'Sticky the Poo' and bathroom humor toys take on $27 billion toy industry

Kids playing with plungers, cutting cheese, and throwing poop sounds like any parents’ nightmare, but toymakers are turning it into a profitable business of what Chris Byrne dubs “allowed naughtiness.”

Chris Byrne is Content Director for TTPM (Toys, Tots, Pets, & More) and told FOX Business that toys with a bathroom-humor twist are making a comeback.

“Kids have loved playing with gross toys forever, but in the last couple of years we have seen a huge resurgence as a whole new generation of kids discover just how gross they can be,” Byrne said. “We'd like to talk about it as ‘allowed naughtiness.’”

Byrne said that, for the most part, parents think the toys are pretty funny and remisicent of their own nostalgic “gross-out” toys, like Dr. Dreadful and the Garbage Pail Kids. Parents can also laugh with their kids, take part in the humor, and have a shared experience, Byrne added.

From children’s proclivity for bathroom humor to parents’ nostalgia, toy companies are hoping to take a bite out of the $27 billion U.S. toy industry.

Hog Wild Toys has created items to be splatted on the wall against a toilet target such as its aptly named "Sticky the Poo," "Sticky the Plunger," and "Sticky the Unicorn Poo."

Redwood Ventures also created "Smashy Mashy" characters it calls “disgustingly squishy” that come inside a goo-filled container.

And, EPOCH Everlasting Play introduced a suspenseful "Who Cut the Cheese?" board game, where the players must reach the finish line and avoid the inexorable fart sound.  

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Byrne said he thinks this trend is more than flatulence in the wind.

“I think that as long as kids are born and discover their bodies, bathroom humor toys are going to take space in the massive toy market," he said.

Emily DeCiccio is a video producer and reporter for Fox News Digital Originals. Tweet her @EmilyDeCiccio