Disney’s 1994 animated film The Lion King is known for its beautiful animation, emotional storytelling, and unforgettable soundtrack. It tells a powerful story of responsibility and love, but it also includes a lighter side—fart jokes.
The jokes, mostly centered around the character Pumbaa, a goofy warthog, are part of the film’s humor. Pumbaa is paired with Timon, a quick-witted meerkat voiced by Nathan Lane. Lane recently revealed that the fart jokes were largely the work of Pumbaa’s voice actor, Ernie Sabella.
On SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Lane shared how Sabella would make fart noises during early morning recording sessions to help wake him up and get him in a funnier mood. “We’d be recording very early, and we were tired,” Lane explained. “I’d be having coffee, and Ernie would just start making fart noises in the middle of the session—he’d say, ‘Timon,’ followed by a fart noise. It was his way of getting me to laugh and get started. They ended up putting it in the movie, which is why Pumbaa is the first flatulent character in a Disney film.”
But the fart jokes weren’t the only improvisations that made it into the final film. The chemistry between Sabella and Lane led to other humorous moments. Sabella’s voice for Pumbaa, a mix of actor Wallace Beery and The Godfather’s Michael Corleone, paired with Lane’s Brooklyn-style voice for Timon, resulted in many funny lines.
Lane recalls one improvised line: “I must have had a long day, but I said, ‘What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?’” Lane laughed. “And for some reason, they turned that into a song.”
