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Friday, June 25, 2010

“How Did I Get So Many Farts?!”

On Sunday, I blogged about a possible pop cultural connection between a pint-sized Japanese comic book character and a similarly small Batman character. Today I’m talking about that original pint-sizer once again. And farts.

So while the whole Batman thing grabbed me, it’s not that particular Black Jack comic that I will remember forever. There’s another one in which little Pinoko accidentally swallows a poison capsule and Black Jack must extract it from her before her digestive juices eat through the casing. He realizes that the only way he can flush the capsule from Pinoko’s body is to fill her digestive cavity with gas to blast the capsule into an area he can reach. Black Jack succeeds, of course, but as the recovering Pinoko is consequently very flatulent. This panel appears on the comic’s last page:


Being tired but unable to sleep and reading this comic at around two in the morning, I found this hilarious — not just the situation but the phrasing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone ask the question “How did I get so many farts?” but I’m sure many people have been in a situation in which it would have been appropriate.

It kept thinking about this at odd times, and it kept making me laugh. Eventually, it occurred to me that the line would make an amazing improv exercise in style of Mel Gibson’s “GIVE ME BACK MY SON!” line from Ransom.



(I hadn’t seen this video in a few years and upon rewatching it I’m surprised to see Office add-ons Ellie Kemper and Zach Woods in it. Way to graduate from YouTube, funny people!)

Imagine a group of people speaking this line in different ways to another person in the group. Both must keep a straight face. There’s so many directions you could take it. Confused. Forlorn. Inexplicably elated. Angry at God. Hysterical. Resigned. Awed by the miracles of nature. You can emphasize the I. You can emphasize the farts. You can emphasize the many You can say it like a fat southern sheriff. Or a valley girl. Or a grizzled prospector. Or a 50s housewife. Or a someone performing Shakespeare Or Jan Brady. Or Jerry Seinfeld. Or Shirley Temple. Or Mr. T.

The possibilities are endless.

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