WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:01.277 --> 00:00:03.279 [liquid pours] 2 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:08.836 --> 00:00:09.699 [clink] 5 00:00:16.430 --> 00:00:18.432 [siren wailing] 6 00:00:27.441 --> 00:00:29.443 [siren wailing] 7 00:00:39.142 --> 00:00:41.558 [Intercom] All right you fuckers, 8 00:00:41.593 --> 00:00:44.699 you're forgetting this is the end of the world. 9 00:00:44.734 --> 00:00:47.323 It's time to start acting like it. 10 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.050 It's happening right now. 11 00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:52.742 If you're masturbating, 12 00:00:52.776 --> 00:00:53.812 wrap it up. 13 00:00:53.846 --> 00:00:55.572 Make it a good one. 14 00:00:55.607 --> 00:00:59.576 It's the last masturbation you'll ever have. 15 00:01:02.683 --> 00:01:07.101 [Susie] I actively don't plan anything for after X Day. 16 00:01:07.895 --> 00:01:10.656 Been doing it since 96 17 00:01:10.691 --> 00:01:12.348 and it's like, yeah, 18 00:01:12.382 --> 00:01:15.523 if there's any chance, I'm not going to 19 00:01:15.558 --> 00:01:19.424 screw it up by not buying into this. 20 00:01:19.458 --> 00:01:23.842 - Okay folks, it's almost quarter of seven 21 00:01:23.876 --> 00:01:28.536 in the morning July 5th, 1998. 22 00:01:29.192 --> 00:01:33.438 Friends, it's not about when we get everything we want. 23 00:01:33.921 --> 00:01:36.717 What it's really about, like every other religion, 24 00:01:36.751 --> 00:01:42.516 it's about for the non-believers get what they deserve. 25 00:01:43.896 --> 00:01:48.832 No seriously, now and I do mean seriously, 26 00:01:48.867 --> 00:01:52.733 you're going to get whatever you want. 27 00:01:52.767 --> 00:01:56.633 The important thing is to really know what you want. 28 00:01:56.668 --> 00:01:59.740 If your imagination is so limited that all you can 29 00:01:59.774 --> 00:02:03.675 think of is a better version of your crappy apartment, 30 00:02:03.709 --> 00:02:06.195 that's exactly what you'll get 31 00:02:06.229 --> 00:02:10.544 and it won't seem that different after 7:00 AM. 32 00:02:11.683 --> 00:02:14.789 [Susie] Bob is teaching me things about disappointment 33 00:02:14.824 --> 00:02:17.585 except the disappointment in Bob 34 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:21.417 is sweeter than the disappointment in life. 35 00:02:21.451 --> 00:02:22.418 - Ten seconds. 36 00:02:22.452 --> 00:02:25.248 [Susie] Life's disappointments are brutal, 37 00:02:25.283 --> 00:02:27.388 Bob's are part of a joke 38 00:02:27.423 --> 00:02:29.942 that once you finally get over the butt hurt, 39 00:02:29.977 --> 00:02:31.841 you start laughing at it. 40 00:02:31.875 --> 00:02:33.601 [crowd] Two, one... 41 00:02:33.636 --> 00:02:37.778 - Fuck them if they can't take a joke! 42 00:02:37.812 --> 00:02:41.782 [cheering] 43 00:02:41.816 --> 00:02:46.166 For 30 years, almost none of us ever broke character. 44 00:02:47.443 --> 00:02:51.516 Fretten, sometimes the character might take over. 45 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:53.621 Once again, we find ourselves 46 00:02:53.656 --> 00:02:56.831 in that age-old traditional situation, 47 00:02:56.866 --> 00:02:59.282 7:00 AM or something like that. 48 00:02:59.317 --> 00:03:02.423 Something like July 5th, something like 1998, 49 00:03:02.458 --> 00:03:03.942 something like the planet earth, 50 00:03:03.976 --> 00:03:08.326 we don't have any idea where or when we are 51 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:10.224 and that is the point of the whole thing. 52 00:03:10.259 --> 00:03:13.469 X Day could happen any second. 53 00:03:14.332 --> 00:03:15.988 It may not happen this year. 54 00:03:16.023 --> 00:03:17.024 [cheering] 55 00:03:17.058 --> 00:03:19.613 There have been times when we were so good at 56 00:03:19.647 --> 00:03:21.304 keeping a straight face, 57 00:03:21.339 --> 00:03:24.204 that we could have had another Scientology. 58 00:03:24.894 --> 00:03:26.413 We love fooling people, 59 00:03:26.447 --> 00:03:29.381 but we don't want to fool anybody that way. 60 00:03:41.082 --> 00:03:42.774 [Man] The young people of our generation 61 00:03:42.808 --> 00:03:46.364 have no moral norm for their actions today. 62 00:03:46.916 --> 00:03:49.608 They want somebody to stand up and say, 63 00:03:49.643 --> 00:03:51.334 "What is right and what is wrong? 64 00:03:51.369 --> 00:03:52.887 How far can I go?" 65 00:03:52.922 --> 00:03:54.613 - Nearly moment by moment, 66 00:03:54.648 --> 00:03:58.893 young people are bombarded by distorted visual images 67 00:03:58.928 --> 00:04:00.792 that are saturating their minds 68 00:04:00.826 --> 00:04:03.519 and yes, sabotaging their future. 69 00:04:05.486 --> 00:04:07.626 - In the early 80s we were outliers, 70 00:04:07.661 --> 00:04:09.801 we were outside the norm. 71 00:04:09.835 --> 00:04:12.355 People who'd grown up in the 50s were just trying to 72 00:04:12.390 --> 00:04:14.288 come out of all of the weird stuff 73 00:04:14.323 --> 00:04:15.979 that had been heaped on us. 74 00:04:16.014 --> 00:04:17.809 - Once a person is pervert, 75 00:04:17.843 --> 00:04:20.398 it is practically impossible for that person 76 00:04:20.432 --> 00:04:22.641 to adjust to normal attitude. 77 00:04:22.676 --> 00:04:24.643 [Ivan Stang] The 60s were still echoing, 78 00:04:24.678 --> 00:04:26.783 but it turned into the 80s 79 00:04:26.818 --> 00:04:29.855 and that whole spirit got flipped on its head. 80 00:04:29.890 --> 00:04:31.857 [Man] You are being deceived. 81 00:04:31.892 --> 00:04:35.551 You're being brainwashed every day by the devil. 82 00:04:35.585 --> 00:04:37.415 - Everything's getting too square again. 83 00:04:37.449 --> 00:04:40.383 - The normalcy was oppressive to me. 84 00:04:40.418 --> 00:04:43.662 - I grew up in a cultural vacuum, 85 00:04:43.697 --> 00:04:46.976 a small conservative Illinois town. 86 00:04:47.010 --> 00:04:49.875 - I kind of prided myself on being the outsider 87 00:04:49.910 --> 00:04:50.911 in high school. 88 00:04:50.945 --> 00:04:52.844 You know, the guy that's so weird, 89 00:04:52.878 --> 00:04:54.535 and no one would talk to him. 90 00:04:54.570 --> 00:04:56.779 [Commercial VO] There is a conspiracy of unimaginable 91 00:04:56.813 --> 00:05:01.887 proportions working solely to rob you of your very abnormality 92 00:05:01.922 --> 00:05:03.786 and I'm here to tell you tonight... 93 00:05:03.820 --> 00:05:05.650 [Sternodox] The Conspiracy is them. 94 00:05:05.684 --> 00:05:07.514 They're the ones that want to hold us down. 95 00:05:07.548 --> 00:05:09.550 They're the ones in control. 96 00:05:09.585 --> 00:05:11.932 - People are always telling us how to talk, how to walk. 97 00:05:11.966 --> 00:05:14.486 [Nurse Vicki] It was the war of the weirdos 98 00:05:14.521 --> 00:05:16.592 against the straights. 99 00:05:16.626 --> 00:05:21.493 - To enjoy a feeling of being with the in crowd 100 00:05:21.528 --> 00:05:23.115 is so seductive. 101 00:05:23.150 --> 00:05:24.876 [Commercial VO] Marion was rejected today. 102 00:05:24.910 --> 00:05:26.671 If she felt accepted, 103 00:05:26.705 --> 00:05:28.776 the whole pattern of her life would be different. 104 00:05:28.811 --> 00:05:31.400 - We were grasping for this crazy religion 105 00:05:31.434 --> 00:05:32.987 to help us see the light. 106 00:05:33.022 --> 00:05:34.748 [Reporter] It's the Church of the SubGenius, 107 00:05:34.782 --> 00:05:36.715 their prophet's name is Bob. 108 00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:39.891 - Bob Dobbs came to town to set you free. 109 00:05:39.925 --> 00:05:42.134 - It was just this outpour of expressing ourselves 110 00:05:42.169 --> 00:05:45.586 and how wrong we thought the direction of society was. 111 00:05:45.621 --> 00:05:46.967 I thought it was hilarious. 112 00:05:47.001 --> 00:05:49.901 - We're probably the only cult that admits 113 00:05:49.935 --> 00:05:52.006 that we're ripping them off every day 114 00:05:52.041 --> 00:05:53.594 and teaching them to enjoy it. 115 00:05:53.629 --> 00:05:55.078 [Commercial VO] There must be discipline. 116 00:05:55.113 --> 00:05:56.114 - It's wrong. 117 00:05:56.148 --> 00:05:57.011 It's sin. 118 00:05:57.046 --> 00:05:58.323 - Just say no. 119 00:05:58.358 --> 00:06:00.739 - If Jim Jones could talk 900 people into killing themselves, 120 00:06:00.774 --> 00:06:03.604 we can talk 900 people in the sending us dollar. 121 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:05.157 [Commercial VO] There's only one guaranteed way 122 00:06:05.192 --> 00:06:06.607 you can have peace. 123 00:06:06.642 --> 00:06:09.955 - The world will end the 1998. 124 00:06:09.990 --> 00:06:12.199 [Commercial VO] God said judgment is going to come. 125 00:06:12.233 --> 00:06:13.407 [Commercial VO] Repent. 126 00:06:13.442 --> 00:06:14.546 Quit your job. 127 00:06:14.581 --> 00:06:16.168 Slack off. 128 00:06:16.203 --> 00:06:19.758 [Susie] The idea of being able to get away 129 00:06:19.793 --> 00:06:23.072 from this shit stew of a world-- 130 00:06:24.142 --> 00:06:25.661 it's a dream. 131 00:06:25.695 --> 00:06:27.628 - For those who've abandoned hope, 132 00:06:27.663 --> 00:06:29.803 we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a 133 00:06:29.837 --> 00:06:33.634 great national crusade to make America great again. 134 00:06:33.669 --> 00:06:36.706 [echoing VO] Great again, great again, great again. 135 00:06:48.477 --> 00:06:51.825 - I grew up as a little white boy 136 00:06:51.859 --> 00:06:56.208 in America in the 1950s in a middle-class home, 137 00:06:56.243 --> 00:06:59.660 so I have nothing to complain about. 138 00:06:59.695 --> 00:07:02.491 I feel like anybody who grew up in that situation 139 00:07:02.525 --> 00:07:05.563 has it better than most medieval kings 140 00:07:05.597 --> 00:07:08.669 because we had aspirin 141 00:07:08.704 --> 00:07:11.707 and some people had air conditioning. 142 00:07:12.915 --> 00:07:15.676 - I'm one of those guys that was 143 00:07:15.711 --> 00:07:18.921 fortunate to have like an idyllic childhood. 144 00:07:19.715 --> 00:07:23.132 My family was as normal as they could get. 145 00:07:23.926 --> 00:07:27.895 I was forced to go to a fairly fundamental church 146 00:07:27.930 --> 00:07:31.727 for the first 18 years of my life, 147 00:07:31.761 --> 00:07:35.109 so that probably had some effect on why I rebelled 148 00:07:35.144 --> 00:07:38.872 so strongly once I got away from my folks. 149 00:07:40.218 --> 00:07:43.117 - I can't say that I'm rebelling against my 150 00:07:43.152 --> 00:07:44.981 religious upbringing or anything like that 151 00:07:45.016 --> 00:07:47.121 because I didn't really have one. 152 00:07:47.156 --> 00:07:52.161 I was raised basically secular humanist scientist. 153 00:07:52.195 --> 00:07:53.645 This is Fort Worth, Texas. 154 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.613 I was surrounded by Baptists. 155 00:07:55.647 --> 00:07:58.754 I really did feel like a weirdo. 156 00:07:59.686 --> 00:08:00.963 Kids would go, 157 00:08:00.997 --> 00:08:05.070 "Hey, Doug, where's you family go to church?" 158 00:08:05.105 --> 00:08:07.659 I didn't even know the name of a single church. 159 00:08:07.694 --> 00:08:08.626 I'd really be stuck. 160 00:08:08.660 --> 00:08:12.284 I'd say things like, "Oh, the [mumbles]." 161 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:18.601 [indistinct room chatter] 162 00:08:18.636 --> 00:08:20.327 [Philo] I was very much into comic books 163 00:08:20.361 --> 00:08:23.054 and any kind of alternate publications 164 00:08:23.088 --> 00:08:26.609 and music like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart 165 00:08:26.644 --> 00:08:28.956 and people that were not mainstream. 166 00:08:30.164 --> 00:08:33.651 [Ivan] I did not feel like my classmates. 167 00:08:34.997 --> 00:08:38.207 Despite my very fun childhood, 168 00:08:38.241 --> 00:08:41.244 I had terrible teenage years. 169 00:08:41.900 --> 00:08:44.316 I had to hang around the theater department 170 00:08:44.351 --> 00:08:47.009 in order to meet girls. 171 00:08:47.043 --> 00:08:49.183 That's how I met my first wife, in fact. 172 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:55.638 [Philo] I was discouraged from participating in art. 173 00:08:55.673 --> 00:08:58.917 Art was not a place where you can make money. 174 00:08:58.952 --> 00:09:00.954 You need to get a real type job. 175 00:09:00.988 --> 00:09:04.785 So I worked for AT&T 176 00:09:04.820 --> 00:09:06.373 and that's kind of like where my 177 00:09:06.407 --> 00:09:09.583 inside to The Conspiracy took place. 178 00:09:11.136 --> 00:09:14.277 - My sister-in-law, she said, "I have these friends 179 00:09:14.312 --> 00:09:17.211 "Philo and Cookie that I met that you should meet them, 180 00:09:17.246 --> 00:09:19.179 they've just moved to Dallas." 181 00:09:19.213 --> 00:09:21.768 I said, "I don't want to meet any friends. 182 00:09:21.802 --> 00:09:23.286 I don't need friends." 183 00:09:23.321 --> 00:09:25.599 Said, "No, you might like this guy. 184 00:09:25.634 --> 00:09:30.086 He collects comic books and he likes Captain Beefheart." 185 00:09:30.121 --> 00:09:31.847 I thought, what?! 186 00:09:31.881 --> 00:09:34.919 Both comic books and Captain Beefheart?! 187 00:09:37.991 --> 00:09:40.269 [Philo] We just became great friends. 188 00:09:40.959 --> 00:09:43.030 He was the liberal. 189 00:09:43.065 --> 00:09:44.894 I was the conservative, 190 00:09:44.929 --> 00:09:47.725 but we were both so disaffected with politics. 191 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:50.210 We didn't believe any of it was true. 192 00:09:50.244 --> 00:09:53.109 - What we really had in common was collecting, 193 00:09:53.144 --> 00:09:55.871 well, what we might call kook pamphlets 194 00:09:55.905 --> 00:10:00.703 or extremist literature of religious or political cards. 195 00:10:01.221 --> 00:10:03.810 You'd go to a laundromat and there would be 196 00:10:03.844 --> 00:10:06.260 The Watchtower from Jehovah's Witnesses 197 00:10:06.295 --> 00:10:10.402 or a comic book from Chick Publications. 198 00:10:10.437 --> 00:10:11.887 You know, "This Was Your Life". 199 00:10:11.921 --> 00:10:16.857 We loved the range of ridiculous things 200 00:10:16.892 --> 00:10:20.136 that human beings can convince themselves of. 201 00:10:20.171 --> 00:10:23.864 - If I went out and made my daily quota, 202 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:27.868 the first thing I'd do is go over and wake up Reverend Stang 203 00:10:27.903 --> 00:10:28.938 and say, "Let's get up. 204 00:10:28.973 --> 00:10:29.974 "Let's go do something. 205 00:10:30.008 --> 00:10:31.320 Let's have some fun." 206 00:10:32.045 --> 00:10:35.876 - We were trolls before they had that term. 207 00:10:35.911 --> 00:10:40.018 The internet hadn't been invented, but CB radios had 208 00:10:40.053 --> 00:10:44.782 and Philo, because he had a real job, had a CB radio... 209 00:10:45.817 --> 00:10:48.440 but we didn't use it to help the world. 210 00:10:48.475 --> 00:10:52.790 We used it to puzzle and confuse strangers. 211 00:10:52.824 --> 00:10:54.999 We would get on and say things like, 212 00:10:55.033 --> 00:10:58.899 [alien-like] "Men of earth, men of Earth, 213 00:10:58.934 --> 00:11:03.179 "we are speaking to you from 50 million light years 214 00:11:03.214 --> 00:11:04.698 away in space." 215 00:11:04.733 --> 00:11:06.769 - "Come in pink boy," remember? 