Battle at Thunderblow: The Great Crepitation Contest of 1946

By Sean Percival on November 4th, 2008

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Holy crepitation Batman!  Is it thunder?  Is it an earthquake? No!  It’s the Battle at Thunderblow, otherwise known as The Greatp Crepiation Contest of 1946.  So now you’re asking what the heck ‘crepitation’ means, right?  Well, according to the online Wiktionary, crepitation is defines as “The act of crepitating or crackling; A grating or crackling sensation or sound, as that produced by rubbing two fragments of a broken bone together, or by pressing upon cellular tissue containing air; A crepitant rale.”  OK, so in layman’s terms … what is it?  To put it bluntly, it’s a fart.  Yes, you read that right, farting can also be known as crepitation.

So it appears that in 1940 a recording was made as an inside joke in Toronto, Canada, at “Red” Foster’s Studios by some CBS personnel.  While not originally intended for distribution, some 12″ 78 rpm masters were pressed and distributed as premiums to Columbia Records distributors.  These have apparently become very hard to find, and we give a great hat tip to Rand’s Esoteric OTR for preserving this media online!  So, without further ado, we present for your listening and laughing pleasure, the Great Crepitiation Contest of 1946.  All credits known appear after the embedded player.

Produced by: Sidney S. Brown (CBS Sports announcer)
Assistant Producer: Jules Lipton (CBS producer)
Recording date: Late 1940
Recording Studio: “Red” Foster’s Studios on Alcorn Ave., Toronto, Canada
Dubbed by: Columbia Records, 1947
Cover Art: Alex Steinweiss (Columbia Records graphic artist)
Release canceled by: Ted Wallerstein (CBS president)