Farting Up a Fortune
How a reality star farted her way to riches and became the poster child for the Punch Yourself in the Face Economy.
If the modern economy were a sport, it wouldn’t be chess or even boxing—it’d be competitive self-inflicted humiliation. In an era where people will do literally anything for clout and cash, former 90 Day Fiancé star Stephanie Matto discovered the perfect hustle: selling her own farts in jars. And because the Punch Yourself in the Face Economyrewards the most absurd stunts with virality and cold, hard cash, she made a whopping $200,000 off people willing to pay for her…personal brand of fragrance.
For the uninitiated, the Punch Yourself in the Face Economy is what happens when monetization and desperation collide at full speed. It’s a system where the biggest paycheck goes not to the smartest or most talented, but to whoever is willing to degrade themselves the most in front of an audience. Matto simply optimized the model: she figured out that instead of metaphorically selling hot air like every other influencer, she could quite literally jar it up and turn it into a limited-edition collector’s item.
Her business model was simple: eat a diet full of beans, eggs, and protein shakes, capture the, uh, “results” in a mason jar, slap a $1,000 price tag on it, and let the internet do what it does best—make terrible decisions with real money. Naturally, TikTok ate it up (figuratively, hopefully), and soon she was raking in six figures from the kind of clientele that probably shouldn't be allowed unsupervised access to a credit card.
But, as with all things in the Punch Yourself in the Face Economy, success comes at a cost. Matto’s commitment to industrial-scale fart production led to an unexpected health scare. After experiencing chest pains so severe she thought she was dying, doctors informed her that, no, she wasn’t having a heart attack—she was just a human balloon about to pop. Turns out, guzzling protein shakes and beans to manufacture artisanal farts isn’t great for your digestive system.
And so, just like that, the fart jar empire crumbled. But because no one in this economy ever really quits—they just pivot—Matto quickly adapted. Enter: Fart Jar NFTs. Because why settle for a tangible product when you can sell the idea of it on the blockchain? It was a brilliant move, capitalizing on the perfect storm of two of the most ridiculous financial bubbles of our time: influencer stunts and NFTs.
Matto’s story is a masterclass in the Punch Yourself in the Face Economy: find something outrageous, make it go viral, squeeze every last dollar out of it, then pivot to something even dumber when the first grift runs dry. And the worst part? It works. She got a book deal. She made headlines. She’s still making money. Meanwhile, the rest of us are sitting here questioning our life choices.
So what’s the lesson here? Maybe that dignity is overrated. Or that capitalism, left unchecked, inevitably rewards the most shameless participants. Either way, if you ever find yourself doubting the state of the world, just remember: someone out there paid $1,000 for a jar of stranger gas, and that someone has more disposable income than you.