A while back I noted the “disquieting resemblance”:https://crookedtimber.org/2006/01/02/separated-at-birth between the Emperor Gorg (of “Fraggle Rock”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009RQSSW/kieranhealysw-20/104-7889918-1956712) and L. Ron Hubbard (present whereabouts unknown). Now my sources have alerted me to “this clip”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sH42MMepT4&search=muppet from the short-lived “Muppets Tonight”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppets_Tonight. The premise of the clip is a look back at “The Kermit Frog Club,” like the Mickey Mouse Club but with Kermit as the object of devotion and guest Cindy Crawford in the Annette Funicello role. (The MMC is outside the range of my pop culture: I have no idea what I’m talking about here.) Anyway, of interest are the muppet Frogsketeers, whose names are emblazoned on their shirts: along with Cindy, there’s Newt, Stu, and … L. Ron. Now that I look at the screenshot again, Newt’s crop of hair is also somewhat “evocative”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich.
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Matt 03.12.06 at 11:50 pm
Wow, that is bizarre.
Kieran, you said something on your previous thread, now closed, that I really appreciated, but didn’t get the chance to say so:
…Based on several products of the system that I know, if I’d have had the chance to pursue an elite French education, believe me I’d have taken it.
Actually, this response went a great way toward redeeming the post itself, as far as I was concerned, and though the response surely couldn’t have been entirely unanticipated. So, anyway, thanks. And sorry, don’t mean to hijack the muppet thread.
jake 03.13.06 at 1:08 am
The real history of L. Ron is as odd a slice of California noir there is to be found. L. Ron seems to been involved in all sorts of strange doings, as indicated by his friendship and then estrangement with Jack Parsons, rocket scientist, Cal Tech founder, and pen pal of none other than Aleister Crowley. (Parsons accidently detonated himself doing some rocket tests in his Pasadena home; others say Parson’s death was not accidental at all).
L. Ron’s demise on a Central CA ranch is itself shrouded in mystery. There are autopsy reports showing narcotics in his body at the time of death–strange, since HUbbard and Scientology doctrine adamamtly prohibited the use of drugs. There are many theories–including the possibility he was murdered.
Nabakov 03.13.06 at 2:40 am
Um Jake, I think you meant to say Jack Parsons, Jet Propulsion Laboratory co-founder, not Cal-Tech.
Harald Korneliussen 03.13.06 at 3:06 am
I thought his links to Aleister Crowley were well-known. I know it sound like some conspiracy theory, but all the major (non-scientologist) biographies talk about it in some detail. Here’s “A piece of blue sky” on it:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs2-6.htm
joe o 03.13.06 at 4:09 am
one of the muppet babies writers was a scientologist.
John Quiggin 03.13.06 at 7:14 am
Thanks to the time lags in going from the US to Australia, MMC was brand new when I first watched TV. All I can remember, though, is the song and Annette.
jake 03.13.06 at 10:32 am
Apart from the usual CT kitsch, the political implications of L. Ron and Scientology have yet to be addressed (tho Mike Davis took some ineffectual, westside-marxist shots at ’em). Any rational person passing by the massive CoS temple complex on Sunset might speculate what really goes on behind the scenes with CoS; like the masons, or catholicism ( or saudi Imams for that matteer) the CoS is part of US Operation Mindph*ck, and in essence opposed to any sort of Jeffersonian values (but then so are, say, the regents of the University of California). Those people who have worked with (or Osiris forbid, for) Appliantologists generally have some tales to tell about their oddities—the programming, the various secret teachings of Dianetics, the sort of Spencer-lite insistence on aggression. Like Aynnie Rand’s cult (tho the Randians less sinister than the CoS), L.Ronism caters to the nouveau riche of Hollywood, to upbeat, hyper-assertive people who want to be free of any guilt regarding their success, who can smile 24/7: Dale Carnegie on meth
Tad Brennan 03.13.06 at 10:33 am
Jesus–I always knew that story about Jim Henson dying of pneumonia was a fake. They killed him!! And Kermit!! And Ernie too!!
(And there I had always thought he was killed by Bert, teaming up with Osama).
Actually–I gotta say–Henson was very cool, and I was very bummed at his death.
jake 03.13.06 at 11:30 am
Aw yeah Henson was a master. Imagine, tho, if he took his muppet-realism a bit farther: a NC-17 re-enactment of Jack Parsons’ last few days, with like Kermit as the troubled rocket scientist-black magician and Ms. Piggy as his hotsexxay Scarlet Woman…yass…then various other muppets playing L. Ron, Uncle Al, etc.
jake 03.13.06 at 11:41 am
But why stop there? The Muppets, in Moscow 1917 (Into zee mineshaft your filthy bourgeois jackals!); or the Beer Hall Putsch–perhaps flying ol Enola Gay, or like Westmoreland and the boys Saigon ’68. That’s entertainment and history.
Bro. Bartleby 03.13.06 at 2:02 pm
Zizek and Badiou, Where are You
Posted by Kieran Healy
POST #151
Where is God in all this?
Bro. Bartleby
lemuel pitkin 03.13.06 at 4:28 pm
The comments on Zizek and Badiou were some of the best I’ve seen on CT in a while. I don’t approve of its closing, especially before I had a chance to post.
Free the comments thread!
Bro. Bartleby 03.13.06 at 8:34 pm
Free Zizek! Free Badiou!
To the ramparts!!!!
des von bladet 03.14.06 at 7:37 am
Free Zizek! Free Badiou!
Yeah right you’re being all “free Zizek!” so we’ll all be like “Oh Zizek and fries twice, for sure” and you’ll be like “That’ll be 28$” and we’ll be like “What?” and you’ll go “Fries ain’t cheap, and there’s a service charge”.
We know your sort, “bro”.
Bro. Bartleby 03.14.06 at 9:24 am
“Free Zizek!” lapel buttons are now available at the monastery gift shop. The brothers voted not to include “Free Badiou!” lapel buttons at this time. I might add that we do have a collector’s item, a slightly scratched “Free Huey!” button.
beajerry 03.14.06 at 11:48 am
Oh….my….God!
hypochrismutreefuzz 03.14.06 at 11:35 pm
Free Huey, Dewey and Louie.
duane 03.15.06 at 7:12 am
Jake, if you haven’t already seen Meet the Feebles, you absolutely must seek it out.
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