Brian Posehn has a thing for farts—and he wants to share. Hell, his last two comedy albums are titled Fart and Wiener Jokes and The Fartist, and the bulk of his material can be boiled down to the basic idea that flatulence is funny. It’s simplistic stuff, for sure, but there’s something endearing about Posehn’s sophomoric outlook, which also focuses on subjects like weed and masturbation. But Posehn, the self-professed science-fiction and heavy-metal maniac, is 48 years old, and as he explains on The Fartist, it’s time to let go of such childish things. He doesn’t get high anymore, and he masturbates much less frequently, leading him to compare weed and his wiener to Buzz and Woody from Toy Story 3. (“They’re like, ‘What happened? You used to play with us all the time!'”)
So, yeah, he’s grown up a little, but that doesn’t make him any less funny. Posehn is your old nerdy high school friend who’s the same dude he was when he was 17 and somehow still likeable. Much smarter than he lets on and one of hell of a storyteller, Posehn owned the grungier LA bars during the alt-comedy boom of the mid-90s, and that’s where his style remains best served. His stand-up deals in bathroom-graffiti witticisms and boozy tall tales and pairs best with a cheap beer or three—because even when he broaches serious subjects, this is proudly puerile stuff. Together his laconic delivery and trademark snarky tone always hint at a fart joke lurking around the corner. On The Fartist, after expressing fear that his son will grow up targeted by bullies like he did, Posehn explains how passing gas worsens when you’re pushing 50: “Every fart smells like the final fart.” Some things never change. —Drew Hunt