Jesus Dress Up is a game that was created by artist Normal Bob Smith in 1991 as a black-and-white Colorform, which he photocopied and distributed to friends.
In August 2000, Smith converted the drawings to digital art and launched a website, allowing users to virtually play with a dress-up doll by placing movable layers of clothing on top of a crucified Jesus. Outfits in the original version included a light-blue tuxedo, football uniform, snorkeling gear, and red devil pajamas. [1]
Within a month of its launch, JesusDressUp.com received over 150,000 original hits, and by October 2000 had over 250,000 original visits. Almost entirely by word-of-mouth referrals, the website received nearly 6 million monthly hits by the end of 2000. [2]
In 2003, Normal Bob Smith produced a companion refrigerator-magnet set, which was sold through the website. Retailer Urban Outfitters ordered 3,000 of the magnet sets for sale through its stores, and Smith estimated he had sold around 5,000 sets in total by March 2004. [3]
As of 2012 there are ten versions of the Jesus Dress Up: the original, Superstar, Miscellaneous Holiday, Halloween, Christmas, Final Justice, BDSM, Wizard of Oz , Star Wars and Lady Gaga. Smith has also created a Mohammed Dress Up game, allowing people to dress up the prophet Mohammed.
Smith hosts photographs of celebrities including David Cross, Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman holding the Jesus Dress Up magnet set on his website, and has also posted a YouTube video of himself giving a set to Richard Dawkins.
Jesus Dress Up magnets appeared in the segment on Normal Bob Smith in the Neil Abramson documentary film Bob Smith USA, [4] which premiered at the American Film Institute’s SilverDocs Film Festival in Washington DC in June 2005.
On March 14, 2004, Jesus Dress Up sparked national controversy when a Philadelphia man, known only as "Gerry", voiced his outrage after seeing the magnets at an Urban Outfitters store in the King of Prussia mall. He wrote a letter of complaint to the chain and brought his story to his local NBC affiliate WCAU-TV when he received their response: Urban Outfitters stated that the magnet was not being sold to offend anyone, but to reflect a diversity of opinion among its customer base.
Urban Outfitters received more than 250,000 complaints, due mostly to organizational efforts from OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com, activism group websites created by the American Family Association. [5] Following the controversy on March 17, Urban Outfitters cancelled an order for an additional 3,500 magnet sets [3] and publicly stated that while they would sell their remaining stock they would not order any more. [5]
As a result of this attention, on March 28, 2004, an activism group called Laptop Lobbyists alerted Normal Bob Smith's web-hosting company, Pick Internet Solutions Inc, and succeeded in shutting down the Jesus Dress Up site. Charles Wheelus, President of Pick Internet Solutions Inc., said in response to the protests, "I am as appalled as you. I find the content of these sites to be obscene and offending." [6] Austin Cline from About.com commented that he hoped Normal Bob Smith would find a new hosting service, "one with a bit more backbone and a bit more respect for the existence of different points of view." [6] JesusDressUp.com was offline for several days until a new web hosting service was found.
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, characters who also appeared in Smith's later films Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Clerks III (2022) which are set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films have crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon known as the "View Askewniverse", named after Smith's production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
A shock jock is a radio broadcaster or DJ who entertains listeners and attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that may offend some portion of the listening audience. The term is used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms, statements and actions are typically offensive to much of society. It is a popular term within the radio industry. A shock jock is the radio equivalent of the tabloid newspaper in that both consider entertaining readers to be equally as, if not more important than, providing factual information. A radio station that relies primarily on shock jocks for programming has what is called a hot talk format.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, often shortened to the Catholic League, is an American Catholic organization whose stated purpose is to "defend the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination." The Catholic League states that it is "motivated by the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment ... to safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened." According to the Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics, the league "is regarded by many as the preeminent organization representing the views of American lay Catholics."
Robert Lane Saget was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Saget portrayed Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House (1987–1995) and its sequel Fuller House (2016–2020). He was the original host of America's Funniest Home Videos (1989–1997), and the voice of narrator Ted Mosby on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He was also known for his adult-oriented stand-up comedy, and his 2014 album That's What I'm Talkin' About was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004, from Houston, Texas, on the CBS television network, is notable for a moment in which Janet Jackson's breast—adorned with a nipple shield—was exposed by Justin Timberlake to the viewing public for approximately half a second. The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate or Janetgate, led to an immediate crackdown and widespread discourse on perceived indecency in broadcasting.
