In a recent podcast, John Stamos disclosed that he was on the verge of becoming a Scientologist but was expelled for excessive tomfoolery. The actor described being expelled from the group as a youngster after just one meeting in a conversation with famous impressionist Matt Friend for his podcast, “Friend in High Places.”
“I was in an acting class, and there was this hot girl,” Stamos said. “She said, ‘You know, we’re all meeting at this address on Hollywood Boulevard. Come after [class]!’ I was working at my dad’s restaurant at the time, and I said, ‘Dad, I gotta, I gotta go.’ So I went. I was 16, 17.”
When he arrived at the address, he saw that it was a Scientology building. As soon as he walked in, the E-meter—a device that gauges the strength of a tiny electrical charge running through a body during auditing—called him up to be tested. The instrument auditing technique requires the subject to hold up two metallic cans. Holding the cans, the “Full House” actor recounted how he was unable to overcome the urge to make light of the group.
He said in an absurdly retro voice, “You’re holding these two cans, so I started [saying], you know, ‘Hello… Peabody in the Wayback Machine!'” “You know, Peabody and Sherman,” alluding to the time-travelling “Rocky and Bullwinkle” figures. Naturally, his antics did not sit well with the Scientologists. “They didn’t like that,” he added. “I was just fucking around so much that they said, ‘Get out. Get. Go.’ They just kinda kicked me out.”