Whoopee Cushion

Deadpool makes an ass out of Thanos.

"Whoopie cushion? What kind of big city, high-falutin' cushion is that? I get a family value Fart Bag and I enjoy it!"

— Jack Packard teasing Rich Evans on his preferred term, RedLetterMedia

Whoopee cushions are items that make a farting sound when someone sits or steps on them. Frequently used by The Prankster, and may be part of an April Fools' Day joke. They are a form of Toilet Humour, so people who use them are usually children or very immature adults. Compare Stink Bomb, which recreates the smell of a fart rather than the sound. Sub-trope of Grossout Fakeout.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• An episode of Doraemon has Suneo pranking Nobita by inviting the entire gang to a gathering at his house, and placing a whoopee cushion under Nobita's seat. Nobita retaliates by borrowing a gadget from Doraemon that makes Suneo fart for real, in front of Shizuka.
• Kon uses one of these on Ichigo in Bleach. Ichigo responds by throwing him through a window.

Fan Works

• Polaris Psyche becomes the victim of one placed by Jokey's "resurrected" father in the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Days Of Auld Lang Smurf".
• A Beetlejuice story, "Tricks and No Treats," had Beetlejuice framed for ticket scalping by Scuzzo the Clown. Lydia and Ginger (the tap-dancing spider) sneak over to Scuzzo's hideout where they tape-record Scuzzo telling his partner Fuzzo how he framed B.J. In returning to Doomie (Lydia and B.J.'s car), Lydia gives herself away after stepping on a whoopee cushion lying on the ground.

Films — Live Action

• Hairspray (2007): Tracy Turnblad's dad, Wilbur, sells Whoopee Cushions in his joke shop. When Edna thinks he's cheating and throws him out, he fashions a bed out of them on the storeroom floor. Tracy comes to rescue him and when he sits up, he presses on one of the cushions, which makes its signature noise.
  Tracy: Daddy!
  Wilbur: [lifts sheet covering the cushions] It wasn't me!
• One of the pranks used against Alfalfa and Darla in the 1994 The Little Rascals film.

Literature

• In Discworld novels, the Boffo Joke and Novelty Shop is described as the favored establishment of people who think a whoopee cushion is the last word in comedy, "which in many respects it is".
• Roys Bedoys: In “Christmas is the Season of Giving, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys gets a whoopee cushion for Christmas.

Live-Action TV

• On Supernatural, Castiel sat on such a cushion once. While giving a lecture on The Antichrist no less. "That wasn't me."
• In a 3rd Rock from the Sun episode where Dick was trying to understand humor, he sat Harry down in a chair with a whoopee cushion. Harry cluelessly responded to the farting noise by saying, "Excuse me," ruining the joke.
• Whoopee Cushions is a talking whoopee cushion whom Gonzo hires for the tribute show in The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
  • Turns up in the "Cheap-Laughs" sketch.
  • Mentioned in the sketch about Jean-Paul Sartre.
  Mrs Conclusion: What was Jean-Paul like?
  Mrs Premise: Well, you know, a bit moody. Yes, he didn't join in the fun much. Just sat there thinking. Still, Mr Rotter caught him a few times with the whoopee cushion.
• In the That '70s Show episode "Prank Day", Kelso uses one on Hyde. Hyde remarks: "A whoopee cushion? What are you, two? (presses the cushion, smiles) These things are great."
• One episode of The Golden Girls has Sophia decide to pull pranks all over the house after someone pranked her. She rigged a chair with a Whoopee Cushion that made a thundering noise, embarrassing Dorothy and Blanche when they sat on it (Blanche especially, after making comments about herself being "graceful and sophisticated"). To top it off, Sophia knew how not to set it off herself if she sat on it.
• On What's Happening!!, Roger did this to their teacher, Mrs. Collins. For good measure, he also put a bumper sticker reading "Don't Tailgate" on top of it, making it a double prank.
• On Are You Being Served? Mrs. Slocombe is greeted with one in her first day as "Mrs. Slocombe, Senior Person." It came with a note:
  Mrs. Slocombe: "I'm sure you'll be a big noise in Grace Brothers. (Beat) Signed, Mr. Lucas."
• In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "The Keystone Constables", Murodch is introduced to one of these by one of the vaudeville performers he's investigating. At the time, Murdoch doesn't seem to get the joke (or many of the other jokes, for that matter), but he later makes his own whoopee cushion and tricks Julia into sitting on it. Murdoch not only laughs heartily at Julia's reaction, he's also very pleased that his version worked so well.
• In one episode of Frasier Niles recounts the story of one night where a servant placed a whoopee cushion on Maris' chair. The prank failed because Maris, who is often stated to be alarmingly underweight, was too light to activate it.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Zelda, of all people, used one on an arrogant colleague and rival. When he pays her a visit so she can ask him for a formula he patented for one of her experiments, the first thing he does is return the whoopee cushion.

Toys

• Whoopsie Cushion from Transformers: BotBots transforms into one. She's able to create flatulent noises and then disappear quickly, leaving others to blame each other over the offending sounds.

