Bob Flanagan | Celebrity Goo Game

This goo was worth a point in November 2023.

publication date: Monday, November 13, 2023 (part of November 2023)

category: Art

clue: This performance artist derived so much happiness from being sick and in pain that he insisted that his own death be incorporated into his final filmed project.

explanation: Flanagan was a masochist who used pain to rebel against his cystic fibrosis, and whose live performances often depicted acts of self-injury. Among his works are the widely banned music video for "Happiness in Slavery" by Nine Inch Nails in which he is mechanically tortured, and Kirby Dick's documentary Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, which he only agreed to make on the condition that his death be filmed and included. more…

intended difficulty: easy

solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, LaVonne Lemler, and Erik Bates

trivia: Scott keeps a running list of hundreds of famous people who could be material for goos someday. Flanagan had been on the list longer than any other person, from 2010 until this goo was finally made in 2023. The long delay was due to the grisly and upsetting nature of Flanagan's work. In the late 2000s, Celebrity Goo Game had several incidents in which goos were cavalierly made about people who were disturbing to contemplate and research (such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Josef Fritzl), and Scott had promised to be more careful and tasteful in the future. After many years of Flanagan's name hanging around at the bottom of the list, Scott ultimately decided to proceed with the goo because, unlike the other controversial figures, Flanagan was a sympathetic person, someone who suffered instead of causing suffering.