The
Church of the SubGenius is a
parody religion that promotes
slack, while in a
meta-commentarial way, satirizing
religion,
conspiracy theories,
UFOs, and
popular
culture.
Originally based in Dallas
, Texas
, the Church
of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s subculture and maintains an active presence on
the Internet. Publicly accessible cited figures from 1988
indicated a membership of 3,500, "more than 5,000" in 1990 and
"close to 10,000" by 2003.
History
The Church of the SubGenius claims to have been founded in the
1950s by the "world's greatest salesman"
J.
R. "Bob" Dobbs. "Bob"
Dobbs is depicted as a cartoon of a
Ward
Cleaver-like man smoking a pipe. The church really started with
the publication of
SubGenius Pamphlet #1 in 1979. It found
acceptance in underground pop-culture circles and has been embraced
on college campuses, in the
underground music scene, and on the
Internet.
Because of its similarities to the tenets of
Discordianism, The Church of the SubGenius is
often described as a
syncretic offshoot
of that belief. However, its members state that the organization
developed on its own with the publication of
SubGenius Pamphlet
#1 (also known as
The World Ends Tomorrow And You May
Die!) by Reverend
Ivan Stang and Dr.
Philo Drummond, the original SubGenius Foundation. The original
group, using such pseudonyms as "Puzzling Evidence", "Dr. Howl,"
"Susie the Floozie", "Palmer Vreedeez", and "Pope Sternodox",
forwarded their literature to a number of underground pop-culture
figures such as
R. Crumb,
Paul
Mavrides,
Harry S. Robins aka Dr. Hal, the
New Wave rock group
Devo, and Erik Lindgren (producer and president of
indie label Arf! Arf! Records in Boston), who embraced it and
incorporated it into their work. Crumb's promotion of the Church
through his
comic book series
Weirdo brought many new members into the fold, including
artists, musicians, and writers. Their efforts resulted in the
publication of the
Book of the
SubGenius in 1983, followed by
Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob" in
1990,
Revelation X: The "Bob"
Apocryphon in 1994 and
The
SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon in
2006. In the late 1980s, the video
ARISE! was
produced by Cordt Holland and
Ivan Stang,
and narrated by "Dr. Hal" (
Harry S.
Robins), then distributed by
Polygram. The popularization of the Internet in the mid-1990s
brought a new surge of interest in the Church, resulting in dozens
of home-made, elaborately decorated web sites and two
Usenet newsgroups,
alt.slack and
alt.binaries.slack. (A third
newsgroup,
alt.binaries.multimedia.slack, was created on
March 12, 2005.) Ivan Stang maintains the official SubGenius home
page at Subgenius.com today. The Church's weekly radio program, the
Hour of Slack, is a staple of
many
college radio stations. It draws
from live broadcasts by Stang, his wife Princess Wei R. Doe and
voice comic "Lonesome Cowboy Dave" (comedian/musician Dave DeLuca),
as well as from other SubGenius radio shows including Rev. Susie
the Floozie's "'Bob's' Slack Time Fun House" on WREK in Atlanta and
"The Puzzling Evidence Show" on KPFA in Berkeley, featuring Dr.
Hal, Dr. Philo Drummond and host Puzzling Evidence.
In 1996, Rev. Stang and Steve Bevilacqua worked together to manage
the corporate entity of the Church, the SubGenius Foundation Inc.
Their efforts helped to bolster the Church's revival through the
late 1990s and early 2000s, until Bevilacqua had to retire from
Church management in order to support his wife, Rachel Bevilacqua
(see
Legal
matters).
The first X-Day gathering also took
place at Brushwood Folklore
Center in Sherman, NY
in 1996, and the annual Church festival has
continued there through the present day.
