Friday, a reporter from the Canadian National Post detailed the history of how the whoopee cushion accidentally came to be. Until recently it was assumed that Americans had invented the greatest farting gag.

[JEM Rubber Co.] produced parts for printing companies. In the late 1920s, it moulded an inflatable bag that farted. Possibly it was meant to be a balloon. Back then, balloons were made of heavy rubber…

The whoopee cushion was a sensation, even during the Depression. Hundreds of thousands sold…