Parody religion
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A parody religion, sometimes called mock religion is a parody of a religion, sect or cult. One parody religion can make a parody of several religions, sects, gurus and cults at the same time. Often, the Internet activity of the parody religion is more important than any activities in real life, if the latter exist at all.
In some parody religions the emphasis is on making fun and being a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among like minded, e.g. Brianism and the Church of the SubGenius.
Other parody religions target a specific religion, sect, cult or new religious movement e.g. Eckankar. Usually only ex-members of the specific group can understand it and are interested in it.
A rare example of a parody religion movie is Monty Python's Life of Brian.
In 2001 following an internet campaign, the fictional Star Wars "religion" Jedi became a parody religion as 0.7% of the UK population were persuaded to state their religion as Jedi in the official census (see Jedi census).
Other examples of parody religions are
- Bokononism
- Church of Beavis Christ
- Church of Emacs
- Church of Dolcett
- Church of the SubGenius (though some members deny the "parody" and insist they are a true religion)
- Discordianism (some Discordians maintain that their religion is not wholly without an element of seriousness)
- First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis
- The First Church of the Last Laugh
- Kibology
- Roshambo
- Shatnerology
- Tapism
- Landover Baptist Church
External links
- http://www.angelfire.com/rant/saibyebye/ Parody of New Age, Sathya Sai Baba and other gurus
- http://www.landoverbaptist.org Parody of Christianity, Land Over Baptist Church
- http://www.quiknet.com/~cattours/index.html Parody of Eckankar
- http://www.bettybowers.com/ Betty Bower’s Parody of Christianity
- http://www.wakeuplaughing.com/index.shtml Swami Beyondananda
- http://ooze.com/toolofsatan/ Parody of Star Wars as a Religion
- http://www.stallman.org/saint.html Richard Stallman's funny reaction to people accusing him of extremism
- Is Wikipedia a cult? (http://jnana.wikinerds.org/index.php/Is_Wikipedia_a_Cult) parody of Wikipedia and the cult controversy