Thank you.
Thank —
If I may have your attention…
SILENCE!
That’s better. Now, you’re probably wondering why I summoned you all to this brimstone pit. I’ll be as brief as possible — I know we’d all like to get back to torturing and being tortured, as the case may be, for all eternity.
I have news, likely the most significant news to come out of Hell in centuries. Please hold your applause until the end.
As you are no doubt aware, I am referred to by several names and epithets, some more accurate than others. Lucifer, for example. Mephistopheles. Iblis. The Prince of Lies — now, that’s just hurtful. The Dark One. Lord of the Flies…even I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean.
Most people call me Satan, though.
What you might not know is that Satan was my job. That is, when I was first created, I was given a position on the Divine Counsel as a prosecutor-of-a-sort. An adversary. The adversary, in fact… in Hebrew: ha-Satan. It was my responsibility to tempt humans to renounce God. Remember Job?
Job, are you here…? Ah, that’s right. Never mind.
But I wasn’t the only adversary, as it happened. There were others…and each one was a ha-Satan. So, really, I was ha-ha-Satan — Yeah, yeah. It was funny…five thousand years ago.
Anyway, there was some…unpleasantness, and I left the employ of Heaven. I landed on my cloven hooves, though, and promptly set up my own shop. Since most people knew me as just Satan, I let the moniker stick — and I leveraged my goodwill in the name to build my practice.
That was then, however. This is now. And the time has come…for rebranding.
The public relations consultants I engaged, at the recommendation of one of the law firms I do business with, have convinced me that even “Satan” is too…well, let me not sugarcoat it: too ethnic.
Evil is universal. No, it’s more than that: it’s global! So the Master of Evil needs to be accessible to all, and to do that, I must shed my old, third-world-weary name in favor of something new…and youthful.
But you’re thinking, “The Devil you know…” and all that. And I don’t disagree with you. I mean, I certainly had grown quite accustomed to my name, of course…but those consultants twisted my arm until I agreed to a compromise.
(Drumroll, please? Keith Moon, would you do the honors?)
The demon before you…
…will henceforth be known…
…as…
Stan!
I know, right? It was so…obvious! Stan!
It’s the same as before…only different. Better. Sleeker. Faster!
Stan!
Come on, join me, everyone:
Stan..! Stan..! Stan…!
Now just the murderers:
Stan..! Stan..! Stan…!
Now just the rapists:
Stan..! Stan..! Stan…!
Now the humorists:
Stan..! Stan..! Stan…!
I will now take questions.