Jerry Springer: The Opera is a British musical written by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee, based on the talk show Jerry Springer. It contains irreverent treatment of Christian themes, extensive profanity, and surreal images, such as a troupe of tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members.
LeRoy Fredrick Bach is an American musician, composer, and music producer. He has hosted musical gatherings, fostered musical collaborations, and led bands in Chicago since 1990. Bach is perhaps best known for his work as a multi-instrumentalist in the band Wilco from 1997 through 2004.
Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, select western european countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar, the Urban Outfitters brand targets young adults with a merchandise mix of women's and men's fashion apparel, footwear, beauty and wellness products, accessories, activewear and gear, and housewares, as well as music, primarily vinyl records and cassettes.
The Roundhouse is a performing arts and concert venue situated at the Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England. The building was erected in 1846–1847 by the London & North Western Railway as a roundhouse, a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was used for that purpose for only about a decade. After being used as a warehouse for a number of years, the building fell into disuse just before World War II. It was first made a listed building in 1954.
Albert Leslie Cochran was an American homeless man, peace activist, cross-dresser, urban outdoorsman, and outspoken critic of police treatment of the homeless. Cochran was known in Austin as Leslie.
"Red Dress" is a song by British girl group Sugababes from their fourth studio album, Taller in More Ways (2005). The group's members wrote the song in collaboration with its producers, the British songwriting and production team Xenomania, based on the perception that women must expose their body to be noticed. "Red Dress" was released in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2006 as the album's third single, and is the first to feature vocals by Amelle Berrabah, following the departure of Mutya Buena in December 2005. The Sugababes performed a cover of the Arctic Monkeys' song "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" as the single's B-side.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally, with an emphasis on closed societies. HRF organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, a Venezuelan film producer and human rights advocate. The current chairman is Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and Javier El-Hage is the current chief legal officer. The foundation's head office is in the Empire State Building in New York City.
Cleveland Junior Naval Academy was a magnet military academy high school in St. Louis, Missouri and was a part of the St. Louis Public Schools. Cleveland High School opened in 1915 as a comprehensive high school, merging with the Junior Naval Academy in 1984. The Junior Naval Academy was a magnet military academy, founded in 1981. In 2006, the school moved from its original location on Louisiana Avenue (38.5777°N 90.2429°W) to the Pruitt Military Academy building on North 22nd Street, then, in 2010, it moved from Pruitt to the Southwest High School building at Arsenal and Kingshighway. In 2021, the St. Louis Public Schools board voted to close the location effective the upcoming school year.
Georgia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Peace Will Come" written by Kim Breitburg and Karen Kavaleryan. The song was performed by Diana Gurtskaya. The Georgian broadcaster Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) held a national final in order to select the Georgian entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. An open call for submissions was held which resulted in the shortlisting of twelve entries that were presented to the public during a televised production on 1 March 2008. The results of a public televote exclusively resulted in the selection of "Peace Will Come" performed by Diana Gurtskaya as the Georgian entry, having received 39.4% of the votes.
PoliticsPA.com is a website centered on the politics of Pennsylvania.
The meat dress was a dress made of raw beef worn by the American singer Lady Gaga at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Designed by Franc Fernandez and styled by Nicola Formichetti, the dress was condemned by animal rights groups, while named by Time as the top fashion statement of 2010.
The Peshawari chappal is a traditional type of footwear of Pashtuns, worn especially by Pashtuns in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The shoe takes its name from the city of Peshawar, where it originates. While chappal is the word for flip-flops or sandals in Urdu, locals in Peshawar call the Peshawari Tsaplay. The shoes are worn by men casually or formally, usually with the shalwar kameez. Because of their comfort, they are worn in place of sandals or slippers in Pakistan.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 2, 2004, and May 21, 2005, the thirtieth season of SNL.
BHLDN is an American women's clothing retailer that specializes in wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, bridal accessories, and wedding décor. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, BHLDN is owned by Urban Outfitters, and is a sister brand to Anthropologie.
Outrage porn is any type of media or narrative that is designed to use outrage to provoke strong emotional reactions for the purpose of expanding audiences, whether traditional television, radio, or print media, or in social media with increased web traffic and online attention. The term outrage porn was coined in 2009 by political cartoonist and essayist Tim Kreider of The New York Times.