Toilet Humour - The Crapper Loo Sets The Record Straight

Toilet humour sprang to mind, upon my recent visit to my favourite local pub, and the privy. The embossed logo inside the bowl read "Crapper"; and I started giggling.

The Crapper Loo company logo emblazoned across the cistern read; "Crapper's Valveless Waste Preventer: No 814."

Is this the origin of the word ...?

Curiosity aroused, I went back to my table of revellers, and regaled them with my astonishing new knowledge of toilet invention.

Clearly, there was a connection between our colloquial expressions, and this English company that established itself in 1861. Did Thomas Crapper invent the toilet? One of my companions disagreed, and said that was an urban legend. Another companion stated it was a true fact, and has been proven.

Confused, and uncertain of the answers, I knew a mystery needed solving. Like Scooby Doo, I was on it; determined to set the record straight.

To solve this mystery, I'm bringing into the room; Thomas Crapper; Jeremy Paxman, host of BBC2's University Challenge; New Zealand satirist, Wallace Reyburn; the US First World War Army Personnel who were stationed in the U.K.; and the team from Trivial Pursuit.

What Scooby Saw

Jeremy Paxman's researchers on University Challenge are rather meticulous about their facts. Recent practice questions for 2010 reveal that the phrase connected with toilet deposits, has nothing, whatsoever to do with Thomas Crapper.

In fact, Thomas Crapper's company were top providers of sanitary ware; they were given Royal Warrant contracts. The assertion that Thomas Crapper's company invented the 'flushing' aspect of toilet systems was another falsehood. He was merely, incredibly successful, at marketing the new "water-wasting prevention system syphon".

Who benefitted from these lies?

Here things get controversial. Wallace Reyburn, a 20th century New Zealand satirist, wrote a dedicated biography about Thomas Crapper. Called Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper; it contained that the origin of the word 'crap' came from the name of the man who invented the flushing toilet.

Urban Legend

Upon publication of this book in 1971; American readers spoke up that in World War I, personnel stationed in the UK would see Thomas Crapper's toilets in public houses; and presumably laugh so hard so as to forget to put their trousers back on. There are no facts to support this story, but one can see how legends grow.

Thelma Investigates

Looking further into the life of Mr Wallace Reyburn; his second book; released in the same year as Flushed; was called Bust Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling. This pun on the saying, two-tits-in-a-sling, convinced Trivial Pursuit staff to put this as the correct answer to the question; Who invented the brassiere?

Trivial Pursuit staff mistook this for truth, as Bette Middler had sung a song about Titzling; in 1988, for her smash hit film Beaches. So much for fact checking.

A pattern was beginning to emerge. Had Wallace Reyburn done it all for publicity? To launch himself as an author of satirical repute, mired in controversy from day one?

Fred Says ...

In Scooby Doo, Fred is always the one who brings the mystery together. Often, exposing prior knowledge that would have unravelled the mystery from the beginning.

"Crap" originated from 11th century medieval Latin; crappa or chaff. Old French adopted the synergy, crappe, to define waste matter. Middle English speakers used chaff to define weeds, later 15th century speakers extended the definition to include water waste.

Mystery Solved

The word came back into vogue in the 1840's in England, as a definition for excrement. Thomas Crapper was only four years old then, and probably never wanted his surname, associated with slang. Imagine the bullying.

So, Wallace Reyburn did it.

There's always a funny bit at the end of Scooby Doo, and a bit of moralising from Daphne.

To set the record straight, it wasn't the caretaker who did it, or in this case, expert plumber, Thomas Crapper.

The Crapper Loo was a seriously good company, run by a man who made the best comeback from having a childhood surname that, unfortunately, became slang four years after he was born.