Ha! Typically when walking around a “Serious Art Museum,” ones sees a lot of nodding heads, furrowed brows, and stern glances. Head to Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art this summer, and you might actually see people smiling or (heavens!) even laughing.

In the Project Gallery, Jim Green (local sound artist perhaps best known for the sounds emanating from the grates just off the Arapahoe and 16th Street Mall, as well as the concourse train sounds at DIA) breaks the stuffiness barrier in the museum by using machines to break wind. A wall of mechanized boxes trigger via motion detector, squeezing a series of whoopee cushions over and over in seemingly random sequence.

It’s awesome.

Seriously, fart sounds in a place like the MCA is just so unexpected and seemingly out-of-place that it’s all you can do not to roar with laughter at some points, especially when you’ve left the exhibit and strolled off, only to hear the distant farts start up again, triggered by another visitor.

In the downstairs New Media Gallery, visual artist Paul Slocum twists a scene familiar to all of us who grew up with ABC’s former Family-Friendly TGIF lineup: Taking the seminal “You Can’t Tell Me What To Do, You’re Not My Father Scene” from Full House, and looped the scene, using different actors to re-enact the drama.

It’s a pretty great commentary on a “classic” TV moment so many of us 20-somethings probably witnessed in our television viewing (what were we thinking back then with these shows?) It’s funny to see how the scene shifts in import and maybe even meaning when all different sorts of pairs act it out.

Head over to the MCA soon- there’s plenty going on, and some good laughs to be had- how often can you say that of a Contemporary Art museum?