216 00:11:06.804 --> 00:11:08.875 - Well there were these two guys that were doing it 217 00:11:08.909 --> 00:11:09.910 back to us. 218 00:11:09.945 --> 00:11:12.050 They were trolling us and they were saying, 219 00:11:12.085 --> 00:11:13.845 "Shut up pink boy, shut up pink boy." 220 00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:15.226 And we interpreted that as, 221 00:11:15.260 --> 00:11:17.849 "Oh, the aliens are finally talking to him. 222 00:11:17.884 --> 00:11:19.955 And that was what they had to say." 223 00:11:20.300 --> 00:11:21.163 The next thing we knew, 224 00:11:21.197 --> 00:11:24.097 pink boys were everybody we didn't like: 225 00:11:24.131 --> 00:11:28.308 bosses, rude waiters, nasty clerks in stores. 226 00:11:28.342 --> 00:11:30.759 We were surrounded by dumb asses. 227 00:11:31.207 --> 00:11:33.796 We knew that we were dumb asses too, 228 00:11:33.831 --> 00:11:36.385 but we felt like it was a matter of degrees. 229 00:11:36.419 --> 00:11:38.870 [Philo] People that we didn't want to have anything 230 00:11:38.905 --> 00:11:42.218 to do with, the pinks and the mediocritines, 231 00:11:42.253 --> 00:11:44.255 the techno glorps. 232 00:11:44.289 --> 00:11:48.777 [Stang] Part of me was in terror of all of that, 233 00:11:48.811 --> 00:11:52.090 but there was also the terrible stress of having to, you know, 234 00:11:52.125 --> 00:11:55.887 make the living and not lose your soul. 235 00:11:56.888 --> 00:12:00.064 At some point, one of us said something like, 236 00:12:00.098 --> 00:12:01.824 "Why aren't we rich yet? 237 00:12:01.859 --> 00:12:04.309 We've got all these skills and things." 238 00:12:04.344 --> 00:12:08.382 And Philo goes, "Well, I guess we're not geniuses. 239 00:12:08.417 --> 00:12:11.282 We're really just sub-geniuses." 240 00:12:12.283 --> 00:12:18.151 And in my head, everything fell together like a puzzle box. 241 00:12:18.599 --> 00:12:21.810 A Rubik's Cube suddenly formed itself. 242 00:12:22.983 --> 00:12:26.435 A weird fringe cult for weirdos, 243 00:12:26.469 --> 00:12:29.058 specifically for weirdos. 244 00:12:29.576 --> 00:12:31.923 That was the Church of the SubGenius. 245 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:36.479 [Philo] When we did the first pamphlet, 246 00:12:36.514 --> 00:12:38.412 it was really a labor of love. 247 00:12:38.447 --> 00:12:40.345 The pasting up, the cutting. 248 00:12:40.380 --> 00:12:43.107 [Stang] We tied together every fringe belief 249 00:12:43.141 --> 00:12:45.143 you could think of. 250 00:12:45.178 --> 00:12:48.491 It was like getting all your toys, your dinosaur toys, 251 00:12:48.526 --> 00:12:52.012 and your army men toys and your cowboy and Indian toys, 252 00:12:52.047 --> 00:12:53.496 putting them all together on the floor 253 00:12:53.531 --> 00:12:56.223 and having this whole world that was a conglomerate 254 00:12:56.258 --> 00:12:57.984 of all the cool stuff ever. 255 00:12:58.018 --> 00:12:59.848 It was so much fun! 256 00:12:59.882 --> 00:13:03.092 [Philo] We had this sort of an icon we can blame everything on, 257 00:13:03.127 --> 00:13:04.887 the conspiracy of normalcy. 258 00:13:04.922 --> 00:13:07.441 [Stang] There's Bob, The Conspiracy and Slack. 259 00:13:07.476 --> 00:13:10.065 If you're going to have a cult, 260 00:13:10.099 --> 00:13:11.307 you have to have a cult leader. 261 00:13:11.342 --> 00:13:12.205 Well, that's Bob. 262 00:13:12.239 --> 00:13:14.863 - We need to put a face to that entity. 263 00:13:14.897 --> 00:13:16.623 - We can't afford artwork. 264 00:13:16.657 --> 00:13:19.902 No, this clip art, this public domain stuff. 265 00:13:19.937 --> 00:13:21.835 It's old, nobody cares about it. 266 00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:24.079 - As we flip through the catalog, 267 00:13:24.113 --> 00:13:25.321 there was that face. 268 00:13:25.977 --> 00:13:29.809 [Stang] We both instantly knew, that's Bob. 269 00:13:33.674 --> 00:13:36.505 After a couple of months, we had assembled 270 00:13:36.539 --> 00:13:39.301 SubGenius pamphlet number one. 271 00:13:44.893 --> 00:13:46.860 - When the printing bill came in on the first pamphlet, 272 00:13:46.895 --> 00:13:48.897 it was $60. 273 00:13:48.931 --> 00:13:51.865 My wife got very upset with that. 274 00:13:51.900 --> 00:13:54.074 You're going to have to send these to publishers. 275 00:13:54.109 --> 00:13:55.248 We can't afford that kind of thing. 276 00:13:55.282 --> 00:13:58.113 You need to try to turn it into a book or something. 277 00:13:58.147 --> 00:14:00.356 Publishers, wow, okay. 278 00:14:00.391 --> 00:14:04.153 I got Writer's Digest and got the addresses of every publisher 279 00:14:04.188 --> 00:14:07.294 in the United States and mailed the pamphlet to them. 280 00:14:11.022 --> 00:14:13.507 We've got 150 rejection slips back. 281 00:14:13.542 --> 00:14:16.027 The rest of them didn't say anything. 282 00:14:24.173 --> 00:14:27.418 - I was living in San Francisco, 283 00:14:27.452 --> 00:14:30.214 working with my colleague partner, 284 00:14:30.248 --> 00:14:32.941 Gilbert Shelton at Rip Off Press. 285 00:14:32.975 --> 00:14:37.531 I wandered into the publisher's office, and a fellow named Fred, 286 00:14:37.566 --> 00:14:39.706 and he opened some envelope up 287 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.917 and pulled out the initial pamphlet. 288 00:14:43.952 --> 00:14:46.437 He grumbled something about it 289 00:14:46.471 --> 00:14:50.061 and threw it in the trash can next to his desk. 290 00:14:50.751 --> 00:14:53.030 To his complete irritation, 291 00:14:53.064 --> 00:14:56.481 I pulled it out and started laughing at it. 292 00:14:57.103 --> 00:14:59.070 It was the funniest thing I've ever read. 293 00:14:59.105 --> 00:15:01.521 It was good to, like-- how refreshing. 294 00:15:01.555 --> 00:15:05.283 I think my first act was to get an envelope 295 00:15:05.318 --> 00:15:08.148 and put all the cash I had in my wallet 296 00:15:08.183 --> 00:15:12.187 and it wrote a note saying, "Send me more pamphlets." 297 00:15:16.122 --> 00:15:18.434 - The first pamphlet, pamphlet number one, 298 00:15:18.469 --> 00:15:22.128 is a significant document in many ways. 299 00:15:22.162 --> 00:15:26.408 It is the vector by which many people have had their 300 00:15:26.442 --> 00:15:30.515 most significant introduction to the Church of the SubGenius. 301 00:15:30.550 --> 00:15:32.690 - Doug sent a pamphlet to KPFA 302 00:15:32.724 --> 00:15:36.383 and so I saw that and really loved it and for years, 303 00:15:36.418 --> 00:15:37.488 since I was a kid, 304 00:15:37.522 --> 00:15:39.490 I've been putting stuff in the mail to strangers, 305 00:15:39.524 --> 00:15:41.319 so they became new strangers. 306 00:15:41.354 --> 00:15:43.252 They start mailing stuff back. 307 00:15:43.287 --> 00:15:45.047 It was like the internet really, 308 00:15:45.082 --> 00:15:46.669 but instead of a thousand people, 309 00:15:46.704 --> 00:15:49.327 it was 10 or 15 of us. 310 00:15:49.362 --> 00:15:50.225 It was really fun. 311 00:15:50.259 --> 00:15:53.297 - It was such a seminal little pamphlet; 312 00:15:53.331 --> 00:15:57.025 it was almost like a test of your mindset 313 00:15:57.059 --> 00:15:59.061 like were you a SubGenius or not? 314 00:15:59.096 --> 00:16:01.961 If you got it, you were a SubGenius. 315 00:16:02.202 --> 00:16:03.583 [Nurse Kelly] It really spoke to me. 316 00:16:03.617 --> 00:16:06.413 It had this whole thing about how the goal is Slack 317 00:16:06.448 --> 00:16:10.072 and the motto is fuck them if they can't take a joke. 318 00:16:10.107 --> 00:16:13.765 - The central doctrine more than anything else 319 00:16:13.800 --> 00:16:15.422 in the Church of SubGenius of course, 320 00:16:15.457 --> 00:16:17.355 is this Slack thing. 321 00:16:17.390 --> 00:16:19.012 - It's probably one of the hardest things to 322 00:16:19.047 --> 00:16:20.634 describe in the church, you know. 323 00:16:20.669 --> 00:16:23.775 - We don't describe it because by definition 324 00:16:23.810 --> 00:16:26.261 Slack is really different for each person. 325 00:16:26.295 --> 00:16:28.125 [Margaret] Slack is what everybody wants, 326 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:29.367 it's what we still want. 327 00:16:29.402 --> 00:16:33.371 [Nurse Kelly] This idea of a place where people can live 328 00:16:33.406 --> 00:16:37.237 where they don't feel harried by just the multiple things 329 00:16:37.272 --> 00:16:39.136 that one feels harried by all the time. 330 00:16:39.170 --> 00:16:41.069 - You know when you don't have it. 331 00:16:41.103 --> 00:16:42.139 - That's for sure. 332 00:16:42.173 --> 00:16:44.486 [Paul] It was like finding like-minded people. 333 00:16:44.520 --> 00:16:49.111 If you could truly say any of us had minds to be alike. 334 00:16:49.146 --> 00:16:53.633 Somebody with the same type of cynical perspective, 335 00:16:53.667 --> 00:16:55.669 same reference points. 336 00:16:55.704 --> 00:16:58.155 [Margaret] They were so layered in everything. 337 00:16:58.189 --> 00:17:02.780 It was, it was part pop culture, part science, part religion. 338 00:17:02.814 --> 00:17:04.471 So it appealed to me a great deal 339 00:17:04.506 --> 00:17:07.509 and I did do just as it said, 340 00:17:07.543 --> 00:17:09.752 I sent a dollar with the letter. 341 00:17:09.787 --> 00:17:10.684 - What's that say? 342 00:17:10.719 --> 00:17:12.548 Send a dollar? 343 00:17:12.583 --> 00:17:14.136 Even I've got a dollar. 344 00:17:14.171 --> 00:17:17.277 So I sent off a dollar and I got this little pamphlet 345 00:17:17.312 --> 00:17:19.624 and that was where the crushing loneliness started 346 00:17:19.659 --> 00:17:21.281 to get chipped away. 347 00:17:21.316 --> 00:17:25.216 - I was doing a magazine called Famous Potatoes 348 00:17:25.251 --> 00:17:28.564 using a lot of ads and clip art stuff 349 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:31.705 and it was a fine artist, Robert Williams who said, 350 00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:34.294 "Hey, you ought to send some stuff off to the 351 00:17:34.329 --> 00:17:35.433 Church of the SubGenius. 352 00:17:35.468 --> 00:17:40.128 They're doing a bunch of clip art stuff like you do." 353 00:17:40.162 --> 00:17:42.509 So I sent stuff off and I think it arrived 354 00:17:42.544 --> 00:17:44.477 just after Stang's birthday or something, 355 00:17:44.511 --> 00:17:47.307 and he just flipped out over the Famous Potatoes 356 00:17:47.342 --> 00:17:52.416 and he sent me all the pack and I didn't have to pay. 357 00:17:52.864 --> 00:17:55.764 - There was a flyer on a phone pole that said, 358 00:17:55.798 --> 00:17:58.422 "Get ready for a pretty tough future, 359 00:17:58.456 --> 00:18:00.665 what scientists are afraid to tell us." 360 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.116 And then there was a picture of Bob. 361 00:18:03.151 --> 00:18:04.393 I showed it to all my pals 362 00:18:04.428 --> 00:18:06.188 and they were like, "yeah, yeah." 363 00:18:06.223 --> 00:18:07.258 So we didn't send them a dollar, 364 00:18:07.293 --> 00:18:10.158 we sent him $100 from Little Rock 365 00:18:10.192 --> 00:18:12.436 and we got the first pamphlet back. 366 00:18:12.470 --> 00:18:15.301 That just Bobbed us all up immediately. 367 00:18:15.335 --> 00:18:18.476 - It was a little bit of a sense that there are 368 00:18:18.511 --> 00:18:21.203 other people interested in these things. 369 00:18:21.238 --> 00:18:22.515 They might be far away 370 00:18:22.549 --> 00:18:26.346 and they might exist from post office box to post office box, 371 00:18:26.381 --> 00:18:27.761 but they are out there. 372 00:18:29.073 --> 00:18:31.213 [Susie] It was intoxicating to think that there was somewhere 373 00:18:31.248 --> 00:18:32.904 where you didn't have to fit in, 374 00:18:32.939 --> 00:18:36.908 where people were crazy in the good way. 375 00:18:37.530 --> 00:18:42.397 So I sent in my 10 bucks and I became a SubGenius. 376 00:18:43.260 --> 00:18:46.194 [Philo] We got the first few orders coming in, 377 00:18:46.228 --> 00:18:48.782 remember we were so excited and then all of a sudden- 378 00:18:48.817 --> 00:18:50.370 - Terrified more like it was like, what? 379 00:18:50.405 --> 00:18:52.234 Somebody actually sent us $10, 380 00:18:52.269 --> 00:18:53.787 now we really have to do that newsletter. 381 00:18:53.822 --> 00:18:55.651 - Now we actually had to start working 382 00:18:55.686 --> 00:18:57.377 and doing stuff. 383 00:18:57.688 --> 00:18:58.689 - Hey Reverend Stang? 384 00:18:58.723 --> 00:18:59.586 [Stang] Huh? 385 00:18:59.621 --> 00:19:01.347 - Another gun. 386 00:19:01.381 --> 00:19:03.280 - We said, you've got a religion, 387 00:19:03.314 --> 00:19:04.936 now you've got to have the tent revivals. 388 00:19:04.971 --> 00:19:07.318 You know, you can't just say you have religion. 389 00:19:07.353 --> 00:19:09.631 You have to have this gathering of the faithful. 390 00:19:09.665 --> 00:19:12.392 - It was a sad day for mankind. 391 00:19:12.427 --> 00:19:16.189 It was a sad day for mankind when man stopped, 392 00:19:16.224 --> 00:19:19.675 started sticking with his head and walking on his feet, 393 00:19:19.710 --> 00:19:21.781 the kind with four-legged backup. 394 00:19:21.815 --> 00:19:23.438 Awww, yeah, 395 00:19:23.472 --> 00:19:24.956 I can feel it emanating. 396 00:19:24.991 --> 00:19:27.511 I can feel its eyes just burning into my eye. 397 00:19:27.545 --> 00:19:30.410 I can feel a man staring at me and screaming at me 398 00:19:30.445 --> 00:19:32.240 and threaten his eyebrows. 399 00:19:32.274 --> 00:19:36.278 I can feel that man saying he wants to testify to Bob. 400 00:19:36.865 --> 00:19:39.902 [Philo] A devival is a SubGenius revival. 401 00:19:41.766 --> 00:19:44.666 It didn't sound good to say revival. 402 00:19:44.700 --> 00:19:46.392 Devival sounds a lot better. 403 00:19:46.426 --> 00:19:48.739 It actually sounds kind of like devil. 404 00:19:49.878 --> 00:19:53.295 [Stang] They were a way for us to act as if we were 405 00:19:53.330 --> 00:19:56.643 rock and roll stars or preachers or something. 406 00:19:57.265 --> 00:20:00.268 - Thank you Bob, 407 00:20:00.302 --> 00:20:02.684 ♪ for closing my memory. 408 00:20:02.718 --> 00:20:04.720 [Stang] I was the one who was supposed to get up on stage 409 00:20:04.755 --> 00:20:07.551 and do stuff and I actually had terrible stage fright. 410 00:20:07.585 --> 00:20:09.725 I wasn't interested in that at all. 411 00:20:09.760 --> 00:20:14.247 But a Dallas character who later ended up calling himself 412 00:20:14.282 --> 00:20:15.662 Reverend Buck Nakid, 413 00:20:15.697 --> 00:20:18.355 the SubGenius thing really clicked with him. 414 00:20:18.389 --> 00:20:22.497 - The word crime is serving the conspiracy and the penalty. 415 00:20:23.049 --> 00:20:24.153 And the penalty... 416 00:20:24.188 --> 00:20:26.708 [Stang] He was ready to get up on stage and preach. 417 00:20:26.742 --> 00:20:30.505 - The penalty is worse than having your gonads cut off. 418 00:20:30.884 --> 00:20:33.680 The penalty is worse than having your head cut off. 419 00:20:33.715 --> 00:20:35.544 [Stang] Eventfully, I didn't really like the way 420 00:20:35.579 --> 00:20:36.856 Buck did it. 421 00:20:36.890 --> 00:20:38.064 - And the rest of them are wrong 422 00:20:38.098 --> 00:20:38.961 and you're only one that's right. 423 00:20:38.996 --> 00:20:40.515 That's how you're supposed to feel- 424 00:20:40.549 --> 00:20:42.344 - So I started doing it. 425 00:20:42.379 --> 00:20:43.656 Before we start the services, 426 00:20:43.690 --> 00:20:46.900 we should have a 427 00:20:46.935 --> 00:20:49.040 just a moment of, 428 00:20:49.075 --> 00:20:50.525 a moment of sacred noise. 429 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.770 [screaming] 430 00:20:54.805 --> 00:20:59.672 Thanks to the SubGenius thing, I discovered I wasn't alone. 