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Jello Biafra
Quietly sitting in his one bedroom apartment minding his own business, Jello Biafra was unaware of the injustice that was about to occur. Previously producing five albums with his government bashing, punk band, Jello had built his name with unspeakable acts of rebellion against a system which he viewed as unstable. In order to offend the administrators as much as possible, Jello included an insert in one of his last albums with a reproduction of a painting by H.R. Giger which depicted sexually explicit material. On April 15, 1986, nine policemen raided Jello's apartment in search of this painting and prosecuted him under obscenity charges. (Segal, 1997, p. G1) He was brought to court, but with the help of a little friend known as the first amendment of the constitution, the accused was acquitted. From publicizing material which insults our clothed society to running for mayor of San Francisco, Jello's life has been dedicated to offending the democratic arrangement ever since childhood. His drastic efforts toward revolution through music, spoken word, and political pranks prove Jello's fearless and non-conforming attitude in life. Yet, does he have the strength to manage his manipulation skills to help the working class rather than himself? Or will he follow the example of most new politicians and after tasting his recently awarded powers, try seek even more domination and wealth?
Jello Biafra was born Eric Boucher in Boulder, Colorado. (Segal, 1997, p. G1) His father made a living as a psychiatric social worker, though did not have healthy relations with his son. At a young age, Eric would enrage his father by comparing him to Stalin and Nixon. Soon Eric would realize how uncommon his ideas were to most children his age. "My heroes in those days were Batman villains. My other friends wanted to be nurses and firemen, but I thought the Riddler and Penguin were much better role models," he has said. (Segal, 1997, p. G1) As a teenager, he began writing song lyrics which in turn began his idea to start a band. In 1978, after one year of college, Eric moved to San Francisco and found a group of musicians who similar views on society. This was also the time when Eric decided to alter his name to Jello Biafra. "Jello" perfectly summarized how he saw the quality of the U.S. corporate culture. Biafra is a primarily Christian country in Southeastern Nigeria which in 1967 declared independence from a corrupt group of Muslims who controlled the federal government. The secession caused a civil war lasting until 1970 when the Biafrans signed a formal surrender. During the war, food shortages killed many people and the Biafran babies became an international symbol of third-world poverty. ("Biafra, Republic of," 1989, p. 32) "I thought that the two images of Jello and Biafra colliding in the mind were exactly the sort of confrontational question I wanted to raise. Plastic (a weaker substance in the 80's) America and its overseas result." (Segal, 1997, p. G1) Equally as thought-provoking as his new name, Jello named his band the Dead Kennedys referring to the death of hope since the Kennedy assassination. The Dead Kennedys would eventually establish their own record company, existing today as Alternative Tentacles.
After releasing a couple of hit singles with his punk band, Jello decided to increase the attention he would receive by running for mayor of San Francisco in 1979. (" The Jello Biafra FAQ," page 1) His intentions were simply to show people the routine of running for an office job which involves looking nice, finding people to sign a petition, paying some fees, and begin to advertise. While a candidate, Jello displayed his purposely unrealistic proclamations promising to ban automobiles and forcing all businessmen to wear clown suits from 9 to 5, to ensure his loss in the race, but also make his various views public. After surprisingly coming in fourth out of ten candidates with 6,600 votes, Jello realized that for him to seriously run for a political position would involve long hours of research; however, even though Jello's campaign was a joke, he has said that representatives of pressure groups tried to make him offers on what to support. "I figured if that was going on at that level, it's no wonder people have no idea what they believe when they finally reach positions of real power," says Jello. ("Jello Biafra," page 2)
One of Jello Biafra's strongest weapons is his courage to go to the limits of the legal system to make a point. Most people with ideas write books or try to form awareness groups, but Jello has given his message out using less avoidable means. Unless someone is truly interested in an author's opinion, he probably will not buy their book or join their little club, but advertisements being placed around the city during election times, and music continually played on the radio is much more difficult to overlook. Not only does he make his points clear, but he discusses some of the topics which half of the population is uncomfortable speaking their own opinions about. Illegal drugs, for example, is an issue that is widely looked at in schools in terms of effects and problems, but rarely are opinions given from those who have them. Although Jello is opposed to smoking marijuana, he has given speeches on its environmental and medical uses. ("Spreading the Positive Disease," page 7) Admitting to using the drug as a teenager, he grew to realize that abuse of certain drugs is almost impossible to avoid, but when carefully established can be used as a cost effective source of paper, clothing, and medicines. Out of fear of being shunned by society, many influential people do not speak of issues like these because they are worried others will assume they deal and abuse drugs. That is my opinion anyway, and now that I added my little thought about drugs in here, everyone must know that I go home everyday and smoke my brains out. It is assumptions like this that prevent politicians from daring to give these opinions, and it is assumptions like this that Jello does not fear.
