The Legend of Eat Fuck Kill
[OCTOBER 2021: If you found your way here from the Sotheby’s Boundless Space… The Possibilities of Burning Man auction, hi! You may be interested to know that the Eat Fuck Kill lot has been punked.
Also, fyi, this site was originally created in 2017 to tell the story of Eat Fuck Kill, the playa’s first meme, on its 20th anniversary. Enjoy! —Rusty Blazenhoff]
August 2017
I’m 99.7% sure that “EAT FUCK KILL” is the playa’s first meme.
Let me tell you the story.
It was the summer of 1997. Burning Man was right around the corner and I wanted to find just the right thing to gift out on the playa.
I was a regular at the local flea market. So, on a Sunday just before the event, I went searching. I soon spotted an open box full of black-and-white buttons. There were a few dozen of them and each one read “EAT FUCK KILL.” I knew right then and there that they were the perfect thing to bring to the desert. Call it a gut feeling but these irreverent buttons were exactly what I was looking for.
In small print, around the edge of the buttons, there was a clue to their origin: The Doom Generation. The buttons had been a promotional item for the 1995 black comedy thriller and now, two years later, here they were just waiting for me at the flea market.
I got to the desert early in 1997 because I was the editor-in-chief of the now-defunct daily newspaper, The Black Rock Gazette (that is a story for another time). I started handing out buttons, maybe two dozen or so, mostly to Burning Man staff and volunteers. They were an instant hit. Soon, friends-of-friends came out of the woodwork looking to score one.
On Saturday afternoon I was leaving camp to go shooting with friends, so I hid the box under a bench. When I returned, the box was gone. <sad face>
After the event, the buttons quickly took on a life of their own. Soon there were new ones with alternative messages (for example, greeters put “GREET FUCK CHILL” on their buttons).
The following year I made stickers and photocopied a set of EFK postcards. I also silkscreened about a dozen used work shirts to gift to friends (these shirts became the most highly-coveted EFK item).
Twenty+ years later, people are still talking about the buttons and asking me when I’m making more stuff with the EFK image on it. That time is now. From now until September 23, 2017, I’ve brought back EFK with an online pop-up shop which has a bunch of limited-edition products. Check it out. (Wait! see the updates below)
—Rusty Blazenhoff
P.S. When I’m not EFKing, I publish an inbox zine called Rusty’s Electric Dreams.
P.S.S. As of 9/23/17, the EFK 20th-anniversary pop-up shop is closed. Thanks for playing!