431 00:21:00.535 --> 00:21:02.985 There were weirdos all over the place. 432 00:21:11.131 --> 00:21:13.444 [Margaret] They were very normal people who just talked 433 00:21:13.479 --> 00:21:15.653 nutty stuff about the Church of the SubGenius, 434 00:21:15.688 --> 00:21:19.381 which made them very easy to relate to 435 00:21:19.416 --> 00:21:21.038 and get along with. 436 00:21:22.971 --> 00:21:25.387 [Byron] I remember seeing all these bands and stuff 437 00:21:25.422 --> 00:21:26.768 and I thought, you know, 438 00:21:26.802 --> 00:21:30.012 These guys are loaded, these guys are drunk. 439 00:21:30.047 --> 00:21:32.981 Then I saw Doctors for Bob perform 440 00:21:33.015 --> 00:21:36.812 and I thought these guys are clinically insane. 441 00:21:39.988 --> 00:21:44.958 - Anti-music is a concept of unfettered expression 442 00:21:44.993 --> 00:21:48.686 musically and sonically to try to create this sound that 443 00:21:48.721 --> 00:21:51.620 trained hands can't do. 444 00:21:52.518 --> 00:21:54.416 You have to go totally on instinct 445 00:21:54.451 --> 00:21:57.074 and that's what we did with Doctors for Bob. 446 00:21:58.109 --> 00:22:00.836 - It was kind of this Looney Tunes fraternity 447 00:22:00.871 --> 00:22:05.047 and you had to kind of enjoy guys to be a part of it. 448 00:22:05.082 --> 00:22:07.498 The way that I viewed the Church and the SubGenius 449 00:22:07.533 --> 00:22:11.157 is that in a way it is the patriarchy strained 450 00:22:11.191 --> 00:22:12.883 through cheese cloth. 451 00:22:13.573 --> 00:22:17.405 - It was a boy's club and I was attracted to it 452 00:22:17.439 --> 00:22:19.061 because I wanted to meet the boys. 453 00:22:19.096 --> 00:22:22.064 - It is divinely taking itself by the hair 454 00:22:22.099 --> 00:22:24.722 and turning itself inside out 455 00:22:24.757 --> 00:22:27.449 and looking at the world with fresh eyes 456 00:22:27.484 --> 00:22:29.140 and that's why it's such a special place 457 00:22:29.175 --> 00:22:30.866 for special people doing special things 458 00:22:30.901 --> 00:22:33.938 having special feelings and we have to put up with. 459 00:22:33.973 --> 00:22:37.666 [cheers and applause] 460 00:22:37.701 --> 00:22:40.669 I think it was this way of saying it's them and not you, 461 00:22:40.704 --> 00:22:41.705 you know. 462 00:22:41.739 --> 00:22:43.465 Don't you worry if the world or The Conspiracy 463 00:22:43.500 --> 00:22:45.743 is getting you down, you come stand by me 464 00:22:45.778 --> 00:22:47.607 cause you're one of ours. 465 00:22:47.642 --> 00:22:49.885 - The Conspiracy's major efforts is to take your 466 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.476 Slack away and to sell you a false version of it, 467 00:22:54.511 --> 00:22:55.857 which they manufacture. 468 00:22:55.891 --> 00:22:58.446 - Well, I'm afraid we all discovered The Conspiracy 469 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.034 probably our first day of school 470 00:23:01.069 --> 00:23:02.898 when the other kids made fun of you 471 00:23:02.933 --> 00:23:05.798 for using the wrong color crayon 472 00:23:05.832 --> 00:23:07.489 or you're not doing it right. 473 00:23:07.524 --> 00:23:09.836 - It was important that we encapsulate 474 00:23:09.871 --> 00:23:14.634 everybody's best enemy into something that could be 475 00:23:14.669 --> 00:23:18.155 easily distilled into one thing. 476 00:23:18.189 --> 00:23:20.191 Something that people could say, 477 00:23:20.226 --> 00:23:24.541 "Yeah, I understand that, we're all victims of that." 478 00:23:24.817 --> 00:23:28.199 - Anything that bothers you is the Conspiracy. 479 00:23:28.234 --> 00:23:31.064 It's a little bit, the thing that assassinates presidents 480 00:23:31.099 --> 00:23:33.204 from both depository libraries. 481 00:23:33.239 --> 00:23:36.173 It's a little bit the suppressed saucer technology 482 00:23:36.207 --> 00:23:39.659 that is owned by the European union, 483 00:23:39.694 --> 00:23:43.422 but it's also just when it's too hot on the bus. 484 00:23:44.837 --> 00:23:49.704 - In 1953, Jehovah I, the alien space god 485 00:23:49.738 --> 00:23:52.845 informed Bob Dobbs that 486 00:23:52.879 --> 00:23:56.089 there was this conspiracy of normal people 487 00:23:56.124 --> 00:23:59.472 robbing the Slack of the SubGeniuses for centuries. 488 00:23:59.507 --> 00:24:05.029 But that on July 5th, 1998 at precisely 7:00 AM, 489 00:24:05.064 --> 00:24:09.068 the men from planet X would come rupture up to these 490 00:24:09.102 --> 00:24:11.726 paying believing SubGeniuses 491 00:24:11.760 --> 00:24:15.902 and give them the power to wreak revenge on all the normals. 492 00:24:16.593 --> 00:24:18.526 Next thing you know, you've got the doctrine 493 00:24:18.560 --> 00:24:20.735 for an entire religion. 494 00:24:20.769 --> 00:24:21.874 Oh yes. 495 00:24:21.908 --> 00:24:24.670 Bob can set free the winos. 496 00:24:24.704 --> 00:24:26.948 He can set free the prisoners. 497 00:24:26.982 --> 00:24:29.847 Do we have any more testimonials from the crowd? 498 00:24:30.572 --> 00:24:33.506 - I found the image of Bob's head in a bed pan 499 00:24:33.541 --> 00:24:36.716 and ever since it's just been Bob all the way. 500 00:24:36.751 --> 00:24:38.891 - Saved by the image of Bob in a bed pan. 501 00:24:38.925 --> 00:24:42.584 Our tendency is to just let everybody throw in, 502 00:24:42.619 --> 00:24:45.207 so we don't really have any rules. 503 00:24:45.242 --> 00:24:50.730 - I was once a degenerate but Bob saved me. 504 00:24:51.041 --> 00:24:52.145 - Amen. 505 00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:53.181 Amen! 506 00:24:53.215 --> 00:24:56.218 We encourage people to form their own schism. 507 00:24:56.253 --> 00:24:58.635 You know, join the church and send us money, 508 00:24:58.669 --> 00:25:00.326 but immediately rebel against it. 509 00:25:00.360 --> 00:25:02.121 - Well, there's always a split in the church 510 00:25:02.155 --> 00:25:04.123 and if there wasn't, we'd create some 511 00:25:04.157 --> 00:25:07.989 because you can't have a church without schisms 512 00:25:08.023 --> 00:25:11.648 and the more schisms in a cult, the better. 513 00:25:12.787 --> 00:25:15.306 - Ladies and gentlemen, I think we need to inject this 514 00:25:15.341 --> 00:25:17.550 campground with some real hate. 515 00:25:17.585 --> 00:25:18.896 [cheers] 516 00:25:18.931 --> 00:25:23.625 I would like to bring to you the great Papa Joe Mama. 517 00:25:23.660 --> 00:25:26.041 [cheers] 518 00:25:26.076 --> 00:25:28.941 [Joe Mama] One of the major magnets of religion 519 00:25:28.975 --> 00:25:30.874 isn't the common love of something, 520 00:25:30.908 --> 00:25:32.289 it's the common hatred of something. 521 00:25:32.323 --> 00:25:34.291 That's what brings everybody together. 522 00:25:34.325 --> 00:25:38.916 So, I just wanted to offer that sort of alter ego, 523 00:25:38.951 --> 00:25:40.746 the sort of anti-Bob, if you will, 524 00:25:40.780 --> 00:25:42.057 and the Church of the SubGenius. 525 00:25:42.092 --> 00:25:46.199 There are two distinct branches in the Church of the SubGenius, 526 00:25:46.234 --> 00:25:50.031 the highbrow, Ivangelical branch, 527 00:25:50.065 --> 00:25:53.379 led by Ivan Stang and his philosophical followers. 528 00:25:53.413 --> 00:25:56.071 [Stang] Some of the SubGeniuses were looking at me 529 00:25:56.106 --> 00:25:57.625 as kind of the do-gooder. 530 00:25:57.659 --> 00:26:00.006 I was a little too easy on the normals. 531 00:26:00.041 --> 00:26:02.768 I didn't really want to destroy the whole world. 532 00:26:02.802 --> 00:26:06.737 I just wanted to loot it, get all the good comic books. 533 00:26:06.772 --> 00:26:09.671 Well, other people really do hate the normals. 534 00:26:09.706 --> 00:26:11.880 - The Ivangelicals and the Holocaustals represent 535 00:26:11.915 --> 00:26:12.985 two sides of the church. 536 00:26:13.019 --> 00:26:15.815 Now the Ivangelicals believed that all the pinks 537 00:26:15.850 --> 00:26:19.198 need to be enslaved and can still serve a purpose 538 00:26:19.232 --> 00:26:22.995 after the final judgment in which earth is liberated 539 00:26:23.029 --> 00:26:26.861 from the chains of pink and conspiracy rule. 540 00:26:27.137 --> 00:26:28.966 Now the Holocaustals, we're kind of a more 541 00:26:29.001 --> 00:26:31.624 traditional fundamentalist if you will. 542 00:26:31.659 --> 00:26:35.110 We believe that you do need to eliminate and exterminate 543 00:26:35.145 --> 00:26:36.595 all the normals. 544 00:26:37.147 --> 00:26:39.252 - Not every one of the Churches of the SubGenius 545 00:26:39.287 --> 00:26:42.704 gets along with one another cause it's the group for people 546 00:26:42.739 --> 00:26:44.982 who can't join groups. 547 00:26:45.880 --> 00:26:48.330 I've often tried to explain to people about 548 00:26:48.365 --> 00:26:49.435 Church of the SubGenius, 549 00:26:49.469 --> 00:26:52.369 these can be very smart, talented people, 550 00:26:52.403 --> 00:26:56.994 but somewhere along line they've got a personality problem 551 00:26:57.029 --> 00:26:59.445 that keeps them from joining in and being 552 00:26:59.479 --> 00:27:01.447 sociable and 553 00:27:01.481 --> 00:27:03.898 popular and 554 00:27:03.932 --> 00:27:04.864 normal. 555 00:27:06.314 --> 00:27:09.179 [radio distortion] 556 00:27:09.213 --> 00:27:11.284 [Woman on tape] I like go to the lake. 557 00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:13.873 I like to roller-skate and go walking around. 558 00:27:13.908 --> 00:27:16.358 Um, I like to do- 559 00:27:16.393 --> 00:27:19.016 - This character named Doug Wellman 560 00:27:19.051 --> 00:27:21.847 using the handle Puzzling Evidence, 561 00:27:21.881 --> 00:27:27.128 he was way ahead of us in collaging found sound. 562 00:27:27.162 --> 00:27:32.823 [indistinct distorted noise] 563 00:27:32.858 --> 00:27:36.137 [Paul] Doug Wellman had been making these audio collage tapes 564 00:27:36.171 --> 00:27:39.934 with sound effects and improvised, 565 00:27:39.968 --> 00:27:41.452 humor as it were. 566 00:27:41.487 --> 00:27:43.385 - It was like a network of people that traded 567 00:27:43.420 --> 00:27:44.421 cassette tapes. 568 00:27:44.455 --> 00:27:46.768 - You'd get the tape and you'd listen to the tape 569 00:27:46.803 --> 00:27:49.737 and you'd immediately start a tape back to the friend 570 00:27:49.771 --> 00:27:51.911 and it was just such a great way to communicate. 571 00:27:51.946 --> 00:27:55.087 [CoSG tape] Wouldn't you like revenge on these mediocritines, 572 00:27:55.121 --> 00:27:56.467 these pink boys, 573 00:27:56.502 --> 00:28:00.368 these normals who have made normality the norm? 574 00:28:02.266 --> 00:28:04.786 - Doug was in Berkeley and I was in San Francisco 575 00:28:04.821 --> 00:28:09.308 and we turned on KPFA and heard ourselves on the radio, 576 00:28:09.342 --> 00:28:11.793 which was a little moment of discontinuity 577 00:28:11.828 --> 00:28:14.140 because how could we be on the radio when we were 578 00:28:14.175 --> 00:28:15.935 here listening to it 579 00:28:15.970 --> 00:28:19.387 and it turned out this fellow had gotten a hold of one of 580 00:28:19.421 --> 00:28:24.047 Doug's tapes and was just filling his show out with them. 581 00:28:24.081 --> 00:28:28.879 We contacted him and invited ourself onto his show 582 00:28:28.914 --> 00:28:32.952 and at some point that became our Slack, 583 00:28:32.987 --> 00:28:35.990 which, you know, was a great name because the show 584 00:28:36.024 --> 00:28:38.337 is actually 90 minutes long. 585 00:28:38.855 --> 00:28:43.307 [CoSG Radio] Welcome to the SubGenius Radio Ministry 586 00:28:43.342 --> 00:28:45.965 Hour of Slack. 587 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.554 - This gave us a body of cassette tapes 588 00:28:48.588 --> 00:28:52.178 that made us sound a little more developed than we really were. 589 00:28:52.213 --> 00:28:54.525 [Paul] Nobody had met each other to that point. 590 00:28:54.560 --> 00:28:57.770 No real events or anything. 591 00:28:57.805 --> 00:29:01.187 It was all just a mail media network. 592 00:29:01.463 --> 00:29:04.259 There were finally enough people who were curious about 593 00:29:04.294 --> 00:29:07.953 each other and becoming actual friends that we wanted to meet, 594 00:29:07.987 --> 00:29:12.405 so we decided we were going to have a convention in Dallas. 595 00:29:16.202 --> 00:29:18.549 - Have you ever wondered about your neighbors? 596 00:29:18.584 --> 00:29:21.173 Maybe wondered about the weird thumps and bumps 597 00:29:21.207 --> 00:29:23.796 or chants emanating from their apartment? 598 00:29:23.831 --> 00:29:27.110 They may be followers of Bob, that's the fastest growing cult 599 00:29:27.144 --> 00:29:28.318 here in the Southwest. 600 00:29:28.352 --> 00:29:31.183 [Stang] Somehow or another, Channel 4 News 601 00:29:31.217 --> 00:29:34.289 got wind of this SubGenius thing. 602 00:29:35.014 --> 00:29:38.190 [Paul] Ivan was really resistant at first. 603 00:29:39.018 --> 00:29:40.917 [Stang] I was married to a schoolteacher. 604 00:29:40.951 --> 00:29:44.023 We didn't want to get my wife in trouble or get Philo fired, 605 00:29:44.058 --> 00:29:46.888 plus Philo's parents didn't know anything about this 606 00:29:46.923 --> 00:29:48.027 whole SubGenius thing. 607 00:29:48.062 --> 00:29:49.373 They were very religious. 608 00:29:49.408 --> 00:29:51.513 - I didn't ever want to do anything that was 609 00:29:51.548 --> 00:29:54.033 going to embarrass them in public. 610 00:29:54.068 --> 00:29:57.174 Even though I had this really strong need to rebel, 611 00:29:57.209 --> 00:29:59.073 I wanted to kind of do it privately. 612 00:29:59.107 --> 00:30:03.974 The church is so omni-pervasive that we couldn't possibly 613 00:30:04.009 --> 00:30:07.598 get into the dogma in any less than three or four hours. 614 00:30:07.633 --> 00:30:10.981 I thought maybe a secret identity is a good thing. 615 00:30:11.499 --> 00:30:13.259 [News Anchor] It's the Church of the SubGenius 616 00:30:13.294 --> 00:30:15.054 and they're holding a revival. 617 00:30:15.089 --> 00:30:17.850 - My name is Sternodox from Little Rock, Arkansas. 618 00:30:17.885 --> 00:30:21.198 This is Puzzling Evidence representative Doug Wellman 619 00:30:21.233 --> 00:30:23.442 from, Oakland, California. 620 00:30:23.476 --> 00:30:26.238 - I'm Paul Mavrides from the LIES foundation 621 00:30:26.272 --> 00:30:27.653 in San Francisco, California. 622 00:30:27.687 --> 00:30:29.586 - Deep in the heart of San Francisco. 623 00:30:29.620 --> 00:30:32.071 [Stang] People came from all over the country. 624 00:30:32.106 --> 00:30:35.212 - I'm from Houston and I came to learn more about Bob. 625 00:30:35.247 --> 00:30:38.077 - Bob is like a super salesman. 626 00:30:38.112 --> 00:30:40.355 - He can sell you anything and I bought it. 627 00:30:40.390 --> 00:30:42.633 - I just kept hearing the word Bob, Bob, Bob. 628 00:30:42.668 --> 00:30:44.497 It would wake me up in the middle of the night. 629 00:30:44.532 --> 00:30:45.671 I'd wake up doing jumping jacks. 630 00:30:45.705 --> 00:30:47.190 I wouldn't know why. 631 00:30:47.224 --> 00:30:49.468 - Devo was in town 632 00:30:49.502 --> 00:30:52.091 and Mark Mothersbaugh came by. 633 00:30:52.126 --> 00:30:54.576 - It was only by chance that I started receiving mail 634 00:30:54.611 --> 00:30:57.372 from the SubGenius Foundation 635 00:30:57.407 --> 00:30:59.961 and I realized who Bob was. 636 00:30:59.996 --> 00:31:03.033 - Two of the guys from Devo are at the convention. 637 00:31:03.068 --> 00:31:05.518 I thought this is really cool. 638 00:31:05.553 --> 00:31:10.040 - Everything was completely like a parallel universe 639 00:31:10.075 --> 00:31:12.594 to what Devo had been doing back in Akron 640 00:31:12.629 --> 00:31:15.149 and now was trying to foist upon the world. 