the censors in days past (such as Tex Avery or certainly Bob Clampett) might have been able to insert such gassy foolishness into their cartoons, but never did. They never really needed to, because they themselves were comedians who understood their art and knew how to entertain audiences without resorting to coarseness. Chuck Jones, perhaps the most revered name in American animation, relied on wit, timing, and character, concepts that seem to demand further study in today's animation schools.

An example: Jones' creation Pepe LePew may have been a walking stink bomb but his stench was, in fact, peripheral to the humor in his cartoons. The biggest laughs came from Pepe's enormously amorous ego, which prevented him from seeing the deadly effect his odor had on the females he pursued. Pepe simply considered every fleeing damsel to be playing hard-to-get. Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain inspired Jones; today's directors seem to be inspired by Le Petomane.

In the end (so to speak), flatulence is really not funny. Not as funny as Donald Duck struggling in vain with a recalcitrant carnival game. Not as funny as Jerry mucking up a house way faster than Tom can possibly clean it up. Not as funny as Bugs baking a cake in a blur of motion and frosting it just in time for his staggering adversary to fall on it face first. Farting is nothing more than an involuntary passing of gas, a biological function common to all of us. The humor of farting would supposedly be found in the social embarrassment it causes. However, none of this exists in the cartoons I've seen; characters simply fart for laughs. Thus, the use of the fart is not very imaginative. Not as imaginative as Felix the Cat's metamorphoses, Bimbo's harrowing initiation into a secret club controlled by an army of Betty Boops, or Mickey Mouse's musical mishaps in Fantasia. So, with neither humor nor imagination in play, what have you got left?

Ask yourself, reader -- would a few well-timed farts have enhanced even one of the above examples? Had cartoons been missing something special all along until now? Somehow I think not. Making kids or audiences of any age giggle can be accomplished by other means that blasting farts at them. Writing well-constructed, funny stories and combining them with goofy and engaging animation might be a good route to consider, and I beseech those being trained in the industry today to give it a try before resorting to cutting the cheese. After all, it worked for Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett.

An earlier version of this column originally appeared on the TOON Magazine website. Since farts remain an overworked and problematic device in cartoons, I updated the piece for AWN readers.

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.