Discordianism vs. Pastafarianism & the connection to the Church of the SubGenius

[The Great Pope of OUTSIDE]

Too bad you can't really make an ongoing ritual of everyone fighting with each other. XD

Or....maybe you can?

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

According to Rev Stang, his CoTSG began as a completely independent thing and he had never heard of Discordianism. He was printing up flyers warning about a "new cult" and telling people to send money to an address to support informing people about the cult... and people sent money. 

Later he ran across Discordianism and thought someone was stealing his gag. Then he realized it predated CoTSG and eventually hooked up with Thornley and RAW.

I want to try that now.

[The Great Pope of OUTSIDE]

....wow. That's just fucking incredible, what people will actually pay for. 

[Jasper]

Read about PT Barnum.  There's an education in what people will pay for.

[The Great Pope of OUTSIDE]

PT Barnum?

[Don Coyote]

PT Barnum?

Are you serious? Circuses.

[The Great Pope of OUTSIDE]

Circuses don't come around where I live. I've only gone to one ever and that was a LONG time ago!

[Doktor Howl]

PT Barnum?

[Cramulus]

BT Barnum did a lot of brilliant stuff other than starting a circus. He was a master at creating intrigue and mystery. He knew people wanted to experience something bigger than themselves, and they crave novelty - he figured out how to create products which capitalize on those very common desires.

The sections about him "The 48 laws of power" are some of my favorite parts of that book.

[LMNO]

"The 48 Laws of Power"?

[Cramulus]

from http://sniggle.net/barnum.php


"The greatest humbug of all is the man who believes — or pretends to believe — that everything and everybody are humbugs. We sometimes meet a person who professes that there is no virtue; that every man has his price, and every woman hers; that any statement from anybody is just as likely to be false as true and that the only way to decide which, is to consider whether truth or a lie was likely to have paid best in that particular case. Religion he thinks one of the smartest business dodges extant, a first rate investment, and by all odds the most respectable disguise that a lying or swindling business man can wear. Honor he thinks is a sham. Honesty he considers a plausible word to flourish in the eyes of the greener portion of our race.... Poor fellow! he has exposed his own nakedness. Instead of showing that others are rotten inside, he has proved that he is."

— P.T. Barnum, in The Humbugs of the World





His gift for catching the public eye was unrivaled. Irving Wallace, in his biography The Fabulous Showman, tells this story of how Barnum created a buzz for his Museum:

One day a plump beggar came by for a handout. Instead, Barnum offered him a job at a dollar and a half a day. He handed the puzzled beggar five ordinary bricks. "Now," said Barnum, "go and lay a brick on the sidewalk at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street; another close by the Museum; a third diagonally across the way... put down the fourth on the sidewalk in front of St. Paul's Church, opposite; then, with the fifth brick in hand, take up a rapid march from one point to the other, making the circuit, exchanging your brick at every point, and say nothing to anyone.... [A]t the end of every hour by St. Paul's clock show this ticket at the Museum door; enter, walking solemnly through every hall in the building; pass out, and resume your work."

The beggar moved off with his five bricks, and began his idiot's play. Within half an hour, more than five hundred curious people were following him. In an hour, the crowd had doubled. When the brick-toting pied piper entered the Museum, dozens bought tickets to follow him. This continued throughout the day for several days, and Barnum's business showed a satisfying increase.

[LMNO]

Museum?

[Cramulus]

A museum is a place for families that are too rich to have a shed out back. It's where culturally elite children get molested.

[The Great Pope of OUTSIDE]

  Oh shut up Alphapants.  

[Cramulus]

Sheds are holy places where you can pray to rakes and fertilizers and jerk off in private.