Church of the SubGenius - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Church of the SubGenius is a "parody religion

Parody religion

A parody religion or mock religion is a parody of a religion, sect or cult. A parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus and cults at the same time. Or, it can be a parody of no particular religion, instead parodying the concept of religious belief...

" organization that satirizes religion, conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...

, unidentified flying object

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

s, and popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

. Originally based in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, the Church of the SubGenius gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s and maintains an active presence on the Internet. In 1996 the legal entity SubGenius Foundation, Inc. was established in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

. The Foundation's president is "Reverend" Ivan Stang

Ivan Stang

Rev. Ivan Stang, born Douglass St. Clair Smith August 21, 1953 in Washington, D.C., raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and attended the St. Mark's School of Texas. He is best known as the author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius...

and the Vice President is Dr. Philo Drummond, a.k.a. Steve Wilcox. 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 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

Underground music

Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...

scene, and on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

.

According to its "mythological" origins, 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

Ward Cleaver

Ward Cleaver is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Leave It to Beaver. Ward and his wife, June, are often invoked as archetypal suburban parents of the babyboomer 1950s. The couple are the parents of Wally, a thirteen-year-old in the eighth grade, and seven-year-old ...

-like man smoking a pipe, an image originally seen in one of the many "can you draw this" ads commonly found in the back of comic books in the 1950s and 1960s.

Because of its similarities to the tenets of Discordianism

Discordianism

Discordianism is a religion based on the worship of Eris , the Greco-Roman goddess of strife. It was founded circa 1958–1959 after the publication of its holy book the Principia Discordia, written by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst after a series of shared hallucinations at a...

, The Church of the SubGenius is often described as a syncretic

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

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 Ivan Stang

Ivan Stang

and Dr. Philo Drummond. A group that formed after Stang and Drummond began mailing their first pamphlet to publishers, using such pseudonyms as "Puzzling Evidence", "Dr. Howl

Harry S. Robins

Harry S. Robins, known as "Hal", is a voice artist and screen writer. Robins is best known for his vocal work in the Half-Life series of computer games, and has made a return as the voice of Tinker in Dota 2. He is also a prominent member of the Church of the SubGenius as Dr. Howland Owll...

", "Susie the Floozie", "Palmer Vreedeez

Paul Mavrides

Paul Mavrides is an American artist, best known for his critique-laden comics, cartoons, paintings, graphics, performances and writings that encompass a disturbing yet humorous catalog of the social ills and shortcomings of human civilization...

", and "Pope Sternodox", helped forward the literature to a number of underground pop-culture figures such as R. Crumb

Robert Crumb

Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...

, Paul Mavrides

Paul Mavrides

, Harry S. Robins

Harry S. Robins

, the New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

rock group Devo

Devo

Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

, 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

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

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
Book of the SubGenius
The Book of the SubGenius: Being the Divine Wisdom, Guidance, and Prophecy of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, High Epopt of the Church of the SubGenius, Here Inscribed for the Salvation of Future Generations and in the Hope that Slack May Someday Reign on this Earth is seen as the "bible" of the Church of the...

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

Usenet

Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...

newsgroups, alt.slack and alt.binaries.slack
Alt.binaries.slack
alt.binaries.slack is a Usenet newsgroup created for the purpose of posting pictures, sounds, and utilities related to the Church of the SubGenius, making them available for everyone to see and hear...

. A third newsgroup, alt.binaries.multimedia.slack, was created later, in 2005. Ivan Stang currently maintains the official SubGenius home page. The church's weekly radio program, the Hour of Slack
Hour of Slack
The Hour of Slack is a one-hour radio program produced by the Church of the SubGenius centering around the king of slack, J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. Reverend Ivan Stang presents his own commentary, along with recorded material from all SubGenius radio and stage shows, bands, ranters, media barrage collage...

, is a staple of many college radio

Campus radio

Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...

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.

In 1996, 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. The first X-Day

X-Day (Church of the SubGenius)

X-Day is a traditional part of the mythology of the satirical UFO religion Church of the SubGenius, an organization formed as a parody of cults and extreme religious groups, and their pamphlets and claims. X-Day fell on July 5, 1998, the scheduled "end of the world", and has been celebrated on July...

gathering also took place at Brushwood Folklore Center

Brushwood Folklore Center

Brushwood Folklore Center L.L.C. is a family-operated spiritual center that runs events such as festivals, concerts and seminars, and hosts such events held by other organizations. It is a campground which accepts day passes, night passes, and seasonal camping sites. The facility is located in...

in Sherman, New York

Sherman (town), New York

Sherman is a town in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The town is an interior town in the county, west of Chautauqua Lake. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 1,553...

in 1996, and the annual church festival continued there until 2011, when it moved to Wisteria in Ohio.

