Monday, 3 March 2014

Dudeism

Dudeism is an online religion that was founded in 2005, and which is based on The Big Lebowski. Perhaps a key component of fandom is that you need highly dedicated fans who will lead the others, and therefore it follows that you need those high-status 'superfans' to give those fans a sense of belonging.
 
The fact that there is an online website for Dudeism and various rules and practices emphasises how focused these 'superfans' are on creating something for the other fans to rally around, and suggests that they are committed to meeting the needs of these fans.

 
 
As with Lebowski Fest, perhaps another key component of Dudeism is that fans are looking to form communities of like-minded fans who they can share their appreciation of The Big Lebowski with. The fact that it is greatly supported (supposedly, there are 200,000 ordained Dudeist priests) suggests that the fans have been looking for something like this for some time now. Furthermore, the fact that there are over 200,000 ordained Dudeist priests worldwide emphasises that they are bound to the online religion by a strong streak of competition and therefore want to give something back to their online fan community. 
 
 

 
 
 
This is an extract from an interview with Oliver Benjamin, the founder of Dudeism, in I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski. The fact that he created this online religion after getting hooked on The Big Lebowski suggests that such powerful expressions of devotion can, in turn, suggest that the fan in question was so transformed by the film that these expressions of devotion are warranted. The implication is that this person was very much unlike 'The Dude' suggests that people become fans for different reasons, and therefore the fact that he is giving this interview suggests that he wants to encourage fans to maintain their loyalty. 

 

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