Funny money
Talisman
Must be funny leads to funny money, which then becomes the talisman, the ritual, the sacrament, the activity that defines and unites funny people.Why funny money?
- If we're building funny world we need funny money to do it with.
- We can make as much as we could ever want. We're rich!
- To gamble and play funny games with.
- To measure our spiritual progress.
- To compete with the top religion of serious world -- the Church of the Almighty Dollar.
- To communicate through what's written on it.
- To measure laughter, what mbf is about, our bottom line.
Funny money is a tool, and a story, a dramatic device. In the mission story funny money is very important. It's our measure of spiritual virtue and it builds funny world. It's our bottom line. That works for secular players also.
Our obsession with funny money and the bottom line is a parody of serious world. Our religion has sold us out and declared that play money is the highest value. We've naively accepted this bogus value system and think it will take us to heaven.
Funny money monstrosity
Funny religion says make people laugh, earn funny money. Then the true believers have to work on a money system and persuade others to use it.
This is an existential joke and a running joke. Some serious engineering mind came up with this monstrosity, a monetary system to measure spiritual progress.
And there is another joke to be found in there. Funnier-than-thou status wars.
Greed is good. Transfer it from our old currency and indulge. Build the funny economy.
Funny money has no plans
Funny money is mainly drama, performance, story. Funny money has no plans. Create a growth economy? Be sought after for higher values? This is old thinking, which would make a god of funny money and seek nothing else.
Instead, funny money supports the present interaction. That's as far as we look. That's the bottom line. If we don't perform now, we have no future.
Funny money has no independent claim to exist. The traditional idea of money as the great goal of life may be pursued with comic exaggeration, collapsing it from a plan to a performance.
Is funny money secular or religious?The funny mission doesn't attempt to deal with souls, and sends its converts out to make funny money in the secular funny world. To get rich is glorious. Our wealth is a measure of how funny we are.
Now that we're out of religion and into funny money, we find that serious money is a religion, more powerful and universal than any of the traditional faiths. Funny money must respect these powerful beliefs about money and put them to work.
Winning, keeping score, spending, giving, accumulating, investing, rewards, growing the economy, social status . . . Funny money keeps all these familiar elements, plus the quest for unlimited wealth. We don't have to learn funny money. We already know how to play.
Funny world is just a fantasy until it gets its own money. Then it can take its place in the big time.
Church of the Almighty Dollar, Universal and TriumphantMoney used to be material: gold and silver. But gradually its material basis was taken away, and now the dollar is based only on our belief in it. We have a faith-based national currency, a religion to which all belong: the Church of the Almighty Dollar. So strong is this religion, it has converted many throughout the world, who have lost faith in their own currencies.
The faithful at prayer
The true believers gather together to worship the government, from whom all greenbacks flow. They read the sayings of Alan Greenspan, who decides how much money to create. They learn the names of his twelve disciples, the Governors of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, who distribute this largesse to lesser banks, from where it trickles down to the faithful. Each service ends with a prayer for an increase in the money supply.
Money comes from on high, the faithful say. It is given value by those who are empowered to issue it. The Hierarchy under Pope Alan Greenspan, and his duly ordained bankers, have the power of transubstantiation. Instead of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, they turn new paper and accounting entries into money.
But they'd prefer we didn't see them do this. They don't perform their holy office in front of the congregation. When Alan Greenspan speaks, it's in some arcane scriptural language that few can understand.
They don't want us to know how our money is made. "Hey, we're making funny money. And the whole world is buying it!" We might lose our faith. So they keep it a mystery.
Funny money is based on a firm foundation of fun. The other stuff is based on nothing whatsoever. Middle of the road religion
The world is trapped in obedience to Mammon the money-god, who is all-powerful. Funny money introduces religious choice. We can change our worship from a false god to a funny one.
Why not a true god? That's out of reach for most of us, alas, and we just can't afford it. Funny money offers an intermediate step. With it we can trade up to a life in funny world, an affordable heaven on earth, and we don't have to die to get there.
Funny money is a vast improvement for those who are ready to convert from the false god, but can't commit to a true one.
Funny money basicsFunny money is money we make ourselves, as much as we want, like the government. But the government money is taken seriously. We have to make ours funny so they don't get confused. We can write jokes on our money. That way people will take it.
Basically we're in charge of our money. We can make as much as we want, any shape or size or material, representing any value. It can carry our picture or poetry or artwork or message to the world.
Kids understand this perfectly. Pull out the art supplies and they'll go to work, meaning play.
Adults have a harder time realizing they have total freedom. We should all pull out the art supplies. Do it. Funny money blanks and Kids' Currency are at mustbefunny.com, the sister secular website. Let's make some money right away.
Funny money freedom anticipates the freedom of funny world or funny people. Making our first funny money is an initiation, our freedom made manifest, expressed in material form.
Both kids and adults will tire of total freedom after a while. That seems to be a universal law, and we need some structure to give life meaning and make things happen.
We are basing funny money and funny world on this total freedom, and then deciding what structure we need, what games to play. We don't let the game take over and run our lives like serious money. We say: It's only a game.
