Getting converted has never been so easy!

November 4, 2003 3:52 PM

Getting converted has never been so easy! "The Plug 'n' Pray concept: Religion is no longer a mystical experience or a personal journey to get closer to our transcendent inner dimension - it belongs now to the FCG (Fast Consumer Goods) segment." …A brilliant religious (and software marketing) satire, IMHO.
posted by Down10 (12 comments total)

They need to add an Atheist kit.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 4:14 PM on November 4, 2003

a one page joke replicated into an entire site.
posted by quonsar at 4:17 PM on November 4, 2003

is hinduist even a word?
posted by carfilhiot at 4:26 PM on November 4, 2003

Like to see the technical support log on their clients. Or is prayer their support?
posted by thomcatspike at 4:27 PM on November 4, 2003

Atheism is in the Uninstaller.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 4:29 PM on November 4, 2003

Great concept, designs, really did LOL over the uninstaller. Brilliant.
posted by th3ph17 at 5:45 PM on November 4, 2003

I don't find this brilliant or funny. Not offended either, just not reacting. Perhaps because this concept doesn't begin to grasp the complexity of religious conversion or even of a change of mind/heart, and so can't properly mock it?
posted by orange swan at 6:27 PM on November 4, 2003

this concept doesn't begin to grasp the complexity of religious conversion

It's so difficult to capture irrational desperation in a simple web site....
posted by rushmc at 6:58 PM on November 4, 2003

I'm not satisfied with my comment, actually - humour dies under scrutiny and not-funniness is equally hard to dissect and explain.

I'll try again - satire is usually a fresh way of stating something that many people recognize as the truth (i.e., the Onion's "Holy Fucking Shit Attack on America" graphic was funny because it mocked the over-the-top graphics proliferating after 9/11). That's why satire is never revolutionary in itself, because by the time something has been satirized everyone knows there's something wrong with it. If people did convert from one religion to another after doing something equivalent to reading a computer plug-in, then this might be funny. If computer program marketing regularly promised to remodel people's psyches rather than just giving them new options for computer-use, then it might be funny. I found myself thinking that a change-religion version of a workout video might work. But I don't find truth in this particular concept, therefore it's not funny to me.
posted by orange swan at 7:20 PM on November 4, 2003

It's so difficult to capture irrational desperation in a simple web site....

true.
posted by poopy at 7:32 PM on November 4, 2003

Hey! We may be desperate, but we are not irrational!

Oh, wait...

This is quite cute, but perhaps not as funny as it seemed to the person who spent all that time creating the site. My best guess would be that someone had an assignment they needed to complete and then decided it would be a shame to waste it.
posted by dg at 7:55 PM on November 4, 2003

It's like the guy who made this couldn't decide whether he wanted to create a joke site that was actually funny, or one that would trick the gullible into believing that it was serious. Sometimes the prose reads straight and sometimes it reads like an attempt at humor.

It's a really great idea but I'd like to see someone who's actually funny try their hand at the concept.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:15 PM on November 4, 2003