Somehow the word "butt" has become hilarious to young and old. There doesn't seem to be a way to stop this, but if it's any comfort to you, it was probably the same in the time of Chaucer.
I should have realized he was just being Chaucerian :-).
I specifically post to the threads about Big Tobacco just so I have an excuse to use the word "butt". Now I can post elsewhere and just use the Chaucer defense.