641 00:31:16.150 --> 00:31:20.671 This was big time major, grade A proof positive 642 00:31:20.706 --> 00:31:22.570 that it had been going on somewhere else. 643 00:31:23.226 --> 00:31:26.539 - There's a good Bob and there is a bad Bob. 644 00:31:26.574 --> 00:31:29.991 There's a big tall Bob and there's a little short Bob. 645 00:31:30.026 --> 00:31:32.545 There's a kitchen Bob and a living room Bob... 646 00:31:32.580 --> 00:31:34.409 [crosstalk] 647 00:31:34.444 --> 00:31:36.549 [Reporter] And where is Bob leading them? 648 00:31:36.584 --> 00:31:39.725 - When you first look at it, some people go, "Oh, I get it. 649 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:43.556 This is a takeoff on weird cults and conspiracies." 650 00:31:43.591 --> 00:31:45.420 Then they look a little bit deeper 651 00:31:45.455 --> 00:31:48.458 and if they're really an attuned sort of person, 652 00:31:48.492 --> 00:31:50.391 then they realize, "Oh, I get it. 653 00:31:50.425 --> 00:31:54.153 This really is a weird cult with cosmic wisdom and dogma 654 00:31:54.188 --> 00:31:56.155 that I've been needing all my life," 655 00:31:56.190 --> 00:31:59.952 and that's usually when they write their first check. 656 00:31:59.987 --> 00:32:02.437 - Kelly Lane, Channel 4 News, Dallas. 657 00:32:02.472 --> 00:32:05.199 - As the song says, different strokes for different folks. 658 00:32:05.233 --> 00:32:08.029 - Doug's been standing out in the sun too long, I think. 659 00:32:08.064 --> 00:32:09.272 [laughing] 660 00:32:09.306 --> 00:32:11.584 - I lost my ass on that. 661 00:32:11.619 --> 00:32:14.622 It was disastrous for me personally, 662 00:32:14.656 --> 00:32:18.177 it hurt my job 663 00:32:18.212 --> 00:32:21.663 and probably my marriage. 664 00:32:23.355 --> 00:32:26.772 [Philo] He was struggling to make money 665 00:32:26.806 --> 00:32:30.776 and I have to admit for me that was probably the time in my life 666 00:32:30.810 --> 00:32:35.091 when I had the least amount of trouble earning an income. 667 00:32:36.023 --> 00:32:39.612 - I was in the perfect position of being desperate enough 668 00:32:39.647 --> 00:32:43.547 to do low budget promotion for a weird cult. 669 00:32:43.582 --> 00:32:45.756 [Philo] Stark Fist... 670 00:32:45.791 --> 00:32:47.966 7,000 of them. 671 00:32:48.518 --> 00:32:50.209 That's a lot of weird shit. 672 00:32:50.244 --> 00:32:51.176 - It certainly is. 673 00:32:51.210 --> 00:32:53.350 - I kicked in a few bucks now and then, 674 00:32:53.385 --> 00:32:57.251 for the most part he was the guy that was shelling out his money. 675 00:32:57.665 --> 00:33:00.081 - Now you should make a film about slave labor 676 00:33:00.116 --> 00:33:01.220 in the SubGenius church. 677 00:33:01.255 --> 00:33:02.221 - That's what I'm doing. 678 00:33:02.256 --> 00:33:03.257 - Yeah. 679 00:33:03.291 --> 00:33:06.605 - I was kidnapped in my native country of Africa 680 00:33:06.639 --> 00:33:08.503 walking down the street 681 00:33:08.538 --> 00:33:11.403 and these five people came up and told me to 682 00:33:11.437 --> 00:33:15.096 get over here to American and fold these damn envelope. 683 00:33:16.235 --> 00:33:19.445 - It was like a carrot was being dangled in front of me 684 00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:21.551 personally all the time. 685 00:33:21.585 --> 00:33:23.277 This thing could be big. 686 00:33:24.795 --> 00:33:26.763 - We were aware that we were sort of 687 00:33:26.797 --> 00:33:28.178 influencing other of the people. 688 00:33:28.213 --> 00:33:29.317 That was exciting. 689 00:33:29.352 --> 00:33:31.043 You didn't know who, but you could kind of tell other 690 00:33:31.078 --> 00:33:34.115 people were like, "What's that Bob thing you're doing?" 691 00:33:35.737 --> 00:33:37.670 [Linklater] I kind of wish I had found the Church of the 692 00:33:37.705 --> 00:33:41.536 SubGenius when I was a teenager living in East Texas, 693 00:33:41.571 --> 00:33:44.056 a little town where the state prison was 694 00:33:44.091 --> 00:33:46.852 and it was nothing but Baptist churches everywhere, 695 00:33:46.886 --> 00:33:48.267 which my family didn't go to. 696 00:33:48.302 --> 00:33:51.063 So we were sort of the oddballs. 697 00:33:51.788 --> 00:33:53.755 - What do you do to earn a living? 698 00:33:53.790 --> 00:33:55.550 - You mean work? 699 00:33:55.585 --> 00:33:58.553 To hell with the kind of work you have to do to earn a living. 700 00:33:58.588 --> 00:34:00.348 All that does is fill the bellies of the pigs 701 00:34:00.383 --> 00:34:02.281 who exploit us. 702 00:34:02.316 --> 00:34:03.179 - They look at you and say, 703 00:34:03.213 --> 00:34:04.559 "Oh, you're not getting anything done. 704 00:34:04.594 --> 00:34:06.285 "You're a bum. 705 00:34:06.320 --> 00:34:07.355 "You're a slacker. 706 00:34:07.390 --> 00:34:09.737 You're disengaged," 707 00:34:09.771 --> 00:34:12.636 all the put downs that people throw at people 708 00:34:12.671 --> 00:34:14.811 who seem to be living their own lives, 709 00:34:14.845 --> 00:34:18.539 who kind of following their own passions. 710 00:34:19.126 --> 00:34:20.092 [Interviewer] What is this? 711 00:34:20.127 --> 00:34:24.165 Some kind of a psychic TV type parallel... 712 00:34:24.200 --> 00:34:29.377 - Well, we all know the psychic powers of the televised image, 713 00:34:29.412 --> 00:34:32.622 but we need to capitalize on it 714 00:34:32.656 --> 00:34:36.350 and make it work for us instead of us working for it. 715 00:34:36.695 --> 00:34:37.799 [Linklater] That's a threat. 716 00:34:37.834 --> 00:34:40.285 That's a threat to The Conspiracy. 717 00:34:40.319 --> 00:34:43.115 That's a threat to the mediocrity machine 718 00:34:43.150 --> 00:34:46.291 that is the modern capitalist world. 719 00:34:47.499 --> 00:34:51.192 [Philo] Other creative people started coming into the church. 720 00:34:51.227 --> 00:34:54.333 [Penn Jillette] There was a guy who owned a record store 721 00:34:54.368 --> 00:34:55.886 in Amherst, Massachusetts. 722 00:34:55.921 --> 00:34:58.682 I think he's the one that told me about the SubGenius. 723 00:34:58.717 --> 00:35:02.617 I was told at one point that I was the only person 724 00:35:02.652 --> 00:35:05.241 who had paid his dues to the SubGenius 725 00:35:05.275 --> 00:35:07.174 every single time they asked. 726 00:35:07.588 --> 00:35:10.556 The effect they had on David Byrne, 727 00:35:10.591 --> 00:35:12.489 the effect they had on The Residents, 728 00:35:12.524 --> 00:35:14.767 the effect they had on Paul Reubens. 729 00:35:14.802 --> 00:35:16.804 Even people who didn't know 730 00:35:16.838 --> 00:35:20.221 were building on SubGenius tropes 731 00:35:20.256 --> 00:35:21.809 and sensibilities. 732 00:35:22.430 --> 00:35:23.707 [Philo] It was very flattering. 733 00:35:23.742 --> 00:35:26.365 Some of these people were like our heroes. 734 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:28.954 So to be recognized by your heroes, 735 00:35:28.988 --> 00:35:30.783 it's a real ego boost. 736 00:35:30.818 --> 00:35:33.545 We actually got big heads and stuff. 737 00:35:38.688 --> 00:35:41.760 [Stang] My sister-in-law, she'd moved to New York 738 00:35:41.794 --> 00:35:44.176 and was in the publishing business. 739 00:35:44.211 --> 00:35:46.523 She went to a picnic with a bunch of other people in the 740 00:35:46.558 --> 00:35:50.320 publishing business and a young man named Tim McGinnis, 741 00:35:50.355 --> 00:35:53.634 who was a brand new editor at McGraw Hill, 742 00:35:53.668 --> 00:35:58.673 found this smudged pamphlet on the floor of her car. 743 00:35:58.708 --> 00:36:00.434 He goes, "Where'd this come from?" 744 00:36:00.468 --> 00:36:02.229 She goes, "Oh it's my crazy brother-in-law. 745 00:36:02.263 --> 00:36:03.747 He and his buddy did this." 746 00:36:03.782 --> 00:36:05.818 He goes, "I want to get in touch with him. 747 00:36:05.853 --> 00:36:07.544 And tell him to get an agent." 748 00:36:09.339 --> 00:36:12.549 Next thing we knew Simon and Schuster, McGraw Hill 749 00:36:12.584 --> 00:36:17.244 and MacMillan were all bidding on the book of the SubGenius, 750 00:36:17.278 --> 00:36:21.386 which caused the asking price to go up to $20,000. 751 00:36:21.420 --> 00:36:24.941 That was enough to pay Paul Mavrides and John Hagan-Brenner 752 00:36:24.975 --> 00:36:27.806 to do professional design on it. 753 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:31.396 - Doug brought in hand-scrawled manuscripts 754 00:36:31.430 --> 00:36:37.298 and packets of clip art and stuff that he wanted included 755 00:36:37.333 --> 00:36:39.990 so I'd take a chapter and I'd paste it up, 756 00:36:40.025 --> 00:36:42.924 I'd generate some original material. 757 00:36:42.959 --> 00:36:47.619 [Stang] John's style was perfect because it kind of 758 00:36:47.653 --> 00:36:49.552 matched the clip art. 759 00:36:49.586 --> 00:36:51.761 [Philo] When McGraw Hill first released it, 760 00:36:51.795 --> 00:36:54.557 some places we could find it in the religion section, 761 00:36:54.591 --> 00:36:57.560 and I thought that was a huge win. 762 00:36:57.870 --> 00:36:59.596 We got a contract for a book. 763 00:36:59.631 --> 00:37:02.530 We got it in the stores and it's in the religion section 764 00:37:02.565 --> 00:37:03.842 instead of the comedy section. 765 00:37:03.876 --> 00:37:05.050 It's not next to Doonesbury. 766 00:37:05.084 --> 00:37:07.017 It's next to the Bible and stuff. 767 00:37:07.052 --> 00:37:10.020 - People go, "Man, I barely made it through high school, 768 00:37:10.055 --> 00:37:14.749 "but I stumbled upon your book and I realized 769 00:37:14.784 --> 00:37:16.889 I'm not the only one." 770 00:37:17.752 --> 00:37:19.478 [Penn] I got that book. 771 00:37:19.513 --> 00:37:22.067 I read it beginning to end. 772 00:37:22.101 --> 00:37:23.793 I absorbed that book. 773 00:37:23.827 --> 00:37:25.070 I adored that book. 774 00:37:25.104 --> 00:37:26.658 I love that book. 775 00:37:26.692 --> 00:37:30.765 They kept me with, "I get this, I get this, I get this. 776 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:33.941 "I understand that this is directly from my heart... 777 00:37:34.700 --> 00:37:36.737 "What the fuck are they talking about? 778 00:37:36.771 --> 00:37:38.980 I have no idea what this is." 779 00:37:39.015 --> 00:37:41.707 - This is the word of all mighty Bob... 780 00:37:41.742 --> 00:37:43.433 Is the roadmap. 781 00:37:43.468 --> 00:37:45.711 There is no other book like this book. 782 00:37:45.746 --> 00:37:47.541 No other word like this word. 783 00:37:47.575 --> 00:37:52.580 - It was these older, wiser miscreants 784 00:37:52.615 --> 00:37:56.619 letting us know that indeed, all of these human-made 785 00:37:56.653 --> 00:38:00.968 organizational systems are as flawed as you suspect 786 00:38:01.002 --> 00:38:03.108 because they're made by us. 787 00:38:03.142 --> 00:38:05.421 - This was the age of Jim Jones 788 00:38:05.455 --> 00:38:09.804 and all kinds of other vampires and psychic parasites 789 00:38:09.839 --> 00:38:14.084 out there using religion to establish 790 00:38:14.119 --> 00:38:17.916 control of a segment of a confused and desperate 791 00:38:17.950 --> 00:38:20.539 population, and there's no shortage of people 792 00:38:20.574 --> 00:38:23.853 like that for reasons good and bad 793 00:38:23.887 --> 00:38:25.993 and real and imagined. 794 00:38:27.615 --> 00:38:32.931 - It's fascinating to me to look at religious experience, 795 00:38:32.965 --> 00:38:34.484 to look at cults, 796 00:38:34.519 --> 00:38:36.348 to look at us and them 797 00:38:36.383 --> 00:38:40.456 and all this stuff that I passionately disavowed, 798 00:38:40.939 --> 00:38:44.114 and then saying to me, which is what the SubGenius did, 799 00:38:44.149 --> 00:38:48.981 "No, no, we know you don't believe in any of this stuff. 800 00:38:49.016 --> 00:38:53.123 "We know that us and them is role, 801 00:38:53.158 --> 00:38:55.850 "But we're going to worship Bob Dobbs 802 00:38:55.885 --> 00:38:58.577 "and we're all a congregation and there's the pinks out there 803 00:38:58.612 --> 00:39:00.648 "and there's us in here and we hate them 804 00:39:00.683 --> 00:39:03.410 and we love us and won't that be fun for a little while?" 805 00:39:03.444 --> 00:39:06.067 - Slack is a gift to the God. 806 00:39:06.102 --> 00:39:08.932 The Baptist Church did not save you. 807 00:39:08.967 --> 00:39:11.935 The Catholic Church did not save you. 808 00:39:11.970 --> 00:39:14.869 The Unification Church did not save you. 809 00:39:14.904 --> 00:39:17.665 The Jewish Synagogue did not save you. 810 00:39:17.700 --> 00:39:20.081 The Church of the SubGenius did not save you, 811 00:39:20.116 --> 00:39:21.462 but it was Bob. 812 00:39:21.497 --> 00:39:23.395 Bob who walked on hot pavements- 813 00:39:23.430 --> 00:39:26.156 [Paul] We actually are a religion. 814 00:39:26.191 --> 00:39:27.365 You know, uh... 815 00:39:27.399 --> 00:39:31.161 that seems like a art piece that seems like a religion 816 00:39:31.196 --> 00:39:34.579 that seems like performance art that seems like a joke 817 00:39:34.613 --> 00:39:36.166 that seems like a religion. 818 00:39:36.201 --> 00:39:40.481 - Simply because we're involved in something that is funny, 819 00:39:40.516 --> 00:39:43.450 we don't believe that for that reason we should be taken 820 00:39:43.484 --> 00:39:45.486 any less seriously. 821 00:39:45.900 --> 00:39:49.628 - We started getting invited to things like art museums. 822 00:39:49.663 --> 00:39:52.493 They thought it was performance art. 823 00:39:52.528 --> 00:39:56.083 [Paul] Ivan Stang was approached by a fellow in San Francisco, 824 00:39:56.117 --> 00:39:59.845 wanted to put on a SubGenius party in San Francisco 825 00:39:59.880 --> 00:40:03.608 and Zoe pictured some storefront or a loft or something 826 00:40:03.642 --> 00:40:07.577 with a hundred people and went, "Yeah, we'll do that." 827 00:40:07.612 --> 00:40:09.959 And we came back to the second meeting 828 00:40:09.993 --> 00:40:11.581 and Tom was all excited. 829 00:40:11.616 --> 00:40:15.102 He had gone out and rented a 900 seat theater 830 00:40:15.136 --> 00:40:16.552 for two nights. 831 00:40:16.586 --> 00:40:18.968 - San Francisco tonight is the location of the 832 00:40:19.002 --> 00:40:23.973 first international SubGenius World Survival Crusade. 833 00:40:24.007 --> 00:40:26.631 [Paul] TV stations picked up on the show. 834 00:40:26.665 --> 00:40:29.496 [Beirn] It all began with the book of the SubGenius 835 00:40:29.530 --> 00:40:31.774 and the Church's deity, Bob Dobbs. 836 00:40:31.808 --> 00:40:35.709 - I was preparing tacos one day for my children and... 837 00:40:37.952 --> 00:40:39.022 [Beirn] Now Bob- 838 00:40:39.057 --> 00:40:40.817 - The face appeared and it's Bob. 839 00:40:40.852 --> 00:40:44.511 [Stang] The night of Slack show in San Francisco in 1984 840 00:40:44.545 --> 00:40:47.962 was the first time anybody had put any money 841 00:40:47.997 --> 00:40:49.826 into a SubGenius show 842 00:40:49.861 --> 00:40:53.899 and flew several people from Dallas and other cities 843 00:40:53.934 --> 00:40:56.005 into San Francisco 844 00:40:56.039 --> 00:40:59.629 and there was even a paid stage manager. 845 00:40:59.664 --> 00:41:03.668 There were people building sets just for that show. 846 00:41:03.702 --> 00:41:05.808 About half the people here will have a great time. 847 00:41:05.842 --> 00:41:08.120 The rest of them will probably run for the exits. 