10 AUG 2008
Funny world is stories
The jobs are acting. The roles are performances. We don't work to produce but to entertain. Adventure may be a better concept than world-building.
Even serious world is not built, though some may try. Most of us work at making money and pursuing our interests, and the world is what results. Similarly funny world is what results from making funny money.
But how and why would we make that switch? It could be as simple as a children's game. They'll get much further with funny money than they could with serious money. That looks like the core game and a shortcut.
With teens and adults we have to work harder, and it may make sense to invoke an ideal world, or salvation and freedom, or a struggle with the old order, or a fabulous treasure or invention. Though disbelieved, we need this phony motivation to develop the funny economy.
5567
16 AUG 2008
Funny world age inversion
In funny world age runs backwards. The youngest kids rule and make the most funny money, and adults fade out of the picture. They wouldn't understand it anyway. But if they do they'll try to shut funny world down, so it has to stay underground.
SERIOUS WORLD AGE
FUNNY WORLD YOUTH
5
200
10
100
15
67
20
50
30
33
50
20
Funny world youth is 1000 divided by age. This is the number of dollars an hour we earn in funny world for work or play, the number of votes we have in any funny decision.
Whenever we join funny world we're at our peak. It's all downhill from there, so make the most of it. We're all born funny, and get more serious as we age.
Then the older kids and adults will get serious and try to shut the younger ones down -- too wild, making trouble. They have a point. They've lived through it. Some funny stuff leads to serious trouble.
Then funny world is always up against the Inquisition, which can shut down anything serious. That keeps funny world funny.
Disputes are usually clearcut: This is serious, it has to stop. If not clear, it can come to a vote, where youth has an advantage, or it may be decided before that by funny money.
Funny money is much more powerful than voting. Even though youth have more earning power, those in funny world for a long time have more funny money, especially if we're funny. Besides our age-based minimum wage of $50 or $100 per hour, we earn more funny money when we make people laugh. That's what they spend their funny money on. We get richer and richer, and invest our wealth in funny world, shaping it to our desires. If we invest in anything that turns out to be serious, the Inquisition may take it.
Some girls have declared they're worth three times as much as boys in earning power and votes. They've formed the Brehon Society, referring back 2000 years to ancient Ireland, where under Brehon law female slaves were the unit of currency, worth three male slaves or three cattle.
Some boys are happy to serve in the girls' Brehon Society as male slaves and be taken advantage of. The rest maintain their own traditional gangs but they may lose out in funny world -- not funny enough.
5580
19 AUG 2008
Funny world adventure
As the serious world's clock ticks down to its final collapse, funny world pioneers gather to plot our escape. Our secret meetings are disguised as parties, often held in public places, our revolutionary proposals announced loudly to roars of laughter. Welcome to funny world.
Serious world does not want to let us go. It does not permit any competition. Its agents of the Inquisition are everywhere, and even control our minds. Every funny heretic is liable to lapse into seriousness and fall back into the clutches of serious world.
In funny world we recognize this weakness and put it to use. Every funny heretic is sworn in as a secret agent of the loyal Inquisition. Whenever we detect any seriousness we attack. If the Inquisition forces prevail over the heretics, the serious activity is stopped and all funny money involved is seized by the Inquisition.
This is useful quality control and keeps funny world funny. It gives serious people a job and prevents any serious problems from coming to the attention of the authorities of serious world.
Then we're free to build funny world and party hearty. Our day-to-day goal is to make funny money, which is based on laughter production in parties and everywhere else in funny world, whatever funny stories, games and sitcoms we can create.
As pioneers in funny world, we're on an adventure of discovery of this unknown territory. Will we find the secret of funniness, or be driven mad by the uncertainty of an ever-changing world with only one rule: must be funny?
Those who survive can carve out rich estates in funny world, go into funny business, and become funny money tycoons as others follow.
What about doomed serious world? Don't we need it for party supplies? That's another story and another adventure, the secret subversion of serious world.
5587
26 AUG 2008
Haha Mustbefunnyism
by Charles Webb
The first offshoot blog, or schism in the church?
"Haha is to Mustbefunnyism as Zen is to Buddhism."