Dick Adler of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the documentary a positive review, writing: "'The Lord of the Universe' doesn't really take sides, which doesn't mean it's a bland hour trying to please everybody. Its considerable bite comes first from the material TVTV so carefully gathered and there from the artfully wise frame in which it chose to present it." Deirdre Boyle wrote in "Art Journal" that the piece was "the zenith of TVTV's guerrilla-TV style". According to Boyle's "Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited", as in all TVTV tapes, everyone in the documentary comes across as foolish, describing the production's sarcasm as the "ultimate leveler" using equal irony "both with the mighty and the lowly".