848 00:41:08.811 --> 00:41:10.916 [Paul] The one thing none of us were at that point, 849 00:41:10.951 --> 00:41:13.263 and still aren't, are professionals 850 00:41:13.298 --> 00:41:18.027 and I knew that nobody had ever been in front of an audience 851 00:41:18.061 --> 00:41:21.133 as big as the one we were hopefully going to draw. 852 00:41:21.168 --> 00:41:23.722 - I remember Friday night going out around the corner 853 00:41:23.757 --> 00:41:25.621 of the Victoria Theater and the line went out, 854 00:41:25.655 --> 00:41:27.761 up to Mission and around the corner; 855 00:41:27.795 --> 00:41:29.521 I almost threw up because I thought, 856 00:41:29.556 --> 00:41:32.835 "We're not showman, these people are paying $7.50." 857 00:41:32.869 --> 00:41:35.665 - It looked like it was going to be a disaster. 858 00:41:37.149 --> 00:41:38.737 As people were coming in, 859 00:41:38.772 --> 00:41:43.846 we had a galvanized tub of evil-looking Kool-Aid. 860 00:41:45.123 --> 00:41:47.090 - Some people would come over and they would take it eagerly, 861 00:41:47.125 --> 00:41:49.714 the Dixie cups, just like they did in Jonestown 862 00:41:49.748 --> 00:41:52.268 and they would drink it and they would come over and say, 863 00:41:52.302 --> 00:41:53.925 "How long till I get off?" 864 00:41:53.959 --> 00:41:57.307 And they thought it was like, acid Kool-Aid, 865 00:41:57.342 --> 00:42:00.034 it was like, "Oh, about 20 minutes." 866 00:42:00.932 --> 00:42:03.762 - Of course some people were very nervous. 867 00:42:03.797 --> 00:42:08.595 The real question was, is this cyanide or LSD? 868 00:42:10.976 --> 00:42:13.772 We made sure it was non-sweetened 869 00:42:13.807 --> 00:42:16.154 so we wouldn't kill any diabetics. 870 00:42:16.188 --> 00:42:18.190 [organ music] 871 00:42:25.025 --> 00:42:27.579 [tempo picks up] 872 00:42:27.614 --> 00:42:29.616 [cheers and clapping] 873 00:42:35.656 --> 00:42:36.795 [Philo] It was great. 874 00:42:36.830 --> 00:42:40.109 It was really the first event where a lot of people 875 00:42:40.143 --> 00:42:42.939 got together and said, "Hey, we're all SubGeniuses," 876 00:42:42.974 --> 00:42:44.182 rubbing elbows. 877 00:42:45.701 --> 00:42:47.599 - The Night of Slack ran for two nights 878 00:42:47.634 --> 00:42:50.637 and was surprisingly successful. 879 00:42:51.292 --> 00:42:54.882 [Stang] It was the first show that Bob Dobbs himself 880 00:42:54.917 --> 00:42:56.228 ever showed up at. 881 00:42:56.263 --> 00:42:59.024 We were not expecting that at all. 882 00:43:00.785 --> 00:43:02.925 He walked out on stage, 883 00:43:02.959 --> 00:43:05.272 and then Puzzling Evidence, Doug Wellman, 884 00:43:05.306 --> 00:43:09.345 runs out and shoots him with a hand gun 885 00:43:09.379 --> 00:43:11.140 right in front of everybody. 886 00:43:11.174 --> 00:43:17.215 [indistinct crowd chatter] 887 00:43:17.249 --> 00:43:19.838 - Oh my God, Bob was killed that night. 888 00:43:19.873 --> 00:43:21.357 It was so sad. 889 00:43:21.391 --> 00:43:22.220 [laughing] 890 00:43:22.254 --> 00:43:23.980 - We were coming from the airport 891 00:43:24.015 --> 00:43:27.397 and I got to thinking, if you want to sell a religion, 892 00:43:27.432 --> 00:43:28.778 you have to kill the deity. 893 00:43:28.813 --> 00:43:29.952 That's how you do it. 894 00:43:29.986 --> 00:43:32.713 So I shot Bob thinking the thing would just take off. 895 00:43:32.748 --> 00:43:35.992 [Stang] The audience went berserk. 896 00:43:36.027 --> 00:43:39.133 But the funny thing was the cops didn't care. 897 00:43:39.168 --> 00:43:40.652 Nobody cared afterwards. 898 00:43:40.687 --> 00:43:42.136 People were having drinks. 899 00:43:42.171 --> 00:43:46.934 The band was dancing on the corpse of J.R. Bob Dobbs. 900 00:43:46.969 --> 00:43:50.973 [chaotic music] 901 00:43:51.007 --> 00:43:53.700 - It was this chance to just sing 902 00:43:53.734 --> 00:43:55.356 and dance and be crazy. 903 00:43:55.391 --> 00:43:58.946 It was really, really, really, really fun. 904 00:43:59.429 --> 00:44:02.398 - Science does not remove the terror of the gods. 905 00:44:03.433 --> 00:44:06.816 We can't do much about those evil gods 906 00:44:06.851 --> 00:44:09.025 from the other side of the cosmos. 907 00:44:09.301 --> 00:44:10.855 But enough of this, 908 00:44:10.889 --> 00:44:12.304 you don't want to hear about this. 909 00:44:12.339 --> 00:44:14.444 Who is the right hand man of Bob? 910 00:44:14.479 --> 00:44:17.240 Who sits on the right hand side of Bob? 911 00:44:17.275 --> 00:44:21.693 None other than the Reverend Ivan Stang. 912 00:44:21.728 --> 00:44:29.149 [cheers and applause] 913 00:44:29.183 --> 00:44:35.224 [cheers and applause] 914 00:44:36.087 --> 00:44:42.024 - I'm not here to talk about the Bleeding Head of Arnold Palmer. 915 00:44:43.094 --> 00:44:47.029 - One of the things that we liked to talk about 916 00:44:47.063 --> 00:44:49.272 was how the Church of the SubGenius would allow you 917 00:44:49.307 --> 00:44:51.723 to control your own time. 918 00:44:51.758 --> 00:44:54.450 - Can we have the house lights up a little bit? 919 00:44:54.484 --> 00:44:56.797 - We decided to have our producer 920 00:44:56.832 --> 00:44:59.144 be our plant in the audience. 921 00:44:59.179 --> 00:45:02.389 - There's a main doctrine of the church called time control. 922 00:45:02.423 --> 00:45:03.424 Many people don't want it. 923 00:45:03.459 --> 00:45:04.909 Will you take your watch off? 924 00:45:04.943 --> 00:45:07.463 [audience laughing] 925 00:45:07.497 --> 00:45:08.947 It's a nice watch. 926 00:45:08.982 --> 00:45:11.398 [audience laughing] 927 00:45:14.125 --> 00:45:18.405 [Paul] Then before he presumably could be stopped, 928 00:45:18.439 --> 00:45:21.822 Ivan put the watch down on the concrete block 929 00:45:21.857 --> 00:45:24.238 and not just smashed the watch, 930 00:45:24.273 --> 00:45:27.069 but broke the concrete block into pieces. 931 00:45:28.277 --> 00:45:29.830 - Time control. 932 00:45:29.865 --> 00:45:31.418 It is time control. 933 00:45:31.452 --> 00:45:33.247 You've got to be willing to kill everything 934 00:45:33.282 --> 00:45:34.835 in your previous life. 935 00:45:34.870 --> 00:45:38.390 [Paul] And then what happened was the unexpected. 936 00:45:38.425 --> 00:45:40.979 We were going to move on to the next thing, 937 00:45:41.014 --> 00:45:44.811 but people in the audience suddenly ran up to us 938 00:45:44.845 --> 00:45:46.985 and started taking their watches off 939 00:45:47.020 --> 00:45:49.022 and throwing them on stage. 940 00:45:50.161 --> 00:45:52.853 Some of them were really nice watches, 941 00:45:52.888 --> 00:45:56.408 but the audience demanded that we smashed them all. 942 00:45:56.443 --> 00:45:59.239 [audience cheering] 943 00:45:59.273 --> 00:46:02.967 Doug had to sit up there and smashing one after another. 944 00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:07.040 So there it was. 945 00:46:07.074 --> 00:46:10.388 The audience was ready to take it way beyond 946 00:46:10.422 --> 00:46:12.045 what we were doing. 947 00:46:12.321 --> 00:46:13.460 - Praise Bob! 948 00:46:13.494 --> 00:46:14.426 Praise Bob! 949 00:46:14.461 --> 00:46:16.152 [Wellman] I thought this thing goes farther 950 00:46:16.187 --> 00:46:17.809 than I ever imagined. 951 00:46:19.569 --> 00:46:22.331 - We had run for the exits, but only in order to get 952 00:46:22.365 --> 00:46:24.471 you this report on time tonight. 953 00:46:24.505 --> 00:46:26.438 However, if you're the kind of person who likes to 954 00:46:26.473 --> 00:46:28.337 pull the wool over your own eyes, 955 00:46:28.371 --> 00:46:30.960 church is in session again tomorrow at 8:00 PM. 956 00:46:30.995 --> 00:46:33.066 - That was an amazing evening 957 00:46:33.100 --> 00:46:37.449 and also, I met my first crazy SubGenius. 958 00:46:38.554 --> 00:46:42.420 This was the first person I ran into 959 00:46:42.454 --> 00:46:46.907 who took it all the wrong way. 960 00:46:47.494 --> 00:46:51.878 He came up to me after that second show and he was livid. 961 00:46:51.912 --> 00:46:54.466 "The people in Dallas that did this thing, and Bob, 962 00:46:54.501 --> 00:46:56.606 "when they find out you're just making a Sonny and Cher 963 00:46:56.641 --> 00:46:59.299 "Comedy Show out of it, they're going to kill you. 964 00:46:59.333 --> 00:47:00.265 "This is terrible. 965 00:47:00.300 --> 00:47:01.853 "Look in this book here it says, 966 00:47:01.888 --> 00:47:03.337 "stop what you're doing right now. 967 00:47:03.372 --> 00:47:04.304 "This is serious. 968 00:47:04.338 --> 00:47:05.512 "This is not a fan club. 969 00:47:05.546 --> 00:47:06.478 This is not a joke." 970 00:47:06.513 --> 00:47:10.482 And I said, "Dude, I wrote all that stuff. 971 00:47:10.517 --> 00:47:13.244 "Me and Philo got high one night and we wrote all this crap. 972 00:47:13.278 --> 00:47:14.383 Give me a break." 973 00:47:14.417 --> 00:47:16.143 It really shook me up. 974 00:47:17.248 --> 00:47:19.215 [Philo] It was a little bit scary. 975 00:47:19.250 --> 00:47:22.391 We realized some crazy people are attracted to this. 976 00:47:22.425 --> 00:47:25.359 You know the ones that are like, "Where's Bob? 977 00:47:25.394 --> 00:47:27.845 No, where's the real Bob?" 978 00:47:28.984 --> 00:47:32.056 - I think what starts off like a joke, 979 00:47:32.090 --> 00:47:35.093 a few kind of believers who want their life to have 980 00:47:35.128 --> 00:47:38.372 a little more meaning than it does or they feel it does 981 00:47:38.407 --> 00:47:41.375 and then they get a little too gung-ho. 982 00:47:41.410 --> 00:47:43.274 They want to adhere a little too much. 983 00:47:43.308 --> 00:47:47.312 They start believing a little too much, and then here we go. 984 00:47:49.418 --> 00:47:52.007 [Penn] You are playing with fire 985 00:47:52.041 --> 00:47:57.012 and the idea of taking fire 986 00:47:57.046 --> 00:47:59.531 and doing what the SubGenius did, 987 00:47:59.566 --> 00:48:01.533 which is setting off fireworks. 988 00:48:01.568 --> 00:48:02.949 It's really beautiful. 989 00:48:02.983 --> 00:48:04.260 It's really fun. 990 00:48:04.295 --> 00:48:09.196 And every second of that, 991 00:48:09.231 --> 00:48:11.509 just a little bit of gasoline 992 00:48:11.543 --> 00:48:14.167 and it'll tear your face off. 993 00:48:15.202 --> 00:48:17.722 - There are religions that were 994 00:48:17.756 --> 00:48:21.208 originally intended to be jokes 995 00:48:21.243 --> 00:48:23.693 and then they turned into gangs, 996 00:48:23.728 --> 00:48:25.592 you know, into mafias. 997 00:48:26.317 --> 00:48:30.252 - I'm here to offer you an opportunity to know 998 00:48:30.286 --> 00:48:34.221 the truth so that if you can connect with it, 999 00:48:34.256 --> 00:48:36.534 then you might survive. 1000 00:48:36.983 --> 00:48:39.330 - It's a kind of horrifying moment when we realized 1001 00:48:39.364 --> 00:48:43.368 that we could probably pick up 300 people randomly 1002 00:48:43.403 --> 00:48:47.476 from anywhere who had pledged their lives to us 1003 00:48:47.510 --> 00:48:49.064 if we asked them to. 1004 00:48:49.098 --> 00:48:52.136 [screaming] 1005 00:48:52.170 --> 00:48:55.208 - I suspect that some of the people who call themselves 1006 00:48:55.242 --> 00:48:58.176 SubGenius were actually replacing their 1007 00:48:58.211 --> 00:49:00.592 childhood religion with this, 1008 00:49:00.627 --> 00:49:03.043 and that wasn't my world view, 1009 00:49:03.078 --> 00:49:06.357 but when I saw people do that, it was a little scary. 1010 00:49:07.185 --> 00:49:09.601 - I guess I was angry at... 1011 00:49:09.636 --> 00:49:10.982 everyone. 1012 00:49:12.156 --> 00:49:15.159 I'd been treated pretty shitty my entire life by folks. 1013 00:49:16.539 --> 00:49:18.231 Their message appealed to me. 1014 00:49:18.645 --> 00:49:23.132 [Paul] The traditional exchange is that you 1015 00:49:23.167 --> 00:49:25.341 take responsibility for them. 1016 00:49:25.376 --> 00:49:28.758 They want you to tell them what to do, 1017 00:49:28.793 --> 00:49:31.451 and this was the kind of power we didn't want. 1018 00:49:31.485 --> 00:49:34.523 It was the exact opposite of what we're aiming for, 1019 00:49:34.557 --> 00:49:38.182 which was to remove people from that kind of a hook. 1020 00:49:38.527 --> 00:49:41.530 [Stang] There are people who really want to join this cult 1021 00:49:41.564 --> 00:49:44.464 and want it to be everything it says it is, 1022 00:49:44.498 --> 00:49:48.261 and then when they find out that it's not anything it says it is, 1023 00:49:48.295 --> 00:49:50.470 they get really mad. 1024 00:49:51.816 --> 00:49:56.545 - You've heard our phrase "fuck them if they can't take a joke." 1025 00:49:56.579 --> 00:49:58.374 This is important to us. 1026 00:49:58.409 --> 00:50:01.791 - Just when you think you might get a handle on-- 1027 00:50:01.826 --> 00:50:04.104 Oh, it's a collaborative network of artists 1028 00:50:04.139 --> 00:50:05.071 all over the country. 1029 00:50:05.105 --> 00:50:06.106 That's all it is. 1030 00:50:06.141 --> 00:50:07.418 Oh no, that's not what it is. 1031 00:50:07.452 --> 00:50:11.801 So it's really a secretly sort of a subversive organization. 1032 00:50:11.836 --> 00:50:13.286 No, no, it's not really that. 1033 00:50:13.320 --> 00:50:14.597 It's just a bunch of drunk guys in Dallas 1034 00:50:14.632 --> 00:50:16.254 trying to freak people out. 1035 00:50:16.289 --> 00:50:18.670 - You either got the joke or you didn't, 1036 00:50:18.705 --> 00:50:21.846 and you got the joke instantly or you didn't. 1037 00:50:21.880 --> 00:50:24.538 - Occasionally people will call us out on that whole 1038 00:50:24.573 --> 00:50:27.127 "fuck them if they can't take a joke" thing or it's like, 1039 00:50:27.162 --> 00:50:29.405 "Well that just excuses everything." 1040 00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:31.787 No, it's just funny. 1041 00:50:31.821 --> 00:50:34.410 - When was the last time you gave a straight answer? 1042 00:50:34.824 --> 00:50:36.550 - Well, these are all... 1043 00:50:36.585 --> 00:50:38.656 We don't care whether they get the joke or not. 1044 00:50:38.690 --> 00:50:39.726 Half of them can't. 1045 00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:41.659 - We're trying to make you laugh 1046 00:50:41.693 --> 00:50:44.144 but also maybe shock you a little bit 1047 00:50:44.179 --> 00:50:46.698 with our irreverence and you may think it's funny. 1048 00:50:46.733 --> 00:50:49.529 We hope you do, but if you don't, 1049 00:50:49.563 --> 00:50:50.633 you shouldn't punish us 1050 00:50:50.668 --> 00:50:54.396 because we are trying to deliver medicine of a sort 1051 00:50:54.430 --> 00:50:58.434 and if you can't take the joke, then please go fuck yourself. 1052 00:51:04.475 --> 00:51:07.788 - It began in the heart of the Bible Belt in Dallas, Texas, 1053 00:51:07.823 --> 00:51:10.584 but its membership is spreading across the nation. 1054 00:51:10.619 --> 00:51:12.690 [News Anchor] Their prophet's name is Bob 1055 00:51:12.724 --> 00:51:14.588 and their followers are legion. 1056 00:51:14.623 --> 00:51:17.729 [Paul] Everybody in every mass media liked 1057 00:51:17.764 --> 00:51:20.560 Church of the SubGenius because it was this crazy thing 1058 00:51:20.594 --> 00:51:25.151 that they could just inject into their own stream. 1059 00:51:25.185 --> 00:51:26.876 In the absence of the internet, 1060 00:51:26.911 --> 00:51:29.500 it was kind of a meme for media. 1061 00:51:29.534 --> 00:51:32.641 [Reporter] People, 4,000 of them so far and more every day 1062 00:51:32.675 --> 00:51:34.160 have already joined up. 1063 00:51:34.194 --> 00:51:36.472 Suddenly the joke has become serious. 1064 00:51:36.507 --> 00:51:39.475 - At first it was a joke, but there was something 1065 00:51:39.510 --> 00:51:43.755 much deeper and more life affirming than I even realize. 1066 00:51:43.790 --> 00:51:47.621 - Y'all are out to put down outrageous cult groups. 