‘Respectfully, I am grateful to the test audiences on this one’: ‘Barbie’ viewers stunned by Greta Gerwig’s cut ‘fart opera’

There is perhaps nothing on this Earth more bizarre than the eldritch machinations of the modern-day auteur; indeed, we’re not quite sure what it would be like to peer into the raw psychology of such figures as Wes Anderson or Hideo Kojima, but we reckon it would be far beyond a life-changing experience.

The same goes for Greta Gerwig, the socially-incisive mastermind behind 2023’s blockbuster queen Barbie, whose box office triumphs are matched only by its accompanying critical acclaim. Suffice to say, then, that Gerwig’s inner process is the stuff of filmmaking dreams, given her ability to delight audiences as effectively as she challenges them.

It’s all the more confounding, then, that the same mind that served up Barbie, Little Women, and Lady Bird apparently can’t get enough of fart jokes, which perhaps speaks to the incomprehensible wonders of the elite artistic mind more than anything. Either way, upon hearing that Barbie nearly featured a Gerwig-schemed “fart opera,” the denizens of r/Fauxmoi were equal parts baffled by its would-be existence and thankful for the cutting room decisions.

Indeed, though she’s probably one of the few filmmakers today that deserves to indulge her ego, Gerwig’s ability to resist doing so has almost certainly done her résumé a whole lot of favors.

Of course, this isn’t an impulse exclusive to Gerwig; we may all have our vices, but the sentiment is especially true for filmmakers.

But for those whose curiosity is eating them alive as a result of this news, there may be hope yet.

And for all we know, the fart opera is just the tip of the iceberg; considering how Gerwig has been known to write scripts that far exceed 300 pages, who’s to say what else could have possibly drifted around the inner Barbie zeitgeist at one point or another? Whatever could have possibly been the case, it’s safe to say that the final cut of Barbie was one of the greatest accomplishments of Gerwig’s career, and we can’t wait to see what she does next so long as her fart joke obsession is kept in line.

Barbie is now playing in theaters.