Stranger Things Once Had A Farting Issue On Set That Led To An Evacuation

There's nothing funnier to a preteen boy than farts. Hell, there's nothing funnier to most grown-up dudes than farts. Farting is just funny to us. We're hardwired to find passing gas the height of comedy and, judging by me, my circle of friends, and growing up around gassy grandfathers, that's a trait that spans generations, probably going back to the caveman days. I wouldn't be surprised if there are cave drawings of woolly mammoths blasting ass that cracked up that whole tribe on a daily basis.

So, it shouldn't be shocking to you that when they were filming the first season of "Stranger Things," which had a cast composed of mostly young boys, that there was something of a farting issue on the set. And one time, early on in the filming process, that problem escalated to a near emergency.

I've been lucky enough to have visited many movie and TV sets during my time writing about pop culture on the internet, and I can vouch that even around visiting press, the younger cast can't resist letting rip. I spent a couple of days on the set of Michael Dougherty's "Krampus" and while the bigger stars like Adam Scott and Toni Collette would pop in and out to film their scenes, the kids in the cast would come to hang out at the monitors with their parents, the director, and visiting bloggers like myself.

I wasn't going to out him, but enough time has passed that it's fair game, but the kid protagonist of that movie, Emjay Anthony, was very much into grossing out the girls with his constant pooting. So much so that I came to expect some crop dusting every time he'd leave to film his next scene. 

The point is, this is common, and The Duffer Brothers had their hands full that first season. Back in 2016, they had a recurring column on EW.com to share behind-the-scenes stories from each episode and that's where they revealed that the boys farting became such a problem that they had to evacuate the set. As they wrote:

"We're shooting a scene in the abandoned bus, and one of the boys decides to fart. More than once. It became so toxic in the bus that the crew had to temporarily evacuate. We had a pep talk the next day that basically boiled down to: 'We're right at the end. Don't drop the ball. Let's bring this home.' Generic middle school sports coach speech, we know, but it worked. After our little talk, the boys rallied together, 'Focus!'-ed, and did some of their best, most emotional work on the show. We're proud of them for so many reasons, and this is one of them. It's such a great group of future stars. Farting aside."

Now I want to know who the culprit was! We had Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo in that scene (Noah Schnapp was busy chilling in the Upside Down for most of that season). So, who was it? They all have the potential to be the culprit, but my prime suspect is Finn Wolfhard. He just seems like he's guilty, you know?

C'mon, Duffers. I outed Emjay Anthony as a serial bottom burper. Quid pro quo, Duffers. Quid pro quo.