However, in order for Jello to use his weapons, he must have rivals; in fact, his competitors are the main source of his gift. Without people like Tipper Gore, who founded the Parents Music Resource Center, Jello would have no one to argue with. Tipper is trying to form a movie-like rating system for music to limit the sales of certain recordings to people above a certain age. ("Jello Biafra," page 1) Twice, Jello and Tipper have appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to debate censorship. Other opponents include people of high political power, such as Bill Clinton, and actual concepts and laws that society follows.
Contrary to several political philosophers, Jello does not only base his opinions on what he thinks of the government. As a child, rather than taking an interest to sports and athlete statistics, Jello preferred researching injustices in society and possible solutions. When the Dead Kennedys first formed, Jello's lyrics were ideas he assembled from conscientiously observing the actions of dishonest state executives. After Jello's career heightened, people began to send him information about their observations. One man sent Jello a letter about his experiences at a drug war boot camp where the prisoners were forced to run ten miles carrying heavy logs and if they puked on the way, they were required to eat their vomit. If anyone quit the camp, he or she had to serve a three to five year jail term. Jello has intentionally neglected to give credit to this man; he says "some of the information could really get some people in trouble if I mentioned their name." ("Spreading the Positive Disease," page 4)
So, what does Jello hope to achieve from all his work? Along with the positive support that Jello receives, comes twice as much negative attention. Plus, now that he is in the public eye, every aspect of his life will be monitored by the tabloids. What's the point? Jello responds, "The thing that means the most, as far as the impact of my work goes, is not when someone comes up and asks for my autograph, or an iron-on tattoo or telling me I'm God, but when someone comes up and says, 'I was majoring in business and I heard your stuff, and I sat down and took a long look at my life's direction and decided to do something else.' Or a case of 'Your stuff affected me, and now here's something to affect you." ("Spreading the Positive Disease,") Jello could have easily expressed his ideas in a politically correct fashion without offending so many people, and ended up with a great deal of wealth and fame to keep for himself. Yet, he has spent all his effort and risked all his money on testing the limits of legality. Recently, Jello's record company was sued for the use of a photograph, originally used in a police public relations campaign, as a back-cover of an album by another band. Alternative Tentacles has been ordered to pay $2.2 million to the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, which will clean Jello of all his money. (Segal, 1997, p. G1) Based on the gambles of Jello's wealth, the assumption of his sincerity and non-materialistic success appear to be honest. With a hunger for revolution and an abundance of strenuous labor, Jello has proven himself a truly triumphant hero.
Written by Jeff Camelio on 12/21/97
Bibliography
"Biafra, Republic of." Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. 1989.
"Jello Biafra." http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/aph572/page_11.html.
Segal, David. "Jello Biafra: The Surreal Deal." Washington Post. 4 May 1997, sec. G, p. 1.
"Spreading The Positive Disease." http://www.paranoia.com:80/~gallium/dk/jello.int.html.
"The Jello Biafra FAQ." http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~brandx/articles/jb-faq.html (15 October 1994).