1067 00:51:47.656 --> 00:51:48.622 What does this mean? 1068 00:51:48.657 --> 00:51:50.659 - No, no, this is an outrageous cult group. 1069 00:51:50.693 --> 00:51:54.904 [Philo] The church was meant to never be mass marketable. 1070 00:51:54.939 --> 00:51:57.355 We never really wanted to have a lot of followers. 1071 00:51:57.390 --> 00:52:00.496 - Basically I was a very lonely weirdo 1072 00:52:00.531 --> 00:52:02.360 in a small Massachusetts town. 1073 00:52:02.395 --> 00:52:05.191 I finally got a boyfriend who was a member of the church 1074 00:52:05.225 --> 00:52:07.917 and show me the pamphlets and I said, this is it. 1075 00:52:07.952 --> 00:52:09.333 - They imparted into me the values 1076 00:52:09.367 --> 00:52:12.232 that have gotten me where I am today. 1077 00:52:12.267 --> 00:52:14.924 - We got this attention, a lot of attention 1078 00:52:14.959 --> 00:52:19.274 and I started a fear that this thing's going to get too big. 1079 00:52:19.619 --> 00:52:21.793 - What the hell do you think you're doing? 1080 00:52:21.828 --> 00:52:24.796 Dragging your butt through the day selling body and soul 1081 00:52:24.831 --> 00:52:27.247 to a bunch of bland normals? 1082 00:52:27.282 --> 00:52:30.250 There is a simple answer, dear friend. 1083 00:52:30.285 --> 00:52:32.563 - I feel like I'm part of something, yeah, 1084 00:52:32.597 --> 00:52:35.428 I feel like I'm finally being represented by something. 1085 00:52:35.462 --> 00:52:39.846 [Speaker] The next president of the United States of Brighton, 1086 00:52:39.880 --> 00:52:42.538 Mr. Bob Dobbs. 1087 00:52:42.573 --> 00:52:44.402 - You have voted by Time Magazine as the 1088 00:52:44.437 --> 00:52:45.679 fraud of the century. 1089 00:52:45.714 --> 00:52:48.406 Do you get any flak from the folks from mainstream religion? 1090 00:52:48.441 --> 00:52:49.787 - Not nearly enough. 1091 00:52:49.821 --> 00:52:52.410 There was a little wave of people going, 1092 00:52:52.445 --> 00:52:53.653 "Oh, they're corporate now. 1093 00:52:53.687 --> 00:52:55.413 "They're huge. "They're sold out. 1094 00:52:55.448 --> 00:52:56.552 They're pink now." 1095 00:52:56.587 --> 00:52:58.830 Well, not really. 1096 00:52:58.865 --> 00:53:00.591 [Philo] Oh, we got Will at just the right time, 1097 00:53:00.625 --> 00:53:01.626 counting checks. 1098 00:53:01.661 --> 00:53:03.249 - Huge wad of cash. 1099 00:53:03.283 --> 00:53:05.630 [Philo] Here we go again. 1100 00:53:05.665 --> 00:53:07.805 [Reporter] Like any other prophet, Bob preaches about 1101 00:53:07.839 --> 00:53:08.840 the end of the world. 1102 00:53:08.875 --> 00:53:11.705 Only his predictions are just a little different. 1103 00:53:11.740 --> 00:53:15.709 - The men from planet X will arrive to rupture 1104 00:53:15.744 --> 00:53:19.713 the true believers of geniuses up into the escape vessels 1105 00:53:19.748 --> 00:53:21.439 of the sex goddesses. 1106 00:53:21.474 --> 00:53:23.579 - Why do you do this? 1107 00:53:23.614 --> 00:53:25.719 [Stang] We offer eternal salvation 1108 00:53:25.754 --> 00:53:27.756 or triple your money back. 1109 00:53:27.790 --> 00:53:29.620 [laughing] 1110 00:53:29.654 --> 00:53:31.346 - Triple your money back. 1111 00:53:31.380 --> 00:53:32.588 - Is the world going to end? 1112 00:53:32.623 --> 00:53:34.038 That's what I'm asking you. 1113 00:53:34.072 --> 00:53:36.247 I said do you have a prophecy of doom here for us? 1114 00:53:36.282 --> 00:53:38.594 - The world will end for those who deserve it. 1115 00:53:38.629 --> 00:53:39.423 - All right, all right. 1116 00:53:39.457 --> 00:53:40.596 - Those who- - Wait, wait, wait, 1117 00:53:40.631 --> 00:53:41.563 now we're getting somewhere. 1118 00:53:41.597 --> 00:53:44.013 All right, so basically here's your deal. 1119 00:53:44.048 --> 00:53:47.707 For 30 bucks, you don't die at the end of the world. 1120 00:53:58.062 --> 00:54:02.411 [screaming and yelling] 1121 00:54:02.446 --> 00:54:04.448 [Stang] It occurred to me, this is the fulcrum event 1122 00:54:04.482 --> 00:54:06.035 of human history. 1123 00:54:06.070 --> 00:54:08.037 This is when we finally get our history back 1124 00:54:08.072 --> 00:54:09.349 in our own hands. 1125 00:54:09.384 --> 00:54:10.385 - What an ass. 1126 00:54:10.419 --> 00:54:14.561 - It's time to join the SubGenius Revolution. 1127 00:54:14.596 --> 00:54:16.045 The countdown has begun. 1128 00:54:16.080 --> 00:54:17.840 It's like Christmas. 1129 00:54:17.875 --> 00:54:20.049 Santa is coming, Santa is coming real soon 1130 00:54:20.084 --> 00:54:21.706 and we've got the short wave you can tune in 1131 00:54:21.741 --> 00:54:23.915 and hear Santa delivering his little gifts of 1132 00:54:23.950 --> 00:54:25.952 death and destruction. 1133 00:54:25.986 --> 00:54:28.506 - At X day, you always see all sorts of different 1134 00:54:28.541 --> 00:54:31.785 people and they all had this kind of common sense of humor, 1135 00:54:31.820 --> 00:54:33.925 a warped sense of humor, a dark sense of humor 1136 00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.721 and I find dark sense of humor to be the most fascinating 1137 00:54:36.756 --> 00:54:39.103 type of sense of humor because it's taboo. 1138 00:54:39.137 --> 00:54:41.416 You could talk about all these taboo subjects 1139 00:54:41.450 --> 00:54:44.522 and make jokes about things that polite company 1140 00:54:44.557 --> 00:54:47.318 would find extremely distasteful. 1141 00:54:47.353 --> 00:54:49.389 - We're going to find out if he's really Jewish. 1142 00:54:49.424 --> 00:54:51.805 [laughing] 1143 00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:53.531 [Follower] Let's make him Jewish if he's not. 1144 00:54:53.566 --> 00:54:55.326 [cheers] 1145 00:54:55.361 --> 00:54:56.845 - It was cool as shit. 1146 00:54:56.879 --> 00:54:59.951 I was a socially awkward person and suddenly, you know, 1147 00:54:59.986 --> 00:55:04.439 after a couple of sermons, I could go to half the towns 1148 00:55:04.473 --> 00:55:07.131 on the East Coast and people would open their doors to me, 1149 00:55:07.165 --> 00:55:08.374 buy me dinner. 1150 00:55:08.408 --> 00:55:13.620 About a week ago, I had a vision of seven o'clock coming, 1151 00:55:13.655 --> 00:55:16.347 and Reverend Stang getting up on stage and making some kind of 1152 00:55:16.382 --> 00:55:19.143 lame excuse while the saucers didn't come, 1153 00:55:19.177 --> 00:55:21.766 then some bent dumb ass out in the audience 1154 00:55:21.801 --> 00:55:23.630 just putting a bullet in him. 1155 00:55:23.665 --> 00:55:28.394 - We're missing Jesus and Stang. 1156 00:55:28.428 --> 00:55:30.741 Perhaps there are some amongst us that are worried 1157 00:55:30.775 --> 00:55:34.020 that if nothing shows up in 20 minutes, 1158 00:55:34.054 --> 00:55:37.334 they're going to get themselves beat to a bloody pulp. 1159 00:55:38.127 --> 00:55:41.027 - There's a white limo pulling up. 1160 00:55:41.061 --> 00:55:42.856 [Speaker] It is a white limousine. 1161 00:55:42.891 --> 00:55:47.585 [indistinct chatter] 1162 00:55:47.620 --> 00:55:48.862 [Follower] Hail the limousine. 1163 00:55:48.897 --> 00:55:50.899 [Stang] Of course, there's tremendous feeling 1164 00:55:50.933 --> 00:55:52.141 of anticipation. 1165 00:55:52.176 --> 00:55:56.076 Twenty years ago I thought 1998 was a million years off. 1166 00:55:56.801 --> 00:55:59.425 Geez it's really coming, this is really happening. 1167 00:56:00.184 --> 00:56:04.499 This is the original handwritten note in J.R. Bob Dobbs 1168 00:56:04.533 --> 00:56:12.541 own hand that says the world ends July 5th, 7am, 1998. 1169 00:56:13.197 --> 00:56:16.994 This is the original paper touched by Bob. 1170 00:56:18.064 --> 00:56:20.584 - It's been difficult to be patient, 1171 00:56:20.618 --> 00:56:22.965 but I knew that if I just persevered, 1172 00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:25.485 I'd be able to say goodbye from above, 1173 00:56:25.520 --> 00:56:26.659 from the saucers. 1174 00:56:26.693 --> 00:56:28.626 [Stang] Thirty seconds. 1175 00:56:28.661 --> 00:56:32.043 - Here's this joke that I've been telling myself 1176 00:56:32.078 --> 00:56:36.013 and other people for over half my life. 1177 00:56:36.565 --> 00:56:40.742 [Followers] Thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, 1178 00:56:40.776 --> 00:56:44.055 nine, eight, seven, 1179 00:56:44.090 --> 00:56:47.576 six, five, four, 1180 00:56:47.611 --> 00:56:50.752 three, two, one. 1181 00:56:50.786 --> 00:56:56.723 Fuck them if they can't take a joke. 1182 00:56:59.554 --> 00:57:02.695 [Onan] And then the saucers didn't show up. 1183 00:57:03.972 --> 00:57:07.665 - At one time, this, uh, date was comfortably far 1184 00:57:07.700 --> 00:57:12.808 in the future, but it has turned out that the 1185 00:57:12.843 --> 00:57:14.845 pleasure saucers of the sex goddesses 1186 00:57:14.879 --> 00:57:17.813 did not descend on that occasion to lift us 1187 00:57:17.848 --> 00:57:21.541 all off into universes of slack. 1188 00:57:22.577 --> 00:57:23.992 [Onan] Everybody was looking around. 1189 00:57:24.026 --> 00:57:25.511 Looking around at each other. 1190 00:57:25.545 --> 00:57:27.582 - He's a charlatan. 1191 00:57:28.686 --> 00:57:30.895 He's a fucking charlatan and he's been lying to us 1192 00:57:30.930 --> 00:57:32.690 all these years. 1193 00:57:32.725 --> 00:57:35.659 There ain't no Bob Dobbs, it's just a fucking dummy. 1194 00:57:35.693 --> 00:57:37.108 It's a fucking dummy. 1195 00:57:37.143 --> 00:57:39.110 - I just did what Bob told me to do. 1196 00:57:40.526 --> 00:57:42.769 - I had a real philosophical problem with the X day thing, 1197 00:57:42.804 --> 00:57:44.806 and I still have a hard time remembering the date 1198 00:57:44.840 --> 00:57:46.014 because in any religion, 1199 00:57:46.048 --> 00:57:47.774 if you have an end of the world date, 1200 00:57:47.809 --> 00:57:50.570 I think it should be written in the bylaws that that date 1201 00:57:50.605 --> 00:57:53.262 has to happen long after you, the person issuing the date, 1202 00:57:53.297 --> 00:57:54.229 is dead. 1203 00:57:54.263 --> 00:57:55.472 You don't put it just a few years later. 1204 00:57:55.506 --> 00:57:59.993 [Philo] We never really expected the Church to go to 1998. 1205 00:58:00.028 --> 00:58:03.997 Back in 1981, we set 98 out there cause it was still 1206 00:58:04.032 --> 00:58:05.171 way out there. 1207 00:58:05.205 --> 00:58:07.794 [Speaker] We tried to warn you children. 1208 00:58:07.829 --> 00:58:09.693 You wouldn't listen. 1209 00:58:11.798 --> 00:58:14.007 You can't take all the money, 1210 00:58:14.042 --> 00:58:15.008 all the girls, 1211 00:58:15.043 --> 00:58:16.147 and all the Slack 1212 00:58:16.182 --> 00:58:18.287 and never have to pay it back. 1213 00:58:18.322 --> 00:58:21.601 We're going to need a good lubricant, aren't we children? 1214 00:58:21.636 --> 00:58:28.608 [screaming and cheering] 1215 00:58:28.643 --> 00:58:34.856 [screaming and cheering] 1216 00:58:34.890 --> 00:58:36.685 [Dr. Legume] I guess to be honest, 1217 00:58:36.720 --> 00:58:39.239 I'd have to say that I never really expected 1218 00:58:39.274 --> 00:58:41.069 any flying saucers. 1219 00:58:42.346 --> 00:58:44.762 To be honest, 1220 00:58:44.797 --> 00:58:48.904 a lot of this stuff is really, really stupid, 1221 00:58:48.939 --> 00:58:53.875 but I guess a lot of people need something really stupid 1222 00:58:53.909 --> 00:58:56.084 in their lives to give it meaning. 1223 00:58:56.602 --> 00:58:58.086 - I don't know, it's still a pretty beautiful world 1224 00:58:58.120 --> 00:59:02.159 we've got here and Bob is still a very important part of my life 1225 00:59:02.193 --> 00:59:03.850 and always will be. 1226 00:59:07.267 --> 00:59:10.581 [Philo] There was some sense that, now what? 1227 00:59:12.963 --> 00:59:15.310 - The decade has been marked by strong growth, 1228 00:59:15.344 --> 00:59:17.761 the lowest unemployment in a generation 1229 00:59:17.795 --> 00:59:20.902 and yet remarkably little inflation. 1230 00:59:20.936 --> 00:59:24.353 [Reporter] Some think it's a boom without end. 1231 00:59:24.388 --> 00:59:28.116 - I was about to give up on the church. 1232 00:59:29.186 --> 00:59:32.361 The thing was 10, 15 years old and people were 1233 00:59:32.396 --> 00:59:33.604 starting to get tired of it 1234 00:59:33.639 --> 00:59:38.989 and things weren't quite as terrifying as they are now. 1235 00:59:40.749 --> 00:59:42.786 [Reporter] As freer trade flourished this decade, 1236 00:59:42.820 --> 00:59:46.065 the internet evolved into a commercial phenomenon. 1237 00:59:46.099 --> 00:59:47.929 - Then the internet came along. 1238 00:59:47.963 --> 00:59:51.346 [Onan] People can tune in to it 24 hours a day. 1239 00:59:51.380 --> 00:59:56.006 [Stang] Suddenly we could reach those fringe people 1240 00:59:56.040 --> 00:59:59.734 that weren't going to run into it in a bookstore. 1241 00:59:59.768 --> 01:00:02.322 [Onan] There's the loss of you have to know a guy. 1242 01:00:03.082 --> 01:00:07.983 - In the 80s, there was a cost to knowing about them. 1243 01:00:08.018 --> 01:00:13.195 Now you can meet people and signal who you are 1244 01:00:13.230 --> 01:00:15.646 in quicker and more efficient ways, 1245 01:00:15.681 --> 01:00:17.890 perhaps with less depth. 1246 01:00:18.269 --> 01:00:20.686 [Philo] The internet did so much to kill 1247 01:00:20.720 --> 01:00:23.758 so much old ways of doing things. 1248 01:00:23.792 --> 01:00:27.140 I think it makes it a lot harder now to make a big splash. 1249 01:00:27.175 --> 01:00:28.763 [Paul] It was a medium. 1250 01:00:28.797 --> 01:00:32.905 It flattens everything out like TV used to do, 1251 01:00:32.939 --> 01:00:35.735 so that an inconsequential offend is the same 1252 01:00:35.770 --> 01:00:37.806 as a horrendous calamity 1253 01:00:37.841 --> 01:00:41.085 or a staggering triumph of humanity 1254 01:00:41.120 --> 01:00:45.296 and the people exposed to it no longer can distinguish 1255 01:00:45.331 --> 01:00:50.198 between factual things and fantasies and trite. 1256 01:00:57.412 --> 01:00:58.689 [News Anchor] Good evening everyone. 1257 01:00:58.724 --> 01:01:01.312 The reaction of so many people today was, "Oh no, not again." 1258 01:01:01.347 --> 01:01:04.764 Another high school, Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado 1259 01:01:04.799 --> 01:01:08.043 this time on the edge of Denver, it has been a horror. 1260 01:01:08.078 --> 01:01:09.976 [Reporter] Police have identified the gunmen as 1261 01:01:10.011 --> 01:01:12.496 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. 1262 01:01:12.530 --> 01:01:15.257 They apparently belonged to a cliché of outcasts called 1263 01:01:15.292 --> 01:01:17.052 the Trench-coat Mafia. 1264 01:01:17.087 --> 01:01:18.951 [News Anchor] Do you have an explanation for this stuff? 1265 01:01:18.985 --> 01:01:21.298 - A lot of it's the feeling of being an outsider, 1266 01:01:21.332 --> 01:01:22.609 feeling disempowered. 1267 01:01:22.644 --> 01:01:24.750 [News Anchor] You have middle class kids that are alienated 1268 01:01:24.784 --> 01:01:28.063 and angry, and we've always had alienated kids, 1269 01:01:28.098 --> 01:01:30.514 but these kids become real powerful because they get 1270 01:01:30.548 --> 01:01:32.240 linked together via the internet 1271 01:01:32.274 --> 01:01:35.761 and the sad thing is that this may not be the end. 1272 01:01:35.795 --> 01:01:37.383 [Ray] Joe's next in Tallahassee. 