Such high-profile names as
Paul Reubens
("Pee-wee Herman", who placed a picture of "Bob" in every episode
of
Pee-wee's
Playhouse), Magic Mose & his Royal Rockers, featuring
'Blind Sam' (who actually gave a free advertisement to the Church
on the back of one of their EP's),
David Byrne,
Voodoo Loons,
Mark
Mothersbaugh,
Penn Jillette,
Robert Anton Wilson, science
fiction authors
Rudy Rucker and
John Shirley, and actor
Bruce Campbell have become SubGenius
ministers. Composer
Frank Zappa said in
his autobiography
The Real
Frank Zappa Book that he agreed with many of the beliefs
of the church, but refrained from joining as a full member. Comic
book author
Warren Ellis has stated the
influence of the Church on his writings, though as of 2007 he has
not yet admitted if he actually sent the $30 membership fee.
Patrick Volkerding, the founder
and maintainer of
Slackware Linux, is also a SubGenius affiliate, and he has
confirmed the Church and "Bob" inspired the name for
Slackware.
It is claimed waggishly in church doctrine that Dobbs inspired
L. Ron
Hubbard to create his own cult when he remarked to him that the
general public may be pink, "but their money is green" Ivan Stang
also claims that in 1986, an official SubGenius ordainment for
Hubbard was paid for and mailed to his address—only two weeks
before the Scientology founder's death.
Basics of "Bob"
The Church describes its philosophy in the following manner:
These terms, used in a manner that deliberately parodies
Scientology and
New Age
terms, reflect the Church's appeal. It portrays itself as an
organization for "mutants, blasphemers, disbelievers, rebels,
outcasts, hackers, freethinkers," and people who generally consider
themselves outside the "mainstream" of society. The organization is
widely seen as a
satire that mocks organized
religion, or as the church describes itself, "a
cynisacreligion."
In a manner that mocks the nature of many
non-profit religious organizations, the Church is
known for blatant appeals for money from believers and
non-believers alike. The Church is incorporated as a profit-making
enterprise, and declares itself to be "the only religion that is
proud to pay its taxes." Anyone can become an ordained SubGenius
minister by paying a fee of $30 US for a lifetime membership. No
other requirement is laid upon prospective members, though the cost
of ordination separates the Church from the
Universal Life Church and other
paper churches that offer
ordination to all comers. The Church of the
SubGenius is known for a standing offer that stems from the
ordainment fee: "Eternal Salvation or TRIPLE Your Money Back!" The
organization claims that if an ordained SubGenius minister dies and
finds himself standing at the gates of "Normal" or "Boring" Hell,
he will be personally greeted by Church founder
J. R. "Bob"
Dobbs Himself and receive a refund check for $90.00, along with
a booklet titled, "How to Enjoy Hell for Five Cents an Eternity,"
which costs $89.95.
The Church claims that true SubGeniuses are not actually human, but
rather are descendants of the
Yeti. According
to
Revelation X: The 'Bob' Apocryphon (published in 1994),
SubGenii are actually the
mutant offspring of
a forbidden sexual union that took place millions of years ago
between a resident of
Atlantis and a
human; at that time, humans were little more
than a slave race. The resulting offspring was the catalyst that
led to the fall of Atlantis. SubGenii often refer to one another as
"Yeti" (or
yetinsyny), though this origin story is
generally not well known outside of the Church itself. (The term
yetinsyny was appropriated from the artist
Stanisław Szukalski, whose
Behold! the Protong posited that Communists and other
people Szukalski disliked were descendant from such unions.)
