The History of British Toilet Humor Over the Last 100 Years
Toilet humor, or “lavatorial” humor as it is sometimes called, has long held a unique place in British comedy. Over the last century, the British have embraced the absurd, the crude, and the downright ridiculous aspects of human bodily functions to craft humor that can be surprisingly witty, playful, and culturally significant. Understanding the history of British toilet humor requires exploring its cultural context, the evolving societal attitudes toward such humor, and the enduring legacy it leaves in popular culture.
Early 20th Century: Victorian Influences and Wartime Laughter
In the early 20th century, British humor was heavily influenced by Victorian prudishness. Discussions about bodily functions were largely taboo in polite society, but this didn’t stop toilet humor from existing in private conversations and informal gatherings. Humor that played on bodily functions was seen as vulgar and improper for public consumption, but it thrived in spaces where people could relax from the stiff upper lip of society — public houses, soldiers’ barracks, and among working-class communities.
During both World Wars, toilet humor found fertile ground. Soldiers in the trenches of World War I, facing unspeakable conditions, turned to humor to cope with the horrors around them. Among the jokes, the grotesque nature of human waste became a subject of shared experience and, thus, shared laughter. The latrines of the trenches became a recurring topic, a unifying element in their grim reality. This humor wasn’t just scatological; it was a form of resilience, a way to laugh in the face of death, disease, and discomfort.
After the wars, toilet humor continued to bubble just under the surface of mainstream culture. It was more common in working-class settings, where the distance from the snobbery of polite society allowed for a more relaxed attitude toward bodily functions.
The Mid-20th Century: The Emergence of Toilet Humor in British Comedy
The 1950s and 1960s saw a loosening of societal constraints, which gave rise to new forms of entertainment and comedy. British comedians began to experiment with risqué humor, and toilet humor slowly made its way into the mainstream through vaudeville performances and radio shows. One of the pioneers of this shift was the satirical radio program The Goon Show, which ran from 1951 to 1960. Created by Spike Milligan and starring Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, the show was a mix of absurdity and subversive wit, often delving into scatological humor that would have been unthinkable in earlier years. Milligan, in particular, relished in the use of toilet humor to puncture the self-importance of British society.
By the 1960s, television had become a powerful force in British entertainment, and toilet humor began creeping into sitcoms and sketch shows. Carry On films, which began in 1958, became infamous for their crude humor, often involving jokes about bodily functions, innuendos, and farcical situations. The slapstick nature of Carry On perfectly suited the use of toilet humor, allowing audiences to laugh at what was still considered “low” humor while relishing its cheeky rebellion against societal norms.
The 1970s introduced new comedic voices to British television, with Monty Python’s Flying Circus being perhaps the most influential. The Pythons used surrealism, absurdity, and a keen awareness of societal taboos to craft humor that included clever jabs at bodily functions. Their infamous “Mr. Creosote” sketch in The Meaning of Life (1983), where a grotesquely obese man explodes after eating one last wafer-thin mint, is a prime example of British toilet humor taken to its extreme. It wasn’t just about the crudeness, but also the social commentary on gluttony, excess, and the grotesque.
Late 20th Century: Toilet Humor as a Staple of British Pop Culture
By the late 20th century, British toilet humor had firmly established itself in mainstream entertainment, often blending vulgarity with wit in a way that felt quintessentially British. Shows like Bottom (1991–1995), created by comedians Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, took toilet humor to new levels of absurdity. The show was unapologetically crude, with fart jokes, toilet mishaps, and general bodily dysfunctions as its central comedic devices. Yet beneath the crass exterior, there was a cleverness to how it played with societal frustrations and the repressed British psyche. The protagonists of Bottom were outcasts, downtrodden and alienated, and their frequent encounters with the gross and the absurd were a reflection of the broader disillusionment of the working-class British experience.
At the same time, toilet humor was finding a home in more mainstream and “family-friendly” entertainment. The Blackadder series, particularly its third and fourth iterations, often used toilet humor in a more refined way, blending scatological jokes with sharp historical satire. Rowan Atkinson, the star of both Blackadder and Mr. Bean, became a master at employing physical comedy to create toilet humor without even needing to speak. In Mr. Bean, bathroom mishaps became a recurring theme, delighting audiences without relying on dialogue to convey the absurdity of Bean’s situations.
The 21st Century: Postmodernism and the Globalization of British Toilet Humor
As British comedy entered the 21st century, toilet humor continued to evolve, often becoming more self-aware and ironic. Shows like The Inbetweeners (2008–2010) brought toilet humor to a new generation, using it as a tool to explore the awkwardness and embarrassment of adolescence. Here, toilet humor wasn’t just about getting a laugh — it was about character development, using bodily mishaps to highlight the insecurities and immaturity of the teenage characters.
Meanwhile, British comedians like Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant used toilet humor more sparingly, but with great effect in The Office (2001–2003). The character of David Brent, played by Gervais, often made inappropriate jokes involving bodily functions, but the humor wasn’t in the toilet jokes themselves — it was in the cringe-inducing way Brent used them to try and seem relatable. This marked a shift in British toilet humor, where the joke was often about how socially unacceptable the humor itself was.
In more recent years, British toilet humor has become a global export, thanks to the widespread popularity of British comedy worldwide. Shows like Fleabag (2016–2019), created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, use toilet humor in a postmodern way, blending it with deep emotional storytelling. In one memorable scene, the protagonist (played by Waller-Bridge) has a bowel movement while maintaining eye contact with the camera, breaking the fourth wall and making the audience complicit in the joke. It’s a perfect example of how toilet humor, once considered lowbrow, has been elevated to a tool for introspection and commentary on human vulnerability.
Toilet Humor as a Reflection of British Culture
Over the last 100 years, toilet humor in Britain has transformed from being a private, vulgar form of entertainment to a staple of mainstream comedy. It has evolved alongside British society, reflecting changing attitudes toward bodily functions, class, and the human condition itself. What remains consistent is the uniquely British way of using toilet humor — not just to make people laugh, but to explore the absurdity of life itself. Whether in the trenches of war, the absurdity of a Monty Python sketch, or the awkward moments of teenage life in The Inbetweeners, British toilet humor continues to endure, delighting audiences with its blend of crudeness, wit, and insight into the messy realities of being human.
