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Of American-English origin, the colloquial phrase bathroom humor (also bathroom humour), and variants such as lavatory humor (also lavatory humour), designate crude humour centring chiefly on bodily functions.
The variant lavatorial humour occurs, for example, in the following from the television programmes published in The Press and Journal (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) of Friday 12th October 2007 [page 2, column 1]:
BBC ONE […] 1.30 FILM: Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) Bawdy laughs and lavatorial humour abound in this chaotic comedy about a strike at a toilet factory. Kenneth Williams and Sid James star.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase bathroom humor and variants that I have found:
1-: From the column A Number of Things, by the U.S. author Charles Hanson Towne (1877-1949), published in the San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California, USA) of Saturday 14th November 1931 [page 13, column 3]:
I think it is a good thing that we have got away from the stupidity of calling a woman’s legs her “limbs.” But the craze for bathroom humor, to put it mildly, seems to have gone a bit too far. I doubt if I should leave a theater nowadays in the midst of some bawdy scene, no matter how shocked my sensibilities might be.
2-: From the following review, by Claude A. La Belle, published in The San Francisco News (San Francisco, California, USA) of Saturday 4th June 1932 [page 5, column 1]:
That new vaudeville policy at the Orpheum seems to be doing the trick for the box office. The crowd that assembled for this week’s show was like the first night of “Cimarron” and no one seemed disappointed. On the contrary, everything was applauded, even a news reel episode.
Olson and Johnson, maniacs de luxe, headed the bill, carrying a big act that satisfied in every direction. Some of their material was pretty indigo, being in the bathroom humor class, but the crowd loved it and wanted more.
3-: From a letter, by one Frank Scrrentino, published in the Daily News (New York City, New York, USA) of Saturday 30th July 1932 [page 10, column 3]:
Manhattan: A moron is a person whose brain slowed down before he reached the age of 12. He is ruled by sentiment, prejudice, old sayings and things nonsensical. He does exactly what he sees other imbeciles doing and never stops to inquire whether there is a good cause for his actions. His sparrow brain runs along the lines (or shall I say sewers?) of sex, murder, comic strips and lavatory humor.
4-: From a review of Black Mischief (1932), a novel by the British author Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)—review by the British author and journalist Cecil Roberts (1892-1976), published in The Sphere. The Empire’s Illustrated Weekly (London, England) of Saturday 8th October 1932 [page 64, column 3]:
It is a lively skit, a little too inclined to lavatory humour, but it has moments of shrewdness, and the satire is not confined to the coloured races.
5-: From the Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon, USA) of Monday 2nd April 1934 [page 18, column 6]:
“George White’s Scandals,” now at the Paramount theater, is just what its name indicates—a Broadway musical show transferred to the screen. It consists of song and dance numbers and comedy sketches, held together loosely by a thin backstage story. […]
[…]
In an effort to give the production a spicy Broadway flavor the gags lean heavily on bedroom and bathroom humor of a low order.
6-: From an interview of the U.S. film producer and director Cecil Blount DeMille (1881-1959), published in the San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California, USA) of Wednesday 17th October 1934 [page 32 [?], column 4]:
“I have never been forced to change a single sequence in any picture I have ever made to conform to the ideals of censorship . . . simply because I have always attempted to make my pictures in good taste.
“A beautiful bathroom is one thing . . . but bathroom humor is another and that has to go if art is to survive.”
7-: From the Biddeford Daily Journal (Biddeford, Maine, USA) of Friday 17th May 1935 [page 4, column 1]—reprinted from The Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)—“the Chicago monthly” refers to the U.S. magazine Esquire:
The [Harvard] Lampoon’s latest issue simply goes Esquire one step better—or worse. The editors of the Chicago monthly have learned just how far they can carry their melange of pseudo-intellectualism and bathroom humor.
8-: From a review of Three Men on a Horse (1935), a farce by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott—review by William Rich Breyer, published in The Nashville Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee, USA) of Sunday 1st December 1935 [Magazine: page 4, column 1]—George M. Cohan (1878-1942) was a U.S. actor, composer, playwright and producer:
“Three Men on a Horse” is a very secondary farce. […] “Three Men on a Horse” tries hard; occasionally it succeeds. More often it is just average, about on a par with the second-rate Cohan comedies, aiming to depict a family of the great middle class of Suburbia, with a liberal allowance of lavatory humor thrown in.
9-: From a review of And So to Bed (New York: Loring & Mussey, 1935), by the U.S. author and illustrator Clarence William Anderson (1891-1971)—review by ‘B. S.’, published in the Journal and Sentinel (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA) of Sunday 15th December 1935 [page 6, column 4]:
This large picture-book-for-adults is composed of drawings in the vein of humor exploited by The New Yorker, Ballyhoo, Esquire, and lesser magazines. A host of artists have sprung up who specialize in bedroom-and-toilet humor. The school draws its inspiration from the belief that there is something inherently and devastatingly funny in intercourse and excreta.
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