The Church has said that the name "SubGenius" has nothing to do
with
intelligence, of a level
below
genius or otherwise. It appears to be
an effort to repudiate pretentiousness. (However, in a purposely
contradictory fashion, they have also claimed that they are
"SubGenius" because being a
genius is not
very fun.) The term may have something to do with the general
unhappiness and absolute slacklessness of the self-proclaimed
super-genius,
Wile
E. Coyote.
"Bob"
The central figurehead and symbol of the Church is the smiling,
pipe-smoking face of
J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, an image based
on 1950s styled
clip art, and bearing a
striking resemblance to 50s comic strip character
Mark Trail. (In the SubGenius film 'Arise', "Bob"
is described at one point, quite aptly, as "A comicbook character
who communicates with
space aliens and
worships money".) "Bob" was considered to be the best salesman of
all time. The Church claims that "Bob" (the quotes are included
when spelling his name, supposedly as a symbolic halo around his
name) founded the Church after he saw a vision of
JHVH-1 on his homemade TV.
"Bob" was killed in San Francisco in 1984 (though former Church
members state this was just a publicity stunt). Since that time, he
has been killed and subsequently returned from the dead many times
through a process known as
teledeportation. The Church, however, denies
any similarity between this claim and the Biblical account of
Jesus's resurrection. The Church guards the
trademark and copyright on "Bob's" image,
though his face has been used by many artistic figures, showing up
on such places as albums by the rock band
Sublime and
George Clinton; the movie
The Wizard of Speed and
Time by
Mike Jittlov; in the
graphical character set of the
Atari ST
computers; printed on CDs for
Slackware
Linux (prior to Version 3); on the set of
Pee-wee's Playhouse, in
British comic
2000AD, inside the
strip
Robo-Hunter, and in
Devo's video for the song "Love Without Anger". "Bob"
made an appearance in the comic
The
Badger, his form having been taken by a demon who commented at
one point "Do? I'm going to beat you to death with this pipe." He
also made a brief appearance in
Marvel
Comics' Slapstick as a coffee
store clerk.
The Dobbs Icon.
The Church has recently adopted a new symbol called the "Dobbs
Icon" (Also known as the sacred ikon), which is a stylized cross
with three bars and a pipe, placed in a pattern that matches the
eyes, nose, mouth, and pipe of "Bob"'s image. This symbol resembles
the
patriarchal cross as it is
possibly a parody.
Nothing is more central to "Bob" than his pipe, which is said to be
filled with the mysterious substance known as habafropzipulops or
"frop," (not a common drug) which may contain either mystical,
hallucinogenic, or Divine powers. The pipe may also allude to
surrealist painter
Rene Magritte's famous work,
The Treachery of Images, which
features an image of a pipe and the words "
Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is
not a pipe). According to the church, the image of "Bob" and his
pipe are often seen on random objects, possibly to herald things to
come or as an omen, or possibly for no reason at all.
The number 13,013 (usually seen as "13013") is the Number of "Bob",
or the Mark of Dobbs.
In its January 1, 2000 issue, a
Time magazine internet-based poll
named J.R. "Bob" Dobbs the #1 "Phoney Or Fraud" of the 20th
century.
Slack
The central belief in the Church is the pursuit of
Slack,
which generally stands for the sense of freedom, independence, and
original thinking that comes when you achieve your personal goals.
The Church states that we are all born with Original Slack, but
that Slack has been stolen from us by a worldwide
conspiracy of normal people, or "pinks".
The Church encourages originality and frowns on actions seen as
pinkness, which happens when one bows down to authority and the
accepted limits of society. Slack is also about doing nothing and
getting what you want anyway. "Bob" being the center of the Slack
plane cannot fail, even his failures are startling successes as a
result of his absurdly high Slack. Popular Church phrases
supporting these goals are "Give Me Slack or KILL ME!", "The
SubGenius Must Have Slack" and "Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take A
Joke."
The Linux distribution
Slackware is named
for Slack. The card game
Chez Geek uses
Slack to keep score; the object of the game is to accumulate Slack
counters until one player wins by reaching his or her Slack Goal.
One of the cards that a player can use within the game to gain
Slack is the Book of the Subgenius.
