Page "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" Paragraph 28

The word makes its first appearance in The Illuminatus!

Trilogy without any explanation during an acid trip by Dr. Ignotum Per Ignotius and Joe Malik: " The only good fnord is a dead fnord ".

Several other unexplained appearances follow.

Only much later in the story is the secret revealed, when Malik is hypnotized by Hagbard Celine to recall suppressed memories of his first-grade teacher conditioning his class to ignore the fnords: " If you don't see the fnord it can't eat you, don't see the fnord, don't see the fnord ..."