The Fugs is an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders. Kupferberg named the band from a euphemism for fuck used in Norman Mailer's novel The Naked and the Dead.

The band were supported by folklorist Harry Smith, compiler of Anthology of American Folk Music, who helped them sign with Folkways Records. They became prominent leaders of the 1960s underground scene and the American counterculture of that decade. The group is known for its comedic, satirical and explicit lyricism as well as their persistent anti–Vietnam War sentiment, which culminated in Ed Sanders leading an "Exorcism of the Pentagon" in 1967. Since the 1980s, they have performed at several events regarding other U.S. involved wars.

According to Ed Sanders, the idea of forming a band arose in late 1964 after a poetry reading at Café Le Metro on New York's Lower East Side. He and fellow poet-artist Tuli Kupferberg, already known in the downtown scene for his anarchic humor and protest art, spent an evening discussing how to bring the immediacy of Beat poetry into the idiom of rock and roll. Sanders later recalled proposing “a poetry-rock group that would combine the joy of verse with the noise of the streets,” to which Kupferberg instantly agreed.

Both men were active in the Lower East Side's countercultural network of poets, artists, and folk musicians centered around St. Mark's Place and the East Tenth Street galleries. Sanders soon opened the Peace Eye Bookstore—part press office for his mimeographed journal Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts and part salon for radical poets—which quickly became the group's headquarters and rehearsal space.

In early sessions held behind the bookstore's shelves, Sanders and Kupferberg were joined by drummer Ken Weaver to set their poems to rudimentary rock and folk rhythms. They described the result as “holy anarchy”—a blend of chant, satire, and street theater intended as both entertainment and political protest. From these experiments the Fugs were born, formally debuting at the Peace Eye opening celebration in December 1964.

During the mid-to late 1960s, the Fugs' core members which consisted of Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, and Ken Weaver were augmented by a rotating cast of New York musicians. Among those who appeared in the 1960s were guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Eric Gale; keyboardist Lee Crabtree; bassist Chuck Rainey; clarinetist Perry Robinson; and others.

In early 1965, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders briefly joined the group and contributed to rehearsals and the sessions for their debut album. Folklorist Harry Smith, compiler of Anthology of American Folk Music, became an early supporter and facilitated the Fugs’ signing to Folkways Records who released their debut album The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views, and General Dissatisfaction. However, ESP-Disk' promptly re-released the album and put out their follow-up The Fugs. In October 1966, writer Norman Jopling reported in British music magazine Record Mirror: "Three labels, ESP, Atlantic, and MGM are battling to sign the Fugs whose first LP on ESP has been on the Billboard' LP chart for fourteen weeks without any air play".

Additionally, Andy Warhol briefly considered the Fugs and Holy Modal Rounders for his multimedia series the Exploding Plastic Inevitable before selecting the Velvet Underground. Warhol attended early performances at Sanders’ Peace Eye Bookstore and appeared at the group's anti-war benefit Night of Napalm, later inspiring their improvised track “Spontaneous Salute to Andy Warhol.”