Church of Happyology: Difference between revisions

[[Streisand Effect|Naturally]], this makes them [[Snark Bait|even easier to mock]].

 

 

A subtrope of [[Parody Religion]]. See also [[Cult]], [[Religion of Evil]], [[Path of Inspiration]], [[Corrupt Church]], and [[Scam Religion]].

* In ''[[The Far Side]]'', a door-to-door proselytizing cow hands another cow a "Cowentology" pamphlet and suggests she ask herself, "Am I a happy cow?"

* The E-Man comic had the "Church of Technolography," led by Elrod Flummox, who talks almost entirely in bizarre psychological jargon. [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/730600.html#cutid1 See for yourself.]

* ''[[Nodwick]]'' once featured an "Elrond Hubbard" in a ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' parody. He was said to have written a book called ''Dianelfics''. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|It was a best-seller in the "Elf-help" genre.]]

* The Triune Understanding cult in [[Kurt Busiek]]'s run on ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' was clearly supposed to represent this.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' had an early (if broad) reference in the "Crackpot Religions Ltd." sketch. (Happyology was run from England in the 1960s.)

* ''Nip/Tuck'' mentions it by name when a character joins the Church of Happyology.

* A very thinly veiled version of Happyology appears in ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'', complete with extensive member files, celebrity members, and stalkers, who are accused of driving a woman to suicide.

** Played with in the ''Law & Order'' episode "Bogeyman". In this case, while the group in question ''is'' paranoid and ''does'' keep dossiers on their critics, it turns out that they're not actually guilty of any crime, and that the murder under investigation was committed by one of their critics to set them up.

** An episode involves a cult called Visualize that threatens legal trouble if any of their secrets get out.

** Visualize has been taking a more important role in the plot in recent episodes. The leader might even know how to catch the [[Big Bad]].

* A ''[[Diagnosis: Murder]]'' episode has Earthonomy, a cult with ridiculous mafia-like connections. They kill a reporter who was investigating them and attempt to kill another reporter. One suspect is even a closeted gay actor obviously based on... [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|a certain actor]]. {{spoiler|It turns out the killer was a hitman hired by the head of Earthonomy, who was having a homosexual affair with the gay actor.}}

* And this discussion from ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'':

 

== Radio ==

 

 

** Prequel comics feature the Church (several times referred to as a "cult") as a major plot point. They are directly responsible for unleashing the alien threat featured in the game by transporting a mysterious "marker" they believe is directly related to their beliefs to a human colony then the mining ship where the game takes place and are hinted to have been aware of its effects all along.

** The most confusing thing, though, is that Unitology is, according to the background information you can collect throughout the game, the ''only'' major religion to survive the expansion of humanity beyond Earth. In other words, the cult seemed ''less'' fake than other established religions when space travel was perfected. This may be slightly justified, though, as it turns out the cult was ''right'' in a lot of their tenets. This is partly the result of {{spoiler|the church's massive movement to undermine and infiltrate the Earth Government after their leader was assassinated. They now have enough pull to have anti-Unitology books officially banned on Earth and her colonies}}. You only learn this from a log you get by beating the game (i.e., not found in the game).

** According to the developers, Unitology is not explicitly based on Happyology, but rather religious cults in general.

* ''[[Ultima VII]]'': Oooooh boy, where to start here. Practically every singleof the Fellowship mirrors Happyology in some form or other. Batlin is a spitting image of L. Ron. The Fellowship have practices similar to Fair Game and Disconnection. Hell, The Avatar is given a bloody Personality Test early on, which is obviously rigged against him. See where this is going? As if [[Electronic Arts]] wasn't painted evil enough by The Fellowship.

* The particularly crass MMORPG ''[[Forum Warz]]'' gives us a two-for-one deal with the Church of [[Dragonball Z|Saiyantology]] - and that's just the sixth or seventh of all the bizarre subcultures they've declared [[Acceptable Targets]].

* The Order from ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Deus Ex Invisible War]]''.

** Retrospectively not that out of place in the world of Earthbound.

* One of the monuments spouting INKT propaganda in ''[[De Blob]]'' is the Church of Inktology.