This is the one hundred and sixteenth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video advertising huckster Bob Larson’s super deluxe personal demon deliverance package. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bob Larson was quite popular among Evangelicals. I listened to his radio program almost every day. Larson’s gone on to live a scandal-filled life, but he still seems to be able to con people into giving him money. Elmer Gantry lives on in the life of Larson..
Back in the early 90s I used to listen to him on my way home from work for a laugh. His big thing was to interview teenagers who were into Wicca, Satanism, and the occult. Otherwise he spent a lot of time raising money, which didn’t interest me (it could be funny though he’d blab about how he’d have to shut down his show if he didn’t get enough donations, desperate and hilarious). I also remember him ranting about the death of Sam Kinnison, almost gloating about it.
There are lots of closet Bob Larson fans out there. I used to listen as well. I also saw him in person. He was just as much a traveling con man as he is in the videos. It seems he’s just conning enough people to make a living. And also showing what a con religion is.
I appreciate how Bob chases those demons and whacks them with the Bible, stabs them with Crosses. He’s heading down the Woo Way full tilt! Hit ’em harder, Bobby! Stab those demons! I’d write more about it but I might miss out on the Grace Period pricing…. gotta go Skype.
(Pity the poor people who are really suffering with imbalances and deep pain and then get sucked in by this ugly bloodsucker. This stuff makes me laugh so hard and then cry for the poor victims.
I also listened to him in the car going home, when I was a new Christian. I think it was his extreme opinions that kept my skepticism intact. He was just bloody WRONG about so many things, even though his show led me to explore a lot of other topics. Eventually, I couldn’t listen to him anymore. 2 things led to that: He went nuts on Bill Clinton, and I felt that was out of his area. Then, one day, the first words out of his mouth were “SATAN HAS BEEN DOING AMAZING THINGS THIS WEEK!” I remember saying out loud, “So, is that who pays your salary?” and changed the station, never to return.
I did not listen to him like the rest of you guys, but I attended a church that did the exact same thing, studied Bob and his demon-skeedaddling ways. This started to be a routine way of life over at the old church. At the time I took it oh so seriously, now, that freaking ad just looks like some sort of inane parody of a low budget horror movie. LMAO at the prices on his site. If you go to the Demon Test site it costs ten bucks to take the test to find out if you have a demon. I guarantee that no matter how you answer it’s always going to come up as demon-possessed as the answer. A fool and his money…
Good grief! This shyster is still around! I loved Bob Larson . I’d listen to him every day on the way home from work. I’d even sit in my car when I got home so I wouldn’t miss a word of his crackpottery.
I love that part about STDs–Sexually Transmitted Demons. Didn’t he has a bit of STD himself?
Bob Larson. Giving new meaning to Bible banging.
i was a regular detractor of bob larson between 1980 and 1995 or so. i’ve got a whole bunch of recordings of bob and i going at it on the radio.
We listened to him, too. It was more to get a good laugh, than anything else. Except for me. He always played long pieces of rock music, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I always wondered, if the music was so bad, why did he play it? Didn’t matter, though; I got to enjoy sanctioned rock music.
One day, a caller called him Robery Larceny. My dad thought that was a perfect name and that is how we referred to him from then on.
I looked him up a few years ago, out of idle curiosity. This was the next logical step for him.
Bob Larson was marketing a show featuring his daughter and two of her teen friends as demon-hunters for hire. Larson’s business is a scam, just like that of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker. Bakker and his second wife, Lori Beth, have decided to market Armageddon as business and sell overpriced and unpalatable prepper food online.