Composer Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

said in his autobiography The Real Frank Zappa Book
The Real Frank Zappa Book
The Real Frank Zappa Book is an autobiography/memoir by Frank Zappa, co-written by Peter Occhiogrosso. The text is copyright 1989 Frank Zappa, and copyright 1990 Simon & Schuster, Inc....

that he agreed with many of the beliefs of the church, but refrained from joining as a full member. Comic book author Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis

Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...

has stated the influence of the church on his writings. Patrick Volkerding

Patrick Volkerding

Patrick Volkerding is the founder and maintainer of the Slackware Linux distribution. He is the "Slackware Benevolent Dictator for Life." Volkerding earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1993.For a short while, Chris Lumens and others assisted...

, the founder and maintainer of Slackware

Slackware

Slackware is a free and open source Linux-based operating system. It was one of the earliest operating systems to be built on top of the Linux kernel and is the oldest currently being maintained. Slackware was created by Patrick Volkerding of Slackware Linux, Inc. in 1993...

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, is also a SubGenius affiliate, and he has confirmed the church and "Bob" inspired the name for Slackware. Slackware Linux's mascot is a modification of Tux

Tux

Tux is a penguin character and the official mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female...

, the normal Linux

Linux

mascot, by having Tux clench a pipe in its beak, similar to the one that "Bob", the SubGenius mascot, has.

It is claimed waggishly in church doctrine that Dobbs inspired L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...

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. However, Hubbard and Scientology's history goes even farther back in time than the Church of the SubGenius. The Church of the SubGenius likely used Scientology double-talk as a parodic springboard for the double-talk in the mid-1980s first edit of its groundbreaking "Arise" video and other Sub-genius productions.

A variety of other SubGenius videos have subsequently been produced, all available on the official Church of the SubGenius Web site. Most use film, video, clips and still images from a variety of sources: American and Japanese science fiction movies of the 1950s, old newsreel footage, more modern TV news and cable show clips, atomic bomb test footage, old civil defense films, silent movie footage, 1950s social etiquette films, industrial films, clips from their various SubGenius events, self-created footage, and fan clips. Almost all these "found-footage" clips have been heavily modified with additional post-production effects to make them legally a "new work" and are extremely brief to avoid any legal copyright complications.

Overview of philosophy

The church describes its philosophy in the following manner:
These terms, used in a manner that deliberately parodies Scientology

Scientology

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...

and New Age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

terms, reflect the church's ideology. 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

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

that mocks organized religion, or as the church describes itself, "a cynisacreligion." A member of the church is called a "SubGenius", the plural of which is "SubGenii".

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 US$30 for a lifetime membership; no other requirement is laid upon prospective members. The charge for ordination separates the church from the Universal Life Church

Universal Life Church

The Universal Life Church is a religious organization that offers anyone semi-immediate ordination as a ULC minister free of charge. The organization states that anyone can become a minister immediately, without having to go through the pre-ordination process required by other religious faiths...

and other paper churches that offer ordination

Ordination

In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...

free of charge 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, along with a booklet titled, "How to Enjoy Hell for Five Cents an Eternity," which costs $89.95.

The church claims that true SubGenii are not actually human but descendants of the Yeti

Yeti

The Yeti or Abominable Snowman is an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, and Tibet. The names Yeti and Meh-Teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology...

. According to Revelation X: The 'Bob' Apocryphon (published in 1994), SubGenii are actually the mutant

Mutant

In biology and especially genetics, a mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character, arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not...

offspring of a forbidden sexual union that took place millions of years ago between a resident of Atlantis

Atlantis

Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

and a human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

; 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

Genius

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

or otherwise.

"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

Clip art

Clip art, in the graphic arts, refers to pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively in both personal and commercial projects, ranging from home-printed greeting cards to commercial candles. Clip art comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However,...

, and bearing a striking resemblance to 50s comic strip character Mark Trail

Mark Trail

Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. In 2006, King Features syndicated the strip to nearly 175 newspapers....