Video Games

• In Cut the Rope, you can use whoopee cushions to move the candy.
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game: One of the Cursed Artifacts, the "Seat of Vapors Foul," was the result of a prankster binding a minor demon to a chair to create the effect.
• This is one of the pranks child and teen sims can play in the Generations expansion for The Sims 3.
• SPY Fox in: Dry Cereal begins with SPY Fox skydiving from an airplane without a parachute, and needing to use one of his spy gadgets to make a safe landing on the island of Acidophilus. One of the Gadgets SPY Fox can have with him is a Whoopee Cushion, which he can land on, after which it makes a rude sound.
  SPY Fox: Phew! Pardon me! That airline food will get you every time. That's certainly not the kind of entrance a super spy like myself normally makes.
• Terraria has Whoopie Cushions as a rare accessory drop from giant worm enemies. By itself it just adds a fart sound effect to a character's jumping, but one can be combined with the Cloud in a Bottle accessory to produce the Fart in a Jar, allowing the player to double jump to a fart sound^note which has the unironic advantage of being the second-best double jump accessory in the game. This item can in turn be combined with a Shiny Red Balloon for a Fart in a Balloon, then with a Lucky Horseshoe to make the Green Horseshoe Balloon, allowing a character to double-jump, jump higher, ignore Falling Damage... and make fart sounds when jumping.
• Undertale: Sans is fond of these. In fact, his Establishing Character Moment has him hiding one in his hand when he offers to shake, setting up his laid-back prankster personality.

Webcomics

• Alligator Loki (2022): In "Poster Children", Gabby ran away from the X-Men's living island of Krakoa after putting a whoopee cushion on Professor X's Quiet Council chair and subsequently being scolded by Logan and Laura, the two Wolverines. It seems that Krakoa itself found the joke pretty funny, though.

Web Original

• Minilife TV: In "Poking the Pilot", Chris and Ian prank Legondo's resident god, Goshua, by placing a whoopee cushion on his throne. Goshua gets his revenge on Chris and Ian by sending them through alternate timelines.

Western Animation

• Recess:
  • When TJ was trying ever more elaborate pranks on King Bob to prove he was worthy of being the Prankster Prince, TJ finally got him with a whoopee cushion. For maximum embarrassment, it was placed right next to an active microphone blasting the sound across the entire playground. Bob was impressed by the simplicity.
  • In another episode TJ proudly said that a whoopee cushion was his science project.
• American Dad!: When Stan opens a restaurant, he tries to make it as much fun as possible by placing whoopee cushions on each seat. When his first customer sits down, a farting noise is heard. The customer looks at Stan, who tells him, "That was a whoopee cushion." The customer replies, "No."
• In an episode of The Mr. Men Show, Miss Naughty uses some on Mr. Happy and Miss Sunshine.
  Mr. Rude: For once, that was not me.
• Used repeatedly by Fozzie on Muppet Babies (1984). Never to his peers' appreciation, of course.
• VeggieTales:
  • In "Sumo Of The Opera", the Italian Scallion (played by Larry the Cucumber) sits on a whoopee cushion that was placed on a stool, after his trainer Mikey (played by Pa Grape) tells him to sit down.
  • Jerry Gourd inadvertently sits on one of these in the episode "MacLarry And The Stinky Cheese Battle".
• In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "Practical Hoax", Jason and Midgel use one of these to prank Michelle.
• In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Mad Love", Harley declares, "Oh, sweetie, I got the whoopie cushion!" and squeezes it, providing a Visual Pun on her attempt to get Mistah J interested in "making whoopie".
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "28 Pranks Later", Rainbow Dash uses one on an unsuspecting Twilight Sparkle.
• Rotten Ralph:
  • The animated special Not-So-Rotten Ralph (adapted from the book of the same name) has a scene where Ralph attempts to prank his cousin Percy by putting a whoopee cushion in Percy's chair. Percy notices the whoopee cushion before he sits down, however, and instead puts the whoopee cushion in Ralph's chair before Ralph sits down.
  • In the animated series episode "Grandma's Visit", Ralph tries to annoy Sarah's grandma by preparing several pranks, only to fall victim to his own tricks or have the prank not work out as he intended. One of his attempts was to put a whoopee cushion in a chair where he intended Grandma to sit, which instead is sat in by Sarah's dad.
• The Loud House episode "Heavy Meddle" has sitting on a whoopee cushion during lunchtime being one of the pranks Lincoln suffers in the montage at the beginning.
• The Bunsen Is a Beast episode "Beast Busters" has Amanda Killman land butt-first onto a whoopee cushion she had lying on the floor.
• DC Super Hero Girls (2019) has Barbara intercept a whoopee cushion her dad was about to sit on in "#AcceptNoSubstitute", only to fall victim to it herself after putting it in her backpack. The whoopee cushion is later used by the Gordons to take out Bane.

Real Life

• The whoopee cushion apparently dates back to the Roman Empire.

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