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Using Obscure Religions to Your Benefit

My friends Loki, Morgan, and I arrived at the karaoke bar around 7pm, where Skeezy McLimpsalot (all names have been changed slightly) appeared out of nowhere. He had met Loki and Morgan at previous karaoke nights and introduced himself to me.

We were starved. Skeezy told us that the kitchen wasn’t open, but there was karaoke and food at a bar/restaurant around the corner. We thanked him and turned to leave as he shouted, “One sec, I’ll grab my stuff!”

So Skeezy invited himself along to have dinner with us. While he seemed very nice (if socially inept), people who can best be described as “nice” do not usually interest me terribly. Also, the more I drink, the less “nice” I get, particularly when I’m in a mood like I was last night. I wouldn’t call it a “bad” mood — it’s just this funk I get in that usually results in nights of debauchery and tremendous amounts of vomiting. As a side note which may or may not help one better understand “the mood,” all I had eaten that day were about six brownies.

Everything you need to know about Skeezy can be learnt from his business card. On it, he has written that he is a professional singer; only, “professional” is written on top of White-out and if you scratch it off, underneath it says “amateur.” Also, the card notes he is a “conservative political activist.” Either this means that he campaigns for conservative causes (perhaps tax reform or anti-gay marriage?) or else it means that he does some sort of political campaigning, but he doesn’t go overboard with it. Maybe he and his other activist friends are all holding signs outside the White House. He’s having a good time, when someone suggests they moon the President. “Whoa whoa,” says Skeezy. “Let’s not get crazy, here.”

I spent the first 30 minutes of dinner successfully ignoring poor conservative professional/amateur singer Skeezy before he finally made a brave attempt to strike up a conversation by asking about the (fashionably) gaudy pendant necklace I was wearing. He asked if it had any kind of symbolic meaning. It cost $2 on sale at H&M, so to me it is symbolic of my ability to score cheap deals. However, I told him it was a symbol for my religion. He probed further, and I told him I was Zoroastroarianian. I later switched to the slightly less incorrect term “Zoroastrian.” Some things I recall saying:

  • Christianity stole all the good stuff from us (this is true)
  • I can’t have sex before marriage (pretty sure this is true)
  • I can only marry other Zoroastrians (this is true for the traditional church)
  • You can’t convert to Zoroastrianism, you have to be born into it (ditto)
  • We wear special underpants like the Mormons, only ours have padlocks on them (to the best of my knowledge, this is not at all true)

I really had him convinced. At that point, I was fairly certain Skeezy would never want to talk to me again and frankly, who could blame him? I went on to drink my weight in Harpoon (and multiple shots of something called a “Red-Headed Slut” courtesy of the DJ who was obviously impressed with our rendition of Salt-n-Pepa’s “Shoop” [I believe I was Pepa]) before we all left the bar. Skeezy disappeared as my friends and I walked back to the car. Somewhere along the way, apparently I climbed on a large fiberglass cow.

I received this e-mail approximately six hours after throwing up all my food and passing out at home in bed:

From: Loki
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 8:48 AM
To: Rebecca
Subject: FW: : Hello It’s Skeezy

Have you ever made sweet love to a Professional Amateur Singer/Conservative Political Activist before? ________________________________________

From: Skeezy
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 7:53 AM
To: Loki
Subject: : Hello It’s Skeezy

Nice seeing you again & Morgan? Rebecca’s cute.

I guess I picked the wrong religion. Maybe Scientology will scare him away at the next karaoke night.

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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11 Comments

  1. So, this blog entry was just a "Hey, I've still got it!" post?

    But just to be skeptical… I don't think you're cute.

    You're EXTREMELY cute.

  2. Nah, JF, sometimes I go all LiveJournal on this blog for a change of pace. Thought it would be an interesting way for readers to learn about an obscure cult, and how to possibly use this cult to their advantage. Usually these are the easier entries to write (and therefore good for mornings when I have splitting headaches). However, the blog editing tool did NOT like the copy/pasted e-mail formatting and freaked out on me. Now the headache is worse.

    Sam, I had a very different image in mind: I would have guessed Coca Cola, as opposed to Pepsi. Just me.

  3. Next time, sacrifice some unwanted food item to the gods with a steak knife. "Oh unholy Rice Pudding Desert and stale complimentary biscuit. Thee are my offering to the great unwashed Bezarko, god of amatuer singer slaying"

  4. Me? I love that Old Time religion–

    So next time, cut out his heart and offer it up to the Sun God.

    You'd be amazed at how off-putting that is for some folk.

  5. I’m intrigued by the idea of a conservative activist professional/amateur singer. I picture a big Republican “love in”, where everyone is dressed in proper starchy clothes, drinking Pepsi to expand their minds and because they own stock, and our hero steps up with a guitar and a harmonica draped over his tie and blazer, and as images of gay weddings, medical marijuana, and a flat tax rate flash in a PowerPoint montage behind him, he sings a rousing rendition of “We Shall Overcome”.

  6. What a great example of a member of a strange group of people that believe they have a career as a professional karaoke singer. (would have put quotes around karaoke but I think Britney, speaking or karaoke singers, used them all up in the Matt Laurer interview Thursday) Point being these types of people take the fun out of it for the rest that want to get lit up and sing bad karaoke just for fun.

  7. So why did you give him your e-mail address? ….and if you didn't which one of your friends was the jokester?

  8. What if he's an activist for tax breaks for gay marriages?

    Also, never pretend to be something real that someone else might know more about than you. Odds are good skeezy (I think his brother drove my airport van a few months ago…) went home, googled zorastrianism and decided he could deal with it. ALWAYS make something up.

  9. Yes, make something up. Preferably a term that means "you're an idiot" in Indonesian or some African dialect. That way, you have double the fun when he actually googles and maybe even finds it.

    Also, there's a few religions/cults out there that only allow male members. Unless he actually knows about it, he'll have another fun surprise when he googles and finds out something interesting about you. Just imagine the look on his face …

    Or you could just say "Sorry, not interested". But I suppose that would be too boring and straightforward, and make for a very lame blog entry.

  10. Well, you /are/ cute, at least judging from the images you've posted, and if weird religions don't scare him off you can always try poking holes in his.

    Also, red headed sluts are good. (the drink you pervs….)

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