. (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 (or "Jehovah-1")

Jehovah 1

Jehovah 1 or JHVH-1 is a God-like entity important in the mythology of the Church of the SubGenius, and the opposite number of the Satan-like entity NHGH....

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

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

' resurrection. The church guards the trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

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

Sublime (band)

Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...

and George Clinton

George Clinton (funk musician)

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

; the movie The Wizard of Speed and Time
The Wizard of Speed and Time
The Wizard of Speed and Time is a 1989 low-budget feature film written, directed, and starring animator Mike Jittlov, as well as a 1979 16 mm short film, also by Jittlov.-1979 Short film:...

by Mike Jittlov

Mike Jittlov

Mike Jittlov is an American animator and the creator of short films and one feature length movie using forms of special effects animation, including stop-motion animation, rotoscoping, and pixilation...

; in the graphical character set of the Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

computers; printed on CDs for Slackware Linux (prior to Version 3); on the set of Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the child-like Pee-wee Herman. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the one-off TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more...

, in British comic 2000AD, inside the strip Robo-Hunter

Robo-Hunter

Robo-Hunter is a recurring strip in the British Comic 2000 AD, initially written by John Wagner and illustrated by Ian Gibson. The series starred Sam Slade, a laconic, ageing, cigar-smoking bounty hunter of robots that have gone renegade. Though action orientated, the series was noted for its...

, and in Devo's video for the song "Love Without Anger". "Bob" made an appearance in the comic The Badger

Badger (comics)

The Badger is a comic book character and series created by writer Mike Baron in 1983. The series began publication with the short-lived Capital Comics company before First Comics acquired the title and continued publshing it through the 1980s and early 1990s. The series ended when First Comics also...

, 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'

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

Slapstick

Slapstick (comics)

Slapstick is a Marvel Comics superhero created in the early nineties. He debuted in Slapstick #1, November , created by Len Kaminski and James Fry...

as a coffee store clerk.

Dobbs Icon

At the XXX-Day Drill in July of 2000, the church unveiled and adopted a new symbol called the "Dobbs Icon" (or 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

Patriarchal cross

The Patriarchal cross is a variant of the Christian cross, the religious symbol of Christianity. Similar to the familiar Latin cross, the Patriarchal cross possesses a smaller crossbar placed above the main one, so that both crossbars are near the top. Sometimes the patriarchal cross has a short,...

and it is possibly a parody of both the Christian and the Scientologist cross.

Nothing is more central to "Bob" than his pipe, which is said to be filled with the mysterious substance known as habafropzipulops or "frop" which may contain either mystical, hallucinogenic, or Divine powers. The pipe may also allude to surrealist painter Rene Magritte

René Magritte

René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...

's famous work, The Treachery of Images
The Treachery Of Images
The Treachery of Images is a painting by the Belgian René Magritte, painted when Magritte was 30 years old. The picture shows a pipe...

, 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 stop worrying about personal goals. In essence, Slack is about finding satisfaction with what you have and who you are, as opposed for searching for satisfaction in accomplishment. The church states that we are all born with Original Slack, but that Slack has been stolen from us by a worldwide conspiracy

Conspiracy theory

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 GNU/Linux distribution Slackware

Slackware

is named for Slack. The card game Chez Geek

Chez Geek

Chez Geek is a card game that parodies geek culture and cohabitation. It was created by Jon Darbro and developed by Alain H. Dawson, with additional development by Steve Jackson and Russell Godwin...

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

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

, parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

, 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 cult

Cult

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

s, especially Scientology

Scientology

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...

, Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

, evangelicalism

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

, fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...

, and televangelism

Televangelism

Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. A “televangelist” is a Christian minister who devotes a large portion of his ministry to television broadcasting...

.

In their book Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, Lorne L. Dawson

Lorne L. Dawson

Lorne L. Dawson is a Canadian scholar of the sociology of religion who has written about new religious movements, the brainwashing controversy, and the role of the Internet in religious conflicts.-Academic career:...

and Douglas E. Cowan

Douglas E. Cowan

Douglas E. Cowan is a Canadian academic in religious studies and the sociology of religion and currently holds a teaching position at Renison College, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada...