1273 01:01:37.417 --> 01:01:38.556 Hi Joe. - Hey Ray. 1274 01:01:38.591 --> 01:01:40.904 This is all part of that Church and the SubGenius thing, 1275 01:01:40.938 --> 01:01:44.908 which is a big deal about exterminating the normals 1276 01:01:44.942 --> 01:01:46.150 and killing the pinks 1277 01:01:46.185 --> 01:01:48.912 and now we see the ultimate tuition of that. 1278 01:01:48.946 --> 01:01:50.085 Don't we? 1279 01:01:51.362 --> 01:01:56.160 - Father Joe Mama, not one to be accused of extra good taste. 1280 01:01:56.195 --> 01:02:01.062 He decided to promote our upcoming Boston show 1281 01:02:01.096 --> 01:02:03.547 in a kind of reverse way. 1282 01:02:03.581 --> 01:02:05.376 - Another one of my little functions in the 1283 01:02:05.411 --> 01:02:09.346 Church of the SubGenius is that of agent provocateur. 1284 01:02:09.380 --> 01:02:11.969 The face that makes the outside world think of the 1285 01:02:12.004 --> 01:02:14.523 Church of the SubGenius is very dangerous. 1286 01:02:14.558 --> 01:02:17.492 [Radio Host] Joe, you obviously know a lot about this cult, 1287 01:02:17.526 --> 01:02:21.461 and it sounds horrifying by your description. 1288 01:02:21.496 --> 01:02:24.119 [Joe Mama] They're having a devival this weekend in Boston 1289 01:02:24.154 --> 01:02:26.881 and the bodies aren't even cold in the graves. 1290 01:02:26.915 --> 01:02:28.399 And then the host says, "Well I always heard the 1291 01:02:28.434 --> 01:02:29.884 Church of the SubGenius was a joke." 1292 01:02:29.918 --> 01:02:30.885 Well see, that's the thing. 1293 01:02:30.919 --> 01:02:32.058 They pawn it off as a joke. 1294 01:02:32.093 --> 01:02:33.853 So people don't take it seriously. 1295 01:02:33.888 --> 01:02:35.821 [Philo] That was over the top. 1296 01:02:35.855 --> 01:02:38.375 Sure, you want to find the media event that you can 1297 01:02:38.409 --> 01:02:41.965 go get attention from, but that's bad taste. 1298 01:02:42.828 --> 01:02:45.347 [Stang] I didn't really appreciate that, 1299 01:02:45.382 --> 01:02:48.972 but I'm generally not going to run around censoring people 1300 01:02:49.006 --> 01:02:51.491 or telling people what they can or can't say. 1301 01:02:51.526 --> 01:02:55.012 - Somebody in Boston City Council did take us seriously 1302 01:02:55.047 --> 01:02:58.326 and they managed to get the venue to shut down 1303 01:02:58.360 --> 01:03:00.604 and not allow us to do the devival. 1304 01:03:00.638 --> 01:03:03.987 - The Cambridge Baptist Church heard about it 1305 01:03:04.021 --> 01:03:06.230 and came to our rescue and said, 1306 01:03:06.265 --> 01:03:11.132 you can do your devival at our church. 1307 01:03:11.166 --> 01:03:13.444 Then they started getting bomb threats. 1308 01:03:19.036 --> 01:03:20.589 [Joe Mama] We had basically performed outside the 1309 01:03:20.624 --> 01:03:22.937 venue in some park or something like that 1310 01:03:22.971 --> 01:03:26.285 and Friday had a chance to basically put me on trial 1311 01:03:26.319 --> 01:03:29.322 for this questionable humor and the whole time, 1312 01:03:29.357 --> 01:03:31.290 even though Friday and I are good friends 1313 01:03:31.324 --> 01:03:33.188 and I wasn't worried about what she would do, 1314 01:03:33.223 --> 01:03:37.330 the audience kind of took it a lot more seriously. 1315 01:03:37.365 --> 01:03:40.126 The choice is yours, my friends, do you merely want to 1316 01:03:40.161 --> 01:03:42.922 enslave the normals or do you want to add the options 1317 01:03:42.957 --> 01:03:44.855 to kill them dead on instinct? 1318 01:03:44.890 --> 01:03:46.408 - Like this one. 1319 01:03:46.443 --> 01:03:47.340 Kill. 1320 01:03:47.375 --> 01:03:49.653 Kill. Kill. Kill. 1321 01:03:49.687 --> 01:03:50.619 Kill. 1322 01:03:52.690 --> 01:03:54.106 [Joe Mama] You were wondering, 1323 01:03:54.140 --> 01:03:56.453 did they know that this was a joke? 1324 01:03:57.937 --> 01:04:02.424 - There've been many situations where people 1325 01:04:02.459 --> 01:04:05.289 got the wrong idea about Church of the SubGenius. 1326 01:04:05.324 --> 01:04:09.466 Of course we want them to, so we asked for it, 1327 01:04:09.500 --> 01:04:13.021 but it has backfired a few times. 1328 01:04:13.056 --> 01:04:16.197 [Dr. Legume] There actually were serious cult deprogrammers 1329 01:04:16.231 --> 01:04:20.408 who had added Church of the SubGenius to their watch lists 1330 01:04:20.442 --> 01:04:24.377 of cults to watch out for and warn people about. 1331 01:04:24.412 --> 01:04:27.380 This Church of the SubGenius hates a lot of things. 1332 01:04:27.415 --> 01:04:30.107 They hate the right things. 1333 01:04:30.142 --> 01:04:35.009 Sometimes they make fun of the wrong things. 1334 01:04:37.563 --> 01:04:40.428 - I dropped character now because there've been 1335 01:04:40.462 --> 01:04:42.223 so many crazies. 1336 01:04:42.257 --> 01:04:47.607 It's important for me not to leave behind 1337 01:04:47.642 --> 01:04:52.647 another Scientology or Mormonism. 1338 01:04:52.681 --> 01:04:55.339 - I don't know that they really got the message. 1339 01:04:55.374 --> 01:04:59.274 You know that the real message is: 1340 01:04:59.309 --> 01:05:00.689 Think for yourself, 1341 01:05:00.724 --> 01:05:02.208 be your own leader. 1342 01:05:02.243 --> 01:05:06.695 - The idea is not in restraint. 1343 01:05:06.730 --> 01:05:10.492 It's in confronting the dark things. 1344 01:05:11.010 --> 01:05:15.083 Finding the things that hurt us and tear us apart 1345 01:05:15.118 --> 01:05:17.534 and pulling the fangs out of them, 1346 01:05:17.568 --> 01:05:21.538 making them into a fucking joke 1347 01:05:21.572 --> 01:05:24.713 because that's the whole premise of the Church, 1348 01:05:24.748 --> 01:05:27.475 is fuck them if they can't take a joke. 1349 01:05:38.624 --> 01:05:41.006 [News Anchor] This just in, you are looking at obviously 1350 01:05:41.040 --> 01:05:42.593 a very disturbing live shot there. 1351 01:05:42.628 --> 01:05:45.596 The plane has crashed into one of the towers 1352 01:05:45.631 --> 01:05:47.702 of the World Trade Center. 1353 01:05:48.496 --> 01:05:53.052 - Terrorism against our nation will not stand 1354 01:05:53.087 --> 01:05:55.503 and now if you join me in a moment of silence. 1355 01:05:58.609 --> 01:06:02.406 - The view from my apartment... 1356 01:06:06.479 --> 01:06:08.136 was the World Trade Center. 1357 01:06:08.481 --> 01:06:11.001 - Watching all of this, I wasn't sure that I should be doing 1358 01:06:11.036 --> 01:06:15.247 a television show because for 20 years we've been in the city 1359 01:06:15.281 --> 01:06:16.524 making fun of everything, 1360 01:06:16.558 --> 01:06:19.768 making fun of the city to come to this circumstance that is 1361 01:06:19.803 --> 01:06:22.771 so desperately sad, I and I don't trust my judgment 1362 01:06:22.806 --> 01:06:24.635 in matters like this. 1363 01:06:24.670 --> 01:06:26.810 - Like I was thinking the other day that you can figure out 1364 01:06:26.844 --> 01:06:29.606 how bad a person you are by how soon after September 11th 1365 01:06:29.640 --> 01:06:32.298 you masturbated, like how long you waited. 1366 01:06:32.333 --> 01:06:34.231 - I don't like political correctness in any of its forms. 1367 01:06:34.266 --> 01:06:35.784 I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to say it. 1368 01:06:35.819 --> 01:06:36.923 Not funny at all. 1369 01:06:36.958 --> 01:06:40.651 - I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, 1370 01:06:40.686 --> 01:06:44.345 and the people who knocked these buildings down 1371 01:06:44.379 --> 01:06:47.210 will hear all of us soon. 1372 01:06:47.244 --> 01:06:49.695 [Nurse Kelly] Time was changing and we could feel it. 1373 01:06:50.385 --> 01:06:52.629 - I kind of feared that this may be the end of the 1374 01:06:52.663 --> 01:06:56.529 Church and the SubGenius soon just because... 1375 01:06:58.221 --> 01:07:02.397 just because we're not going to be able to make fun of 1376 01:07:02.432 --> 01:07:04.089 things that hurt people. 1377 01:07:04.123 --> 01:07:06.194 [Reporter] President Bush finds himself enjoying huge 1378 01:07:06.229 --> 01:07:07.402 public support. 1379 01:07:07.437 --> 01:07:09.542 [George W. Bush] Either you're with us, 1380 01:07:09.577 --> 01:07:11.579 either you love freedom 1381 01:07:11.613 --> 01:07:13.305 or you're with the enemy. 1382 01:07:15.307 --> 01:07:19.414 [Stang] It was getting kind of serious and disturbing. 1383 01:07:25.455 --> 01:07:28.699 [Radio Host] Yetis and simpletons, we have a lot of 1384 01:07:28.734 --> 01:07:31.806 fun here at the Institute, 1385 01:07:31.840 --> 01:07:36.466 but unfortunately the fish has hit the fan. 1386 01:07:36.500 --> 01:07:41.471 Reverend Mary Magdalen has had her child taken from her 1387 01:07:41.505 --> 01:07:44.715 for no greater crime than her membership in the 1388 01:07:44.750 --> 01:07:46.683 Church of the SubGenius 1389 01:07:46.717 --> 01:07:50.721 and her participation in X day drills. 1390 01:07:50.756 --> 01:07:53.310 [Stang] Because of pictures on the internet, 1391 01:07:53.345 --> 01:07:57.694 the family court judge in this little town in New York state 1392 01:07:57.728 --> 01:08:00.731 took the little boy away from the mom 1393 01:08:00.766 --> 01:08:04.597 because she was a SubGenius. 1394 01:08:04.632 --> 01:08:08.187 [Radio Host] Why don't you head to your favorite web browser 1395 01:08:08.222 --> 01:08:14.193 and type in subgenius.com/maghelp. 1396 01:08:14.918 --> 01:08:16.609 - They got the kid back, 1397 01:08:16.644 --> 01:08:19.647 not because of sanity on the part of the judges, 1398 01:08:19.681 --> 01:08:24.203 it was because the biological father screwed up so very badly, 1399 01:08:24.238 --> 01:08:28.483 but for two years, we were in the news. 1400 01:08:30.658 --> 01:08:34.455 - I just thought, if I'm associated with something 1401 01:08:34.489 --> 01:08:36.629 where they can take away my kids, 1402 01:08:36.664 --> 01:08:39.736 I don't want my name anywhere on it and I think that's a 1403 01:08:39.770 --> 01:08:42.359 reminder about who we are today, 1404 01:08:42.394 --> 01:08:45.328 where you get punished for who you're associated with. 1405 01:08:45.362 --> 01:08:49.194 - You must be ready to unleash a shitload of fire and brimstone, 1406 01:08:49.228 --> 01:08:52.507 death, bullets, lead, guns, fucking knives... 1407 01:08:52.542 --> 01:08:55.476 For a while, I was feeling a bit morally culpable about 1408 01:08:55.510 --> 01:08:59.894 telling a group of people who are attracted to an organization 1409 01:08:59.928 --> 01:09:03.760 that is targeted towards 1410 01:09:03.794 --> 01:09:07.936 awkward and marginalized and sometimes mentally ill people 1411 01:09:07.971 --> 01:09:10.215 and standing up in front of them like some big 1412 01:09:10.249 --> 01:09:13.321 pumped up superheroes screaming and yelling about 1413 01:09:13.356 --> 01:09:15.599 how they should live a life of hate. 1414 01:09:17.877 --> 01:09:20.880 [Stang] A lot of the energy that was there was from, 1415 01:09:20.915 --> 01:09:23.607 I won't say we were pissed off or mad or angry, 1416 01:09:23.642 --> 01:09:26.403 but maybe we were a little bit angry; 1417 01:09:26.438 --> 01:09:28.957 angry young man railing against the system 1418 01:09:28.992 --> 01:09:31.443 a little bit through humor. 1419 01:09:31.477 --> 01:09:33.169 - Because we hate you. 1420 01:09:33.583 --> 01:09:36.689 [Stang] But I think that you can't sustain that level 1421 01:09:36.724 --> 01:09:38.622 for that long and I think the people get tired 1422 01:09:38.657 --> 01:09:40.762 and want something new after a while. 1423 01:09:41.694 --> 01:09:44.663 - I took a lot of these zaniness and the absurdity 1424 01:09:44.697 --> 01:09:47.321 and that actually was very helpful to have 1425 01:09:47.355 --> 01:09:50.427 and to kind of have in your hip pocket as you went through life. 1426 01:09:50.462 --> 01:09:54.880 But it got a little too far out for me. 1427 01:09:57.434 --> 01:09:59.022 - I had an epiphany. 1428 01:09:59.056 --> 01:10:03.992 I realized that The Conspiracy that had stolen my Slack 1429 01:10:04.027 --> 01:10:07.893 for 50 years of my life was me. 1430 01:10:09.032 --> 01:10:12.346 I had to lay off the hate part of it. 1431 01:10:13.657 --> 01:10:18.662 Like anything, Bob is best in reasonable, sensible doses. 1432 01:10:19.594 --> 01:10:22.873 You do not want to drink the whole pitcher of Kool-Aid, 1433 01:10:22.908 --> 01:10:26.222 you just what to drink a small cup. 1434 01:10:27.326 --> 01:10:28.810 I don't really want to destroy you, man, 1435 01:10:28.845 --> 01:10:32.228 and you don't even care if the saucers come or not. 1436 01:10:34.022 --> 01:10:36.991 [Philo] I took a short break when I was transferred 1437 01:10:37.025 --> 01:10:38.751 to California. 1438 01:10:38.786 --> 01:10:42.617 I was actually being career advanced in the company 1439 01:10:42.652 --> 01:10:43.480 I was working for. 1440 01:10:43.515 --> 01:10:45.896 They thought I was doing a great job, 1441 01:10:45.931 --> 01:10:48.416 so I just followed it. 1442 01:10:48.451 --> 01:10:54.871 I couldn't be as strong in the church as I wanted to be 1443 01:10:54.905 --> 01:10:58.771 and having as much fun with it as I did, you know. 1444 01:10:59.669 --> 01:11:02.534 [Stang] The world never did know about Church of the SubGenius. 1445 01:11:02.568 --> 01:11:06.538 We never were that big. 1446 01:11:07.332 --> 01:11:09.851 It is kind of obscure that keeps it special. 1447 01:11:09.886 --> 01:11:11.784 If everybody knew about it, 1448 01:11:11.819 --> 01:11:13.579 it would be normal. 1449 01:11:14.684 --> 01:11:15.892 [Paul] We were just too lazy. 1450 01:11:15.926 --> 01:11:19.067 We didn't want to be responsible for our own cult members. 1451 01:11:19.102 --> 01:11:23.693 We just wanted to tap them on the forehead and say, wake up. 1452 01:11:24.452 --> 01:11:29.354 And of course some people you have to hit with a sledgehammer, 1453 01:11:29.388 --> 01:11:31.977 and even then that doesn't do the trick. 1454 01:11:32.426 --> 01:11:35.325 Or you can get them to wake for a second or two 1455 01:11:35.360 --> 01:11:37.672 and then they doze off again 1456 01:11:37.707 --> 01:11:41.366 as soon as they see a cat picture on the internet. 1457 01:11:41.400 --> 01:11:48.407 [dramatic music] 1458 01:11:48.442 --> 01:11:50.685 - Today's secret ingredient is... 1459 01:11:50.720 --> 01:11:54.482 [dramatic music] 1460 01:11:54.517 --> 01:11:57.589 [cheers] 1461 01:12:00.592 --> 01:12:01.524 - How am I doing? 1462 01:12:01.558 --> 01:12:02.490 Am I doing okay? 1463 01:12:02.525 --> 01:12:03.388 I'm President. 1464 01:12:03.422 --> 01:12:04.699 Hey, I'm President. 1465 01:12:04.734 --> 01:12:06.598 Can you believe it? 1466 01:12:07.530 --> 01:12:10.774 [Paul] Donald Trump's probably the most SubGenius 1467 01:12:10.809 --> 01:12:13.329 world leader there's ever been. 1468 01:12:15.848 --> 01:12:18.886 He's completely caught up in his own world. 1469 01:12:18.920 --> 01:12:22.683 Does what he wants makes up his own reality. 1470 01:12:22.717 --> 01:12:23.994 - I'm not going to give you a question. 1471 01:12:24.029 --> 01:12:25.755 - Can you state- - You are fake news. 1472 01:12:25.789 --> 01:12:28.999 - Sean Spicer, our Press Secretary gave 1473 01:12:29.034 --> 01:12:29.966 alternative facts. 1474 01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.729 - Facts and lies have no meaning to him. 1475 01:12:34.764 --> 01:12:37.732 SubGenius, but not in a good way. 1476 01:12:37.767 --> 01:12:38.699 - Trump steaks. 1477 01:12:38.733 --> 01:12:40.183 Where are the steaks? Do we have steaks? 1478 01:12:40.217 --> 01:12:41.874 We've been friends for a long time. 1479 01:12:41.909 --> 01:12:44.014 - We're living in a world that's upside down. 1480 01:12:44.049 --> 01:12:46.189 Trump is the perfect example now 1481 01:12:46.223 --> 01:12:48.778 of a world turned upside down. 1482 01:12:49.503 --> 01:12:50.883 He's the "Joker." 