Joseph Pujol (Le Pétomane) - a man of music and no ordinary fart

Name: Joseph Pujol
Born: 1st June 1857
Profession: Flatulist or Professional Farter
Stage name: Le Pétomane

Joseph Pujol was a man born with an extraordinary gift. "I have a vacuum cleaner anus", he once explained. "My anus has such elasticity that I open it and close it at will".

In the army he demonstrated his 'vacuum cleaner anus' by using it to suck water up a tube from a bowl.

Upon leaving the army, he decided that his fortune clearly lay in his backside, and in 1887 he took to the Marseille stage where he regaled his audiences with his farting impressions of musical instruments.

Soon wind was breaking of a unique and rare talent. He moved to Paris, and in 1892 performed at the famous Moulin Rouge.

Audiences were intoxicated! One lady, bowelled over by the furious flow of forensic fumes from his flatulent fundament, needed medical attention. Soon the theatre management had to have a nurse on permanent stand-by.

His farting repertoire included renditions of La Marseillaise and O Sole Mio. And among his growing army of anal admirers were the Prince of Wales, King Leopold of Belgium, and Sigmund Freud. 

Le Pétomane continued farting until the outbreak of war in 1914 and after the war he retired. 

After his death in 1945 a Paris medical school offered 25,000 francs for his famous anus. But his eldest son Louis refused, saying: "There are some things in life which should simply be treated with reverence".