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. 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 Devival

Devival

Devival is a term used by both the Church of the Subgenius and later Discordianism for a gathering or festival of followers. The name is a pun on Christian revivals.-SubGenius Devivals:-Historical:...

s, can be seen as a combination of religious preaching, stand-up comedy, and rock concert

Rock concert

The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...

s. When the local members of the church hold a Devival in their area, it typically occurs at a popular nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

, 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

The Amino Acids (band)

The Amino Acids are an extraterrestrial surf punk band based out of Detroit Michigan. They began playing music in 1998 at local Detroit bars. The first members being Reverend Angry Larry-Guitar, Prof. Mobitz McGill-Bass, Pope James Hartwick-Theremin,Sampler & stage media, The Boston Carver 2nd...

, and the Kings of Feedback. Devivals have been held each year as part of both the Starwood Festival

Starwood Festival

The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in mid- to late July. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects...

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

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

pressured owners of The Middle East

The Middle East (nightclub)

The Middle East is a live music venue, bar and restaurant in the Central Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having featured a huge variety of musicians since 1987, the establishment, with its upstairs and downstairs rooms, "is the nexus of metro Boston's rock-club scene for local and touring...

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

Columbine High School massacre

The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...

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

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

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

Apocalypse

An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...

, 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. (Some claim the "tar" was actually honey and that Stang himself bought the feathers.) 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

Alien invasion

The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...

, the faithful membership still gather for the "Rupture" at an outdoor campground to herald this SubGenius holiday. The X-Day celebration took place at Brushwood Folklore Center

Brushwood Folklore Center

until 2010; as of 2011 it has moved to Wisteria

Wisteria

Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...

in Pomeroy, Ohio.

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

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

and/or allegorical

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

manner requiring greater shift of paradigm

Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...

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

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

sometime during or shortly after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, or that the X-ists left with the persuasion that mankind will do the job just as well, if not better.

X-day is a parody of the popular Christian notion of the rapture

Rapture

The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....

. The various excuses for the apparent failure of the sex-goddesses to "rupture" the SubGenius faithful parody such events as the Millerite Great Disappointment

Great Disappointment

The Great Disappointment was a major event in the history of the Millerite movement, a 19th-century American Christian sect that formed out of the Second Great Awakening. Based on his interpretations of the prophecies in the book of Daniel The Great Disappointment was a major event in the history...

, and various other occasions when christian sects have confidently attached a date to the public return of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

and the consequent destruction of earth.

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. It assigns a feast day or holy day (sometimes several) to every day of the year. Many of these feast days are rather unusual.

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 and prehistory in such a way that every day is "Bob"'s birthday, and cause for celebration.

Mythology

Church mythology, or SubGenius mythos, includes traditional Christian 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
Murphy's law
Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". - History :The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find. Recent significant...

) designed by Joe Riley
Joe Riley (artist)
Joseph Vergel "Joe" Riley was a U.S. visual and plastic artist based in Dallas, Texas. A painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and special effects makeup artist, he made horror designs for latex masks and for films, such as the vampire movie Blade: Trinity from Marvel Comics, as well as conceptual art for...

.

See also a dictionary of entities in the #External links section.

Books

The Book of the SubGenius (1983, McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...

; 1987, Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

)
High Weirdness By Mail
High Weirdness By Mail
High Weirdness by Mail, by Ivan Stang is a 1988 book dedicated to an examination of "weird culture" by actually putting the reader in touch with it by mail....

(1988, Fireside Books)
"Bob's" Favorite Comics: The SubGenius Comic Book (1989, Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press, Inc. is a seminal publishing company that specializes in adult-themed literature and graphic novels, mostly in a specific comic book format known as underground comix.-Overview:...

)
Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob" (1990, Fireside Books)
Revelation X: The "Bob" Apocryphon (1994, Fireside Books; 2006, Thunder's Mouth Press)
INWO: SubGenius (1997, Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...

) (Illuminati New World Order game supplement)
The SubGenius Psyclopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon (2006, Thunder's Mouth Press)

Periodicals

The Stark Fist of Removal - official newsletter

External links

SubGenius newsgroups: [news://alt.slack alt.slack] and [news://alt.binaries.slack alt.binaries.slack]
Quivering Brain — Site of church co-founder Dr. Philo Drummond
Papa Joe Mama - Self proclaimed "de facto dictator" of the controversial "Holocaustals"
Dictionary of the Gods: glossary of SubGenius Mythos entities at the POEE
Taphouse Cabal — Official IRC chatroom for the Church of the SubGenius
"Puzzling Evidence" radio show hosts

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