Sense of humor
The Church encourages humor,
comedy,
parody, and
satire far more
than most religious faiths. This belief is probably why the Church
is seen on one level as an elaborate joke (the Church argues that
if it is a joke, then it is "a very serious joke," "a joke that you
can believe in," or "the greatest joke ever told"), an arguably
postmodern mockery of organized religion,
and a parody of controversial religious groups and
cults, especially
Scientology,
Evangelicalism ,"
fundamentalist", and "
televangelism". To those unfamiliar with the
church. Some refer to it as a "joke" or "
parody religion". For instance, in their
book
Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, Lorne
L. Dawson and
Douglas E. Cowan characterize it as a "sophisticated
joke
religion". Almost nothing is
considered off-limits to comedy in SubGenius circles, and the
group's jokes often veer into the realm of bad taste. The
Book of the SubGenius says: "If you
don't laugh, you didn't get it, but if you ONLY laugh, you didn't
get it." Church members frequently pull
practical jokes on each other, even as they
are using their comedic talents to other ends. The Book of the
SubGenius poses the question "Is this a joke disguised as a
religion, or a religion disguised as a joke in sensible
shoes?"
Clenches
Church members living in the same geographic area are encouraged
(though it is not mandatory) to form a group: a local club or
"clench". These clenches are typically the ones who bind together
in order to put on a Devival. Some of these clenches position
themselves as their own religion. This is encouraged by the Church,
and is officially known as a schism. Ivan Stang himself has been
quoted as saying, "Quit the church and start your own damn
religion!" Paradoxically, one of the ways one can most fully
embrace the philosophy of the Church of the SubGenius is to
ultimately declare oneself to no longer be a faithful member of the
Church, but to instead have schismed and formed one's own heretical
sect or denomination, such as the
Church of
Don. This dynamic embodies the nature of the Church as
fundamentally individualistic, and antithetical to the adherence
and obedience-based ways of most religions.
Devivals
SubGenius gatherings, or
Devivals, can be
seen as a combination of religious preaching, stand-up comedy, and
rock concerts. When the local members
of the Church hold a Devival in their area, it typically occurs at
a popular
nightclub, and it features
SubGenius preachers such as Dr. Hal, Rev. Susie the Floozie,
Priestess Pisces or Rev. Stang, and backed by rock bands with such
names as the
Swingin' Love
Corpses,
Doktors 4 "Bob", Saint N and
Hellena Handbasket, Jehovah Hates Phred, Einstein's Secret
Orchestra, The Mondo Retardo Band, The Amino Acids, and the Kings
of Feedback. Devivals have been held each year as part of both the
Starwood Festival and WinterStar
Symposium since 1991. Attendees at Devivals are encouraged to bring
money and spend it at the ever-present sales table. Some Devivals
have been known to veer out of control.
In 1999, overly
cautious officials of the city of Cambridge
, Massachusetts
pressured owners of The Middle
East
nightclub to cancel the booked devival because of a
mistaken belief that the organizers were affiliated with the
Trenchcoat
Mafia (an organization which was mistakenly accused of being
responsible for the Columbine High School massacre
). "'Trenchcoat' comedy shows canceled in
mix-up"
X-Day
An important SubGenius event occurred on July 5, 1998:
X-Day. The Church had been
predicting that on this day the
world would be destroyed by invading
alien armies known as the
X-ists (which is short for "Men from Planet X"). Only the members
of the Church of the SubGenius were expected to be saved from this
SubGenius version of the
apocalypse, by
being carried away in the spaceships of the Sex-Goddesses. When the
promised cataclysm failed to manifest, Rev. Stang was tarred and
feathered by his fellow SubGenii. Nevertheless, Stang was permitted
to retain his position as Church administrator, and although that
day and each subsequent July 5 has passed without evidence of an
alien invasion, the faithful
membership still gather for the "Rupture" at a
campground called
Brushwood Folklore Center in
western New York state to herald this SubGenius
holiday.
