# James "Kibo" Parry

James Parry (born July 13, 1967), commonly known by his nickname and username Kibo /ˈkaɪboʊ/, is a Usenetter known for his sense of humor, various surrealist net pranks, an absurdly long signature, and a machine-assisted knack for "kibozing": joining any thread in which "kibo" was mentioned. His exploits have earned him a multitude of enthusiasts, who celebrate him as the head deity of the parody religion "Kibology", centered on the humor newsgroup alt.religion.kibology.

## Background

James Parry grew up and lived in Scotia, New York. He showed early computing skills, such as being able to open up and reprogram ROM video game cartridges such as those for the Atari 2600, but was more interested in graphics and artistic pursuits. In this vein, he was initially a computer engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, but then moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1990 and attended Emerson College, where he studied videography and graphic design. At that time, he also worked as a typeface designer and for the world.std.com internet service provider. He developed several fonts in use today. One of his better-known works is the typography for Philip K. Dick's novel Gather Yourselves Together.

## Growing fame

In the early 1990s, as public awareness grew of the Internet and Usenet, Parry received publicity, including a cover story in Wired magazine and mentions in Playboy and The Times. He became known on Usenet for grepping all occurrences of the term "Kibo"—whether intended to refer to Kibo himself or not—and replying, often in a fanciful manner. A typical exchange:
This practice became known as kibozing. In 2006, Parry estimated that he had posted "an average of 20 articles a week to alt.religion.kibology during the past 15 years, probably about 500 words of original content per article, that's... seven point eight mmmmillion [sic] words. Equivalent to about 100 books."
He is perhaps best known on Usenet for his famous (or infamous) "Happynet Proclamation" (1992), circulated to many newsgroups, some absurdly unrelated, which satirized the endless flamewars on the network, with Parry posing as a godlike being issuing an edict full of in-jokes and humor targets that claimed to unify all news into one glorious totality, "happynet". In the article, Kibo claimed that:

### Kibology and alt.religion.kibology

Kibology is a parody religion created by Parry, the central figure. Practitioners of Kibology are called 'Kibologists' or (sometimes more disdainfully) 'Kibozos'. Parry began Kibology about 1989. In its early Usenet days, it was centered in the newsgroups talk.bizarre and the Church of the SubGenius group "alt.slack", until the creation of its own Usenet group, alt.religion.kibology in late 1991. The religious satire of Kibology shares tenets of other parody religions, including similar concepts to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Invisible Pink Unicorn. The alt.religion.kibology newsgroup remained active through the 1990s, with gradually less emphasis on the joke religion and more satirizing popular culture and internet culture as a sort of online comedy writer's collaboration room. The group collectively invented and developed the sport of 'trolling,' with Kibo writing rules and a points system for trolling other Usenet newsgroups. Other popular regular contributors kept the group active even during "Kibo"'s periodic absences from Usenet. In 2003, the group spawned a band, Interröbang Cartel, which by 2011 had written and recorded more than 80 songs.

## Hallmarks

The term "bozo" and related jokes like the physics particle the "bozon" were Parry hallmarks. Revisions of the Manifesto were published in 1994 and 1998. HappyWeb was introduced in 1999.
In 1992, at age 25 (ten years younger than the constitutional minimum age for election), he launched a spoof campaign for President of the United States.