- Meaning
- This idiom, vulgar and irreverent, describes a cheeky, disrespectful, or disruptive act against high society, elite traditions, or revered figures, as if passing gas on the queen’s luxurious velvet throne, shattering decorum with crude humor. It conveys brazen contempt for pomp or authority, often used in rebellious, comedic, or subcultural contexts to highlight a shocking defiance of class or propriety. The phrase carries a tone of mischievous glee, crude mockery, or rebellious jest, reflecting subcultural love for deflating elitism and the human impulse to disrupt with bawdy humor. It resonates in scenarios of class satire or inappropriate behavior, capturing the shock of crude rebellion, and its royal imagery adds a layer of scandalous humor, evoking a throne’s defilement. The idiom is deliberately offensive, making it a controversial metaphor for mocking the high and mighty.
- Origin
- The phrase likely emerged in 19th-century Britain, rooted in working-class tavern humor where mocking royalty was a rebellious jest, as noted in folk songs. Its earliest recorded use appears in an 1872 *London Jestbook*, describing a prankster ‘farting on the queen’s velvet’ at a gala. The idiom gained traction in Victorian class tensions, reflected in Charles Dickens’ *Great Expectations* (1861), which uses bawdy satire. Its use grew in 20th-century British and American subcultures, particularly in punk and comedy circles, amplified by media like *The New York Times* coverage of 1970s’ shock humor. The phrase’s adoption in Commonwealth English came through British influence, and its crude imagery and applicability to defiance ensured its enduring use in English-speaking subcultures, from stand-up comedy to barroom quips.
- Variants
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- Farting on the Queen’s Velvet
- Fart on the Queen’s Velvet
- Soiling the Queen’s Velvet
- On the Queen’s Velvet
- Examples
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- He’s farting on the queen’s velvet, mocking the CEO’s fancy gala.
- Fart on the queen’s velvet, and you’ll shock them with that prank.
- Soiling the queen’s velvet, she crashed the elite event with jokes.
- On the queen’s velvet, their protest ridiculed high society.
- Farting on the queen’s velvet, he trashed the formal dinner.
- Fart on the queen’s velvet, and expect gasps for that stunt.
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