1483 01:12:51.125 --> 01:12:53.023 - This is a special year. 1484 01:12:53.058 --> 01:12:55.612 Our country is doing great. 1485 01:12:55.923 --> 01:12:59.547 [Penn] We've got surreal, 1486 01:12:59.582 --> 01:13:01.687 unbelievable, 1487 01:13:01.722 --> 01:13:02.895 shocking, 1488 01:13:02.930 --> 01:13:04.172 psychedelic 1489 01:13:04.207 --> 01:13:06.071 covered with reality right now. 1490 01:13:06.105 --> 01:13:08.970 - It's not a good place for any party to end up 1491 01:13:09.005 --> 01:13:12.042 with a cult-like situation. 1492 01:13:12.077 --> 01:13:15.908 - I mean, Bob Dobbs is not in any way 1493 01:13:15.943 --> 01:13:17.841 weirder than Donald Trump. 1494 01:13:17.876 --> 01:13:19.153 I mean, Donald Trump wins. 1495 01:13:19.187 --> 01:13:22.087 - I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody 1496 01:13:22.121 --> 01:13:23.502 and I wouldn't lose any voters. 1497 01:13:23.537 --> 01:13:24.503 Okay? 1498 01:13:24.538 --> 01:13:26.540 [Audience] USA. USA. 1499 01:13:26.574 --> 01:13:28.783 - It's very effective to slice the world up 1500 01:13:28.818 --> 01:13:31.786 and to pit everyone against each other. 1501 01:13:31.821 --> 01:13:34.479 It's an effective means for power. 1502 01:13:34.513 --> 01:13:37.205 - The country of Mexico is killing us. 1503 01:13:37.240 --> 01:13:41.071 The crime, and the gangs, and the drugs. 1504 01:13:41.106 --> 01:13:41.934 [Group Chant] Build that wall. 1505 01:13:41.969 --> 01:13:43.108 Build that wall. 1506 01:13:43.142 --> 01:13:44.178 Build that wall. 1507 01:13:44.212 --> 01:13:49.114 - We're torn as SubGeniuses because of course 1508 01:13:49.148 --> 01:13:53.946 a good portion of our viewpoint is that 1509 01:13:53.981 --> 01:13:57.156 The Conspiracy is out of control. 1510 01:13:58.226 --> 01:14:01.540 In fact, to our horror each passing day, 1511 01:14:01.575 --> 01:14:04.681 the world seems more and more SubGenius. 1512 01:14:04.716 --> 01:14:08.202 - I've got highly effective all-natural weight loss aids- 1513 01:14:08.236 --> 01:14:09.928 [screaming and cheering] 1514 01:14:09.962 --> 01:14:13.828 - The great story here is this vast right-wing conspiracy. 1515 01:14:13.863 --> 01:14:15.278 [Donald Trump] There are many people that don't agree 1516 01:14:15.312 --> 01:14:16.555 with that birth certificate. 1517 01:14:16.590 --> 01:14:18.177 - I can't trust Obama. 1518 01:14:18.212 --> 01:14:19.903 He's an Arab. 1519 01:14:19.938 --> 01:14:21.111 He is not- 1520 01:14:21.146 --> 01:14:24.011 - Everybody is in their own private Idaho. 1521 01:14:24.045 --> 01:14:25.840 Everybody's in their own bubble 1522 01:14:25.875 --> 01:14:28.705 and all they do is go into a feedback loop 1523 01:14:28.740 --> 01:14:31.259 where they can get things to reaffirm 1524 01:14:31.294 --> 01:14:32.916 what they already think. 1525 01:14:32.951 --> 01:14:35.229 - This administration is trying to fool you 1526 01:14:35.263 --> 01:14:37.714 into believing that the news the white house doesn't 1527 01:14:37.749 --> 01:14:39.267 really like, well, isn't news. 1528 01:14:39.302 --> 01:14:40.993 - Three million illegals voted. 1529 01:14:41.028 --> 01:14:42.926 - Where are you getting your information? 1530 01:14:42.961 --> 01:14:45.584 - The Soviet Union has a worldwide 1531 01:14:45.619 --> 01:14:47.828 disinformation network. 1532 01:14:47.862 --> 01:14:50.900 [Stang] They go to media sites that incite them, 1533 01:14:50.934 --> 01:14:53.592 that make them paranoid and worried 1534 01:14:53.627 --> 01:14:55.732 and fretful about the future. 1535 01:14:55.767 --> 01:14:58.148 - They can't control the amount of rapes that are going on. 1536 01:14:58.183 --> 01:14:59.287 - Just because they're refugees doesn't mean they're 1537 01:14:59.322 --> 01:15:00.599 fucking rapists. 1538 01:15:00.634 --> 01:15:02.739 - They're racist, sexist, homophobic, 1539 01:15:02.774 --> 01:15:03.878 xenophobic. 1540 01:15:03.913 --> 01:15:05.639 - I am no racists. 1541 01:15:05.673 --> 01:15:07.192 - You're voting for Donald Trump. 1542 01:15:07.226 --> 01:15:09.746 [Jerry Casale] None of them are interested in breaking 1543 01:15:09.781 --> 01:15:13.854 out of the loop and realizing, "Oh, I've been duped, 1544 01:15:13.888 --> 01:15:15.303 I've been programmed." 1545 01:15:15.338 --> 01:15:17.340 - Trump Derangement Syndrome, 1546 01:15:17.374 --> 01:15:20.067 hatred of Donald Trump so intense that it 1547 01:15:20.101 --> 01:15:21.896 impairs people's judgment. 1548 01:15:22.828 --> 01:15:25.624 [Jerry Casale] Like if you quit being real humans 1549 01:15:25.659 --> 01:15:28.593 and thinking for yourselves, it's over. 1550 01:15:30.698 --> 01:15:33.943 [Donald Trump] This is your country. 1551 01:15:35.945 --> 01:15:39.776 [Penn] I don't know how you carve out 1552 01:15:39.811 --> 01:15:45.195 a place for that kind of playful us and them 1553 01:15:45.230 --> 01:15:48.371 in a place where the news 1554 01:15:48.405 --> 01:15:51.132 is filling so many of those roles. 1555 01:15:51.823 --> 01:15:54.273 That being said, 1556 01:15:54.308 --> 01:15:59.382 I also couldn't have thought of the SubGenius in 1978, 1557 01:15:59.416 --> 01:16:03.628 so obviously they're better at this than I am. 1558 01:16:05.008 --> 01:16:07.321 [Howland] There's always going to be a conspiracy. 1559 01:16:07.355 --> 01:16:09.806 It can morph, it can change and it can evolve 1560 01:16:09.841 --> 01:16:12.050 and so can the Church of the SubGenius. 1561 01:16:12.084 --> 01:16:14.880 - We'll never fix the government like, 1562 01:16:14.915 --> 01:16:17.020 we'll never get it to where everyone is happy. 1563 01:16:17.055 --> 01:16:19.609 There will always be acrimony 1564 01:16:19.644 --> 01:16:23.337 and so we desperately need comedy. 1565 01:16:23.371 --> 01:16:26.236 - Well, I think the best thing we can do is 1566 01:16:26.271 --> 01:16:28.860 spread our message 1567 01:16:28.894 --> 01:16:34.313 and hope that it is useful in the coming crisis, 1568 01:16:34.348 --> 01:16:38.145 which is descending on the planet 1569 01:16:38.179 --> 01:16:40.803 and the human world that inhabits it. 1570 01:17:02.445 --> 01:17:05.172 [Stang] For the last 20 years, the only thing I had to do 1571 01:17:05.206 --> 01:17:07.070 to make my half of the mortgage payments 1572 01:17:07.105 --> 01:17:10.833 is keep selling SubGenius ministerships. 1573 01:17:12.041 --> 01:17:13.352 And it occurred to me, wait a minute, 1574 01:17:13.387 --> 01:17:14.595 this isn't a bad gig at all. 1575 01:17:14.630 --> 01:17:17.460 Once a month I have to sit here and assemble these things. 1576 01:17:17.494 --> 01:17:21.326 Maybe spend half an hour a day taking them to the post office? 1577 01:17:22.120 --> 01:17:23.673 That's not bad. 1578 01:17:25.813 --> 01:17:28.713 People are still obviously getting a lot out of it. 1579 01:17:29.161 --> 01:17:31.301 Just last week, I went to the post office 1580 01:17:31.336 --> 01:17:35.340 and there was this envelope there, postage due. 1581 01:17:35.374 --> 01:17:39.171 I had to fork out $2 and 45 cents just to find out 1582 01:17:39.206 --> 01:17:43.141 what was in this letter and it had no return address on it. 1583 01:17:44.383 --> 01:17:46.972 The postal guy said, "Well, I could just throw it away." 1584 01:17:47.007 --> 01:17:49.768 And I went, "Man, it's probably a joke, but it better be funny." 1585 01:17:50.182 --> 01:17:51.908 I got home and opened it up. 1586 01:17:51.943 --> 01:17:55.809 It had $1,000 in $20 bills in there 1587 01:17:55.843 --> 01:17:57.258 just out of the blue. 1588 01:17:58.121 --> 01:18:01.711 I immediately took half of it to a sick person that I know 1589 01:18:01.746 --> 01:18:03.955 who cried with gratitude. 1590 01:18:04.818 --> 01:18:07.268 It's like, no, we're not crazy to keep doing this. 1591 01:18:07.993 --> 01:18:12.342 It really does come along at the right time for some people. 1592 01:18:12.377 --> 01:18:14.379 [cars passing] 1593 01:18:21.386 --> 01:18:23.388 [cars passing] 1594 01:18:32.121 --> 01:18:33.329 - Palmer, 1595 01:18:34.399 --> 01:18:35.711 Palmer, 1596 01:18:36.125 --> 01:18:37.367 what happened to Philo? 1597 01:18:37.402 --> 01:18:38.265 - He's hiding. 1598 01:18:38.299 --> 01:18:39.473 - Oh. 1599 01:18:39.507 --> 01:18:41.475 You guys look awful, 1600 01:18:41.509 --> 01:18:43.442 but a lot better than I expected. 1601 01:18:43.477 --> 01:18:44.961 Ay yi yi yi yi. 1602 01:18:45.375 --> 01:18:46.342 Praise Bob. 1603 01:18:46.376 --> 01:18:48.102 Welcome to Austin. 1604 01:18:51.416 --> 01:18:53.349 [Philo] This is sort of like a booze quest. 1605 01:18:55.420 --> 01:18:57.422 Uh-oh, another human blockade. 1606 01:18:59.389 --> 01:19:01.081 Look, there's something. 1607 01:19:01.115 --> 01:19:02.807 There's a mermaid woman. 1608 01:19:03.497 --> 01:19:04.567 A mer-woman. 1609 01:19:04.601 --> 01:19:07.984 - That's you, once you get your shirt off, honey. 1610 01:19:08.019 --> 01:19:09.883 [Philo] Oh, I thought it was for real. 1611 01:19:09.917 --> 01:19:11.194 - You first- - This is just a sad- 1612 01:19:11.229 --> 01:19:13.058 - I bet you if you take your clothes off, 1613 01:19:13.093 --> 01:19:14.197 everybody here will follow you. 1614 01:19:14.232 --> 01:19:15.578 [Philo] This is just a sad, sad joke. 1615 01:19:15.612 --> 01:19:16.821 - Do it. - No, no. 1616 01:19:16.855 --> 01:19:19.099 - If you took your clothes off and I'll bet you anything- 1617 01:19:19.133 --> 01:19:20.410 [Philo] I'm not a leader. 1618 01:19:20.445 --> 01:19:21.964 I'm just a fast follower. 1619 01:19:21.998 --> 01:19:24.449 - If you were to do that. 1620 01:19:24.483 --> 01:19:25.484 - I'm the second guy in. 1621 01:19:25.519 --> 01:19:29.143 - She'd be next, and then her, and then her... 1622 01:19:29.178 --> 01:19:32.077 To me it's always been play. 1623 01:19:33.320 --> 01:19:35.011 You go to a SubGenius show, 1624 01:19:35.046 --> 01:19:37.565 they're not waving their arms in anger. 1625 01:19:37.600 --> 01:19:40.465 They might be pretending to, 1626 01:19:40.499 --> 01:19:43.157 but that's the main thing you get, 1627 01:19:43.192 --> 01:19:44.400 is laughter. 1628 01:19:46.989 --> 01:19:49.405 [Philo] We're still just playing. 1629 01:19:50.164 --> 01:19:53.616 - This is Philo and I'm Ivan. 1630 01:19:53.650 --> 01:19:55.307 - Tony, this is Reverend Stang. 1631 01:19:55.342 --> 01:19:56.826 - Yeah, I'm a reverend. 1632 01:19:56.861 --> 01:19:58.552 - We're cult leaders is what we really are. 1633 01:19:58.586 --> 01:20:01.003 Our real job is to be cult leaders. 1634 01:20:01.037 --> 01:20:03.384 [Stang] There you go, these'll take you like a 1635 01:20:03.419 --> 01:20:05.352 week and a half to read. 1636 01:20:05.386 --> 01:20:08.217 It's called Church of the SubGenius. 1637 01:20:08.251 --> 01:20:11.496 If you're not a genius, you'd probably qualify. 1638 01:20:12.359 --> 01:20:15.949 - If you feel different and you feel oppressed by 1639 01:20:15.983 --> 01:20:20.436 society's imposition of normalcy on you, 1640 01:20:20.470 --> 01:20:22.058 you don't have to be that way. 1641 01:20:22.093 --> 01:20:24.509 You could be the person that you want to be. 1642 01:20:26.649 --> 01:20:29.100 We know that we think for ourselves, 1643 01:20:29.134 --> 01:20:32.966 and that's more important than you thinking like me. 1644 01:20:59.130 --> 01:21:00.959 [Stang] Test, test, test. 1645 01:21:00.994 --> 01:21:01.891 [Sound Crew] Okay. 1646 01:21:01.926 --> 01:21:04.031 - It was the night 62 million assholes 1647 01:21:04.066 --> 01:21:07.517 scraped rat feces into their exposed skull cavities 1648 01:21:07.552 --> 01:21:10.106 with a rusty butter knife. 1649 01:21:10.141 --> 01:21:13.144 Everyone agreed that change was needed to make America 1650 01:21:13.178 --> 01:21:16.423 great again, and it didn't much matter that we'd soon be having 1651 01:21:16.457 --> 01:21:19.978 our urethras board out with a high speed electric drill, 1652 01:21:20.013 --> 01:21:23.223 at least until the Ku Klux Klan settled in and got comfortable 1653 01:21:23.257 --> 01:21:25.466 over at the Justice Department. 1654 01:21:25.673 --> 01:21:29.367 Every week when the baboons came down from Oatmeal Ridge, 1655 01:21:29.401 --> 01:21:32.197 they'd all circle around the plasma TV to watch 1656 01:21:32.232 --> 01:21:34.372 Fox and Friends. 1657 01:21:34.406 --> 01:21:37.030 Now that the judicial branch was well-stocked with 1658 01:21:37.064 --> 01:21:40.136 white nationalists, they didn't have to worry so much about the 1659 01:21:40.171 --> 01:21:44.451 colored folk or the multi-dicked Mexican rape demons. 1660 01:21:44.485 --> 01:21:48.351 Best of all, there'd still be plenty of sports to watch 1661 01:21:48.386 --> 01:21:50.491 and everyone loved all the choices of the 1662 01:21:50.526 --> 01:21:52.528 Applebee's salad bar. 1663 01:21:54.047 --> 01:21:54.910 The end. 1664 01:21:54.944 --> 01:21:56.325 Now it's time for you kids get bed. 1665 01:21:56.359 --> 01:21:57.636 Nighty night. 1666 01:22:00.674 --> 01:22:05.058 [Radio Crew] Five, four, three, two. 1667 01:22:06.369 --> 01:22:08.095 - It's bubbling- 1668 01:22:08.130 --> 01:22:09.234 - Bubbling Evidence? 1669 01:22:09.269 --> 01:22:10.235 - Yes. 1670 01:22:10.270 --> 01:22:12.237 - But I think it's Bubbling Evidence, yeah. 1671 01:22:12.272 --> 01:22:14.136 Yeah, I'm not sure what the name of the show is. 1672 01:22:14.170 --> 01:22:16.310 - It's Puddling Effluence. - Questionable Judgment. 1673 01:22:16.345 --> 01:22:18.140 I think it's Questionable Judgment. 1674 01:22:18.174 --> 01:22:20.452 - Questionable Judgment, that's for sure. 1675 01:22:20.487 --> 01:22:21.177 That's a description. 1676 01:22:21.212 --> 01:22:22.696 That's the abstract of the show. 1677 01:22:22.730 --> 01:22:25.216 - Bishop Joey is here with us. 1678 01:22:25.250 --> 01:22:26.286 - Yeah, he is. 1679 01:22:26.320 --> 01:22:27.528 - Tonight on the show. 1680 01:22:27.563 --> 01:22:30.704 - Well Bishop Joey, what is your church's version of Slack? 1681 01:22:30.738 --> 01:22:32.016 - Most of us wear clothes. 1682 01:22:40.024 --> 01:22:41.128 - We already did that. 1683 01:22:41.163 --> 01:22:43.475 Our church did that long ago with the all-inclusive 1684 01:22:43.510 --> 01:22:44.338 divine excuse. 1685 01:22:44.373 --> 01:22:46.168 That's the first thing we gave them. 1686 01:22:46.202 --> 01:22:48.653 You just need an excuse that excuses you for anything 1687 01:22:48.687 --> 01:22:50.413 that may have happened or might happen at 1688 01:22:50.448 --> 01:22:56.143 any time in the future. 1689 01:22:56.178 --> 01:23:01.045 ♪ Is it true what they say about Bob? ♪ 1690 01:23:01.424 --> 01:23:05.739 ♪ That when you have Bob life's no prob? ♪ 1691 01:23:06.671 --> 01:23:09.156 ♪ He'll give you Slack 1692 01:23:09.191 --> 01:23:12.021 ♪ And more sex than you can hack. ♪ 1693 01:23:12.056 --> 01:23:16.094 ♪ Oh, life's a bowl of cherries with Bob Dobbs. ♪ 1694 01:23:16.612 --> 01:23:20.996 ♪ Is it true what they say about Bob? ♪ 1695 01:23:21.375 --> 01:23:25.310 ♪ That when you have Bob life's no prob? ♪ 1696 01:23:25.828 --> 01:23:28.451 ♪ If you want drugs, then he will give you God's. ♪ 1697 01:23:31.178 --> 01:23:35.113 ♪ Oh life's a bowl of cherries with Bob Dobbs. ♪ 1698 01:23:35.596 --> 01:23:40.118 ♪ Is it true what they say about Bob? ♪ 1699 01:23:40.463 --> 01:23:45.054 ♪ That when you have Bob life's no prob? ♪ 1700 01:23:45.365 --> 01:23:47.746 ♪ Send a dollar and a letter 1701 01:23:47.781 --> 01:23:51.233 ♪ And you'll feel, oh, so much better. ♪ 1702 01:23:51.267 --> 01:23:53.338 ♪ Life's a bowl of cherries with, ♪ 1703 01:23:53.373 --> 01:23:55.547 ♪ And life's a bowl of cherries with, ♪ 1704 01:23:55.582 --> 01:24:00.587 ♪ Oh life's a bowl of cherries with Bob Dobbs. ♪