Talk:Whoopee cushion

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i think the whoopee cushion was invented by Antoine Lavoisier!!! tommylommykins 18:47, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

Does the last sentence need restructuring? Can an era be 'opened'? Perhaps better terminology might be 'The new technology era allowed the development of...' or something similar? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djmorison (talk • contribs) 12:57, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

What is the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of this device? I'm guessing it's a blown idiophone (14), albeit not falling into any of the more specific categories. Does this sound right? — Smjg (talk) 23:37, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Aug 31 2022 edit is factually incorrect
An edit was made on August 31 2022 to assert that Whoopi Goldberg was the inventor of the whoopee cushion in 1930, however the actress was born in 1955. This seems to be a disingenuous edit made in bad faith in an attempt at humor. 98.1.121.34 (talk) 19:36, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

Early whoopee cushions?
This has been discussed at Reference_desk/Humanities (Dec 26, 2022), part of which is copied below:

"...a factoid repeated on many websites, including Wikipedia's article on Whoopee cushion#History and modern usage (since 2010). The claim's cited book source does indeed mention Roman Emperor Elagabulus' ...practice of seating [...] his guests on 'whoopee cushions' that let out a farting noise but when I checked that book's primary source, Historia Augusta (English translation here, lines 25:2–3 (Latin available by clicking 🇻🇦), it tells a slightly different story: Some of his humbler friends he would seat on air-pillows instead of on cushions and let out the air while they were dining, so that often the diners were suddenly found under the table. The Roman emperor's prank here being not the sound of flatulence, but that the seated unexpectedly found themselves lowered below the table".

In view of this, it seems in order to delete the whole misleading entry. Also the reference to the emir and his inflated cushions is not viewable on Google Books (to me at any rate) and the concencus amongst the Reference Desk editors was that an animal skin seems unlikely to make the required raspberry noise and is therefore not the same joke. So I propose to delete all the text about early whoopee cushions and go with an invention date of the 1930s. Your comments below please. Alansplodge (talk) 18:36, 27 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The cited book page is viewable on Google Books via this link or in its entirety by borrowing on Archive.org – Vuccala 22:21, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes I agree to remove this ancient history section as I did pretty much the same thing as you and found the source here (page 379) was talking about a collapsible seat in the form of a sack and not a whoopee cushion.
 * The reference in Warwick ball's book was found on page 464 not 412 as quoted saying:
 * "With the more lurid details stripped away, there are some details that have a ring of truth and even bring out a more likeable side to Elagabalus’ character. He had an endearing propensity for practical jokes, for example, such as his practice of seating his more pompous dinner guests on ‘whoopee cushions’ that let out a farting noise, or placing his drunk dinner guests after they had fallen asleep into a room with wild, but (unknown to the guests) perfectly tamed and harmless, beasts."
 * Which I believe to be slightly incorrect. Flightofbird (talk) 02:31, 10 April 2024 (UTC)