The Rocky Horror Picture Show while the film's fan culture of cosplaying and audience participation during screenings laid the groundwork for the similarly influential cult following surrounding Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" (2003). Members of the queer community comprised most of the Rocky Horror cult following: they identified with the embrace of sexual liberation and androgyny, and attended show after show, slowly forming a community. Judith A. Peraino compares Brad and Janet’s initiation into Frank N. Furter’s world to the self-discovery of queer identity, and to the traditional initiation of ‘virgins’ in the shadow screenings . June Thomas describes the midnight screenings in Delaware as a
The Rocky Horror Picture Show run when lines began to be shouted by the audience. Louis Farese Jr., a normally quiet teacher who, upon seeing the character Janet place a newspaper over her head to protect herself from rain, yelled, "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch". Originally Louis and other "Rocky Horror" pioneers, including Amy Lazarus, Theresa Krakauskas, and Bill O'Brian, did this to entertain each other, each week trying to come up with something new to make each other laugh. This quickly caught on with other theater goers and thus began this self-proclaimed "counter point dialogue", which became standard practice and was repeated nearly