Spinal Tap II's 'tasteless' farting prop sends Michael McKean's David St. Hubbins into a meltdown...

&34;Bless our hearts, we all do it.&34; Spinal Tap II's 'tasteless' farting prop sends Michael McKean's David St. Hubbins into a meltdown (exclusive)

"Bless our hearts, we all do it."

Spinal Tap II's 'tasteless' farting prop sends Michael McKean's David St. Hubbins into a meltdown (exclusive)

"Bless our hearts, we all do it."

By Mike Miller

Mike Miller

Mike Miller is the executive editor on the movies team at . He previously worked as a writer-reporter for PEOPLE and TMZ.

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September 12, 2025 9:30 a.m. ET

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Spinal Tap's stage production has officially crossed that fine line between clever and stupid in an exclusive clip from the new sequel, *Spinal Tap II: The End Continues* — at least according to the band's lead singer, David St. Hubbins.

The scene, debuting with * *alongside the film's theatrical release today, shows the band, reunited after a lengthy hiatus, practicing for an upcoming reunion show. As Hubbins (played by Michael McKean) leads the band in a rendition of their hit "Big Bottoms," a familiar stage prop is raised behind him: the giant skull previously seen in the first film and subsequent Tap performances.

But in the sequel, directed by (and costarring) Rob Reiner, there's a twist: As the skull spins, it's revealed that its backside is a literal backside, in homage to the lyrics of the song, which is a celebration of large derrieres. The real stupidity comes, though, when, as Hubbins sings, the prop lets out a giant, smoky fart — much to the singer's chagrin.

"That's not clever!" a disgusted Hubbins tells a stage manager, who responds sharply: "Farts are funny."

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer in 'Spinal Tap II'.

Bleecker Street

"I really think that he thought it was a tasteless way to go," McKean tells **. "He finds himself swimming against this stream, as he often does. David has pretensions to artistic merit that he really can't deliver. He's not an artist, but he doesn't know what he likes."

Tracing the evolution of the skull prop, McKean says, "Well, the original skull, of course, was just the skull with the horns. It was in the 1984 film, and we retained possession of it for a while. And we played a gig up in Seattle called the Bumbershoot Festival, which was the last show that we did before we kind of went out of the Spinal Tap business for a while until '91.

"But we left the skull up there in Seattle, and we said, 'You guys have been so nice to us here, you take this enormous white elephant off our hands.' And apparently, it showed up in somebody's backyard and was there for years until it fell apart."

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McKean notes that the skull's appearance in Seattle suspiciously corresponds to the advent of the grunge scene in the area. "We like to think it was just as Seattle rock was really taking off in '89 and '90. I think it had something to do with the skull having been parked there since 1984".

Another skull was then created for the band's '92 tour, which included a rotation during "Big Bottom" that is similar to what is seen in the clip above. "The skull would rotate kind of north to south into something like this. And there was steam and other things. It was pretty grim at that point. I think someone more erudite and Noël Carrollian than I came up with the idea of a huge fart joke. But bless our hearts, we all do it."

Before he's interrupted by the flatulence, Hubbins belts out a portion of "Big Bottoms" in the clip alongside bandmates Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls). The music in the scene, and much of the film, was recorded live on set.

"We did some fixes," McKean says. "We are imperfect musicians, or I'm speaking for myself. We all goof up sometimes. So we did a few fixes when we mixed the film. But you're hearing a live performance. We've gotten to where it's second nature when it has to be, and we can be free and improvise a little bit. And it's a lot of fun when we get it."

Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Rob Reiner in 'This Is Spinal Tap'.

Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

A lot of fun, and very funny. After all these years with the band, and after starring in a number of Guest-directed improvised films, does McKean ever catch himself breaking character and giving in to laughter?

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"Listen, you can see it. There are times you can see us break, yes. But you gotta be looking, and we control it somewhat because you don't want to screw up the take. But it's difficult. It's difficult when you're working with people like Fred Willard. In the original film, when we go to the Air Force base and encounter Fred Willard's character, all of us are struggling so, so hard. Same thing with Paul Benedict, who is the hotel clerk. A brilliant actor and a great friend, and he just killed us. It was very, very hard."

McKean also includes Guest company veterans Jennifer Coolidge and Catherine O'Hara as some of the toughest scene partners when it comes to not breaking.

"They're so invested, they'll never break in a million years, you know?" he adds.

See how McKean and the rest of the gang fare at keeping it together amid the jokes in *Spinal Tap II: The End Continues*, in theaters now.

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Source: "AOL Movies"

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