Subject: Re: Subgenius Jan Michael Vincent fans!

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack

Jason D. Scott wrote:

> GET A GOD. YOU'RE ATE_
>> 144,000, right? YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!@

The mighty twelve pack speaks.

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Subject: Why I am so iggerunt Re: ATTN: Subgenius Jan Michael Vincent fans!
From: nenslo <nenslo@yahooX.com>

Her Ladyship Lilith von Fraumench wrote:
> Rev. Ivan Stang wrote:
>
> > I never heard of Willie Aames myself though.
>
> The guy with the blonde afro on "Eight Is Enough," now making his money
> as the legendary BIBLEMAN!!! Dude, you should've read that magazine I
> auctioned off at X-Day. Bummer.

Okay, Eight is Enough I know is like the previous version of Seventh
Heaven or something and some wretched people get all excited when they
see somebody that was on it. I just never even MET anyone who watched it.

Lemme tell ya a little story. I don't care if you heard it before.
See I knew this guy once, pretty nice guy a few years older than me,
and we were just talking, see. And I make some kind of witty in-jokey
reference to some TV show or some guy that was one some TV show, and
it goes right past him. I just figured everybody knew that, you know.
So I explain to him it was a subtle pop culture reference to this TV
show that used to be on the TV, right? And he says, "Oh, that must
have been during the time I was living in a cave in India for eight
years." And that's the moment I first realized that to make hip
injokes about old TV shows may not be the optimum use of one's life.

Or the Quick Version, which I know I have posted before. A young guy
was bragging to me about how he'd never seen a single minute of
Seinfeld and I said, "Enjoy it while you can. I used to think I was
hot stuff because I'd never seen a single minute of Mork and Mindy.
Now I'm just like everybody else."

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Subject: Re: CORRECTION! was Re: Why I am so iggerunt
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

nenslo <nenslo@yahooX.com>wrote:
> nenslo wrote:
> "Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:
> > >
> > > That's funny -- the way I heard this story, from another SubGenius, you
> > > were the one who hadn't seen the show in question because you had been
> > > in a cave in _____(Nensloland), and you BAWLED OUT the witty-in-joker
> > > for asuming you would know of his stupid show. (The show was Twin
> > > Peaks, I think.) Maybe that is ANOTHER story, preseumably dated after
> > > your epiphany re: old TV shows.
> >
> > Actually, your recollection is slightly colored by time and
> > intervening events.
>
> Excuse me. I mis-thought. You were not recalling it incorrectly, I
> am sure, but you were told the story by one of the persons referred to
> below.
>
> > > THAT story was that I spent an hour or so having
> > lunch with people who talked about nothing but a particular television
> > show. Since I had never seen that television show I could not
> > contribute to the conversation and did not understand a single thing
> > they were saying. When I confessed that I was entirely ignorant of
> > the topic, they began insisting that I must think they were EXTREMELY
> > STUPID for being so into a television show, and I was confused and
> > amazed at their assumption. Repeated insistence that I was doing
> > nothing more than avowing my own lack of knowledge on a topic which
> > clearly must have some value since they were so avid in discussing it
> > failed to dissuade them from the assumption that I, the ignorant one,
> > somehow felt superior to them, the knowledgable ones. I am STILL
> > baffled by that.
> >
> I stand by this version as factual. This is not the only time that my
> serious statement that I knew nothing about a topic of interest to
> others, or that I had somehow failed in my earnest efforts to
> understand and appreciate a subject of great interest to many other
> people, was treated as sarcasm and derision and a proclamation of
> personal superiority to the subject in question and to other people in
> general, to my sincere astonishment.

Ah so. This all makes perfect sense and adds up. All holes in the
equation, filled in.

They got divorced, by the way.

I know what you mean about how people mistake "I don't know anything
about that, sorry" for "I don't know anything about that, YOU
POP-CULTURE-DUPED IGNORAMUS!!"

Since I do watch some TV (cartoons and Springer) I more frequently
encounter this problem in the subject of SPORTS.

Although... come to think of it... I guess when I say "I don't know
anything about that, sorry," I really AM saying, "I don't know anything
about that, YOU POP-CULTURE-DUPED IGNORAMUS!!" 'Cause the fucking game
is always pre-empting my favorite show, Futurama.

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Subject: Re: Why I am so iggerunt
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

In article <3D84092E.6FBFF7B1@yahooX.com>, nenslo <nenslo@yahooX.com>
wrote:

>I think that an encyclopedic knowledge of any aspect of culture can be
> a fascinating pastime, but topical culture (like songs or jokes about
> celebrities) remains valid for only a very short time, and requires
> the audience to have a certain knowledge base. Since I want my work
> to remain of interest and effective for more than just a few months or
> years I strive for universality and to delete most topical references
> which could be confusing or detrimental to the audience of any future
> date.

An ironic exception to this is Goofy Indie and College Radio Comedy and
Collage Tapes from the early '90s Gulf War times. They're about evil
George Bush and Evil Saddam Hussein and evil oil and evil blood, and
the tapes might as well have been done yestrday, were it not for the
references to "Ib'n ben Quail" and the lack of references to Cheney.
Sometimes it almost seems like the Conspiracy fazed out bin Laden and
put Hussein back in the Hate Hour Spot just so we could re-use our old
tapes of Papa Joe and Dr. Howll reinterpreting DUNE as the Gulf War.

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Original file name: Re- Subgenius Jan Michael VincE - converted on Monday, 21 July 2003, 13:39