Of course RHPS is rubbish - It's the best rubbish there is!

It's supposed to be a ritual of reversing all of the rules of movie-going behaviour. Throw stuff around (at the proper cues, of course!), spray water, dress outlandishly, yell out loud, run in the aisles, and shine lights. Most cultures have some sort of tradition of a ritual rule-breaking, or perhaps more correctly, a ritual of rule-reversal.

Read The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, 1922. Particularly, check out the chapter on The Roman Saturnalia, "...when the customary restraints of law and morality are thrown aside, when the whole population give themselves up to extravagant mirth and jollity".

Fortunately, at RHPS, it's Dr. Frankenfurter (The King of the Saturnalia in this case) on screen who is killed, and not, say, the projectionist.

Actually, the whole book (The Golden Bough) is full of background information on concepts and symbols found in folk and blues lyrics ("Please To See The King" - ritual sacrifice of the god, "John Barleycorn" - the Corn God, etc.). Well worth reading, or at least skimming.

- Mad ("It's just a jump to the left") Tom -