Reverend Ivan Stang has given many excuses for the failure of the Rupture to happen, such as claiming that "Bob" betrayed all SubGenii, that the scriptures were accidentally read upside down (hence the real year of the Rupture will be 8661), or that due to calendrical error or sabotage it is not yet really 1998. Some would argue that it did happen, albeit in a metaphysical and/or allegorical manner requiring greater shift of paradigm to truly understand. Others have suggested that the X-ists did visit Earth as predicted, but that the planet we know as Earth was either secretly switched with Mars sometime during or shortly after World War II, or that the X-ists left with the persuasion that mankind will do the job just as well, if not better.
Reverend Stang has argued that X-Day is a religious holiday for the
Church, and members of the Church should take the day of July 5 as
vacation or holiday: "...if you can't get off the planet, at least
get off from work."
Other holy days
Besides X-Day, the Church of the SubGenius has six seasons as
identified in
The Book (Advert, Epicacophony, Emaculation,
Turnover, Passaround, and M'Moreal Day) and has also published a
"Sacred Calendar of SubGenius Saints" at the end of their most
recent major publication,
The
SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon (a
partial version of it can also be found buried in the archives of
their website.) It assigns a feast day or holy day (sometimes
several) to every day of the year. Many of these feast days are
rather unusual:
- The Night of the Lemur
- The Feast of St Klaatu
- Cremation Wednesday
- The Feast of St Monty Python
- Quaternary Prolapse begins
- The Feast of "Weird Al"
Yankovic
- The Feast of the Blessed Leprechaun
- Palmistry Sunday
- The Feast of Saint Eris
- St Bill Hicks Day
- The Feast of Saint Dracula
- The Feast of St Guinness the Stout
- Desecration Day
- Yell "Fudge" at North American Cobras Day
- The Feast of St Kali
- The Display of the Embarrassing Swimsuits
- The Feast of St Caligula
- Drug Side-Effects Day
- The Dance of the Insensitive Bastards
- Start of the Holy Month of "Ramalamadingdong"
- Caesarean Section Day
- Rock Star Day The earth is no longer a planet, it's a
dormant star
- Yummy Kippers Day
- All Asquires' Day
- The Feast of St Attila
- The Feast of St Oliver the
Humanzee
- The Feast of St Cthulhu
- Hate for the Sake of Hating Day
- The Martyrdom of St Kenny
- Whiny Victimization/Co-Dependency Day
- The Feast of St Lucifer (not the same as
Lucifer Calaritanus)
Additionally, in the e-mails sent out by the SubGenius foundation
to confirm orders made at their online store, mention is made of a
holiday called "Xistlessnessmess", which falls on December 25.
Furthermore, it has been asserted that "Bob" has died and been
reincarnated at least 366 times throughout history &
prehistory, thus every day is "Bob"'s birthday (and cause for
celebration).
Mythology
JHVH-1.
Image © St. Kenneth Huey, used with
permission.
- See also a dictionary of entities in the #External links section.
Church mythology, or SubGenius Mythos, includes entities such
as:
- Jehovah 1 (aka JHVH-1 or Jehovah-One),
a God-like wrathful entity (a "wrathful alien space god from some
corporate sin galaxy").
- NHGH (aka Nhee Ghee or Eehg Eehn), a Satan-like smiling entity
(god of Bad Luck and Unfortunate Coincidences, cosmic embodiment of
Murphy's Law) designed by Joe Riley.
Legal matters
1989: Bob Black's bombing
According to two accounts he published and the charging document
filed in Federal District Court, ex-SubGenius
anarchist Bob
Black received a bomb in the mail in November 1989.Black, Bob
(1989).
"Bomb 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke", 1989
(post-November 22), reprinted at www.inspiracy.com/black Black
charged a Church member for the deed, believing the device was sent
to him because of criticism he had made of the Church.
Ivan Stang and other members of the Church have
denied any involvement in this incident, and no one else was
charged.
2006: Rev. Magdalen's child custody troubles
In 2006, Rachel Bevilacqua, known as Rev. Magdalen in the SubGenius
hierarchy, lost custody and contact with her son after a district
court judge took offense at her participation in the Church's X-Day
festival. Judge James Punch asked Bevilacqua to explain the humor
of pictures from the event, and required that she produce a picture
that would "absolutely knock my socks off with the humor of it".
Without identifying anything in her testimony as specifically
false, Punch pronounced her description of the church's activities
as "clearly prevaricating" and "obviously so not true from anybody
who's looking at it from any normal perspective" and Bevilacqua
herself as "mentally ill" and a "pervert". (Ironically, the
Official X-Day Video comes with a humorous instruction pamphlet
that, among other things, warns people not to show the film to
"normals" because "they will think you are insane".) Punch
subsequently
recused himself, and Bevilacqua
retained Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, the law firm of
Paul Cambria. On January 5, 2007, district
Judge Eric Adams issued a ruling in Bevilacqua's favor requiring
her son to be returned to her, but a temporary stay order was
issued preventing this ruling from taking effect. The case was
apparently ended on July 6, 2007, when a New York appellate court
awarded custody of Bevilacqua's son to her ex-boyfriend, the boy's
father. However, further incidents resulted in an additional
custody hearing in August 2007, with Judge Punch returning to the
case. As of August 14, 2007, custody of Bevilacqua's son has been
awarded to her, pending the outcome of a felony hearing (drunk
driving) for the boy's father.
Publications
Books
Periodicals
Videos
See also
- Discordianism - A closely related
parody religion which is considered a direct precursor to the
Church of the SubGenius
- Cthulhu Mythos - referenced
and/or parodied extensively in several SubGenius products
- Devo - 80s band whose lead singer Mark
Mothersbaugh is a vocal SubGenius
- Doomsday cult - what the Church of
the SubGenius is, according to SubGenii
- Flying Spaghetti
Monster - a parody of creationism, also known as
Pastafarianism
- Fnord - If you don't see the fnord, it
can't eat you[11205].
- GWAR - a band that is popular among
SubGenii
- Harry S. Robins - aka Dr. Hal, illustrator,
screenwriter, voice talent and showman
- Paul Mavrides - aka LIES,
co-designer of the SubGenius books (and co-author of "Revelation
X")
- Mojo Nixon - a retired SubGenius
musician
- Ong's Hat - a famous hoax involving
"Bob" and several other Dobbses in its conspiracy theory
- Philip Gale - left Scientology after
being exposed to the Church of the SubGenius
- Slackware - official operating system
of the Church of the SubGenius
- X-Day -
SubGenius holiday to celebrate the end of the world on July 5,
1998
- The Amino Acids - Detroit surf
punk group who are all Subgeniuses
- Bob Dobbs
- 'Pataphysics
References
Notes
- Peter Knight, Conspiracy theories in American history: an
encyclopedia, Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-812-4),
pg.170.
- http://www.wrek.org/sundayshows
- http://kpfa.org/puzzling-evidence
- Subgenius Foundation, The. The Book of the SubGenius.
New York:Fireside (Simon & Schuster), 1987. 18th printing. p.
18.
-
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.slack/msg/a620377a07de675f?dmode=source
- Chicago Tribune description of Church of the
SubGenius by columnist Eric Zorn
- BobHellCard
- Press release posted on laughingsquid.com
mentioning Original Slack being stolen by the Conspiracy
- Slashdot | Replies from Slackware Founder Patrick
Volkerding
- Clenches and Schisms page on subgenius.com
- Steve Jackson Games (1997). "INWO: SubGenius Rules, v1.01", 1997, copy on
www.sjgames.com
- Apparently started directly with "volume 17" ca. 1982: the
three earliest cites found include issue No. 39 Vol. 17 (1982), No.
40 Vol. 17 (1983), and No. 41 Vol. 17 (1984).[1][2]
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