People will see funny money initially as informal, no rules, do whatever you want and express yourself. Our first money will be crude and pretty worthless. Still, this is the big step into funny world, and the freer the better.
This is the informal end of a spectrum, from waste paper to legal tender. At the waste paper stage we're only pleasing ourselves. The next step is to make our money more acceptable, more artistic, better produced, worth reading. There had better be a game, too, or there won't be a next step.
Next would be informal games, where the money isn't counted. We just act rich. There's always more money. Can this worthless money do anything? It's mostly a lubricant for our funny world fantasies. We act as if it can do whatever we want.
Informal, unlimited funny money is the best kind to counter the evil money monopoly. The faithful are urged to flood the world with funny money.
Informal money is the end at the beginning, since we transcend money in the end, and return to the informal economy of love. The first, free impression of funny money grasps the essence. There is nothing higher. Let this magic moment bloom.
Funny money is earth-friendly -- you can't buy anything with it. There are no controls on funny money. That makes it funny and no threat to reality. When some new player prints up a few billion, we pretend to be impressed. We bow down and worship. At last somebody's volunteered to play god.
FunniesWe can make any kind of money we like, but who will accept it? If we put jokes on our currency, people will take it long enough to read it. If it's a good joke they may even want to keep it. We call these pieces of funny money funnies. (Example page of funnies)
We still have creative freedom, but we're limiting it to what people will accept. This is the gentlest possible step towards structure, yet we can do a lot with it.
Funnies are the prime missionary materials for mbf. They are the religious tracts. They transmit the sacred meme. Missionaries get instant feedback on which tenets of the religion are accepted and which are rejected as not funny enough.
The most popular funny at the moment is: "Fooling around is OK, but couples who get serious are living in sin." Before that it was Oscar Wilde: "If you tell the truth, sooner or later you'll be found out."
Students on the funny path will build up a collection of funnies, representing their idea of what belongs in funny world. As spending money, they'll give away copies of their favorites, thus promoting their vision. In any group or network, the sum of all our funnies is our collective vision of funny world. We can bring this together in the funny money party game.
Whenever someone says something funny, write it down as funny money. Instead of being lost, great wit may circulate for months or years.
Stage money
Even if our funny money is worthless, we can use it for dramatic effect. It's an accessory. We can act out funny money skits and explore the emotions of money. It's only stage money, but we put our meaning into it.
"Here, I want you to have this," folding it into someone's hand while looking in their eyes, the emotion of gifting a priceless treasure. Maybe it contains the sacred meme. Maybe it's our highest-denomination personal card or an invitation.
The goal is to flood the world with funny money, abolish poverty and wipe out seriousness. Build funny world: make funny money
We start funny world off right with funny money. That makes it real, more than just a fantasy.
Funny money is worth about as much as the funny stuff written on it. We collect the funny money that says what we want in our personal funny world. When we get together we have a group funny world and can play in it with funny money games. As we make funny money, we're building funny world.
Without the funny money we'd be stuck. Build funny world? We're not that creative. We wouldn't know where to start. It would be nothing but hot air.
Funny money collects and multiplies our meager funniness, and the games generate more. This is how we pick ourselves up off the floor of seriousness, and start along the path to funniness.
Being and actionFunny money is the action part. Arguing about being funny goes nowhere. With funny money we can get down to funny business. Funny money is the engine of funny world. We don't sit around contemplating philosophy. Funny money makes us do stuff. Funny is as funny does.
Funny moneyFirst use is for missionary work, the personal explicit earnings requirement of our faith, $100/hr or per encounter invested in funnies. The customer leaves with self-chosen religious tracts. The missionary adds to investment in a composite funny world.
The money doesn't mean much yet, and maybe it never will. It's a catalyst for action. It's whatever we say it is. We pretend it's important. We may give it elaborate rules, chosen for their comedic value. The money is mainly story, a dramatic device. Its use for games may seem an afterthought, though it will drive the mission, adventure game, funny economy.
Funny money adjusts to realitySerious money demands that we adjust to it. Funny money has no such power. It has no fixed rules. It's a stage prop that does whatever we want to move the story along.
Funny money is unregulated. We can make as much as we want. At first players may throw their money around as if that gave them power. We may humor them. Beginning players are given the role of supreme ruler.
Later we'll learn the value of restraint, that our money is worth more if it's scarce. The spendthrifts will find their money is not respected. Funny money is valued if it fits the reality of a situation. Gradually we'll learn to apply our funny money sensitively to reflect our values. Then it will be very useful. We can shape our funny world with it.
Other times we can throw our money about, experiment with it. We never lose that early freedom.
We create funny money out of nothing, in accordance with the traditional definition of funny money. So does the government, but we all agree to call that serious money, so it is.
If we're all making funny money, we can spend it on anything we like, including laughs. But what can we do with the funny money we receive? We don't need to spend it. Creating our own spending money adds to the wealth of the funny economy, and keeping others' currency adds to our own wealth.
So we accumulate funny money as a measure of virtue or status or score in the game.
We build capital. Shock! Funny people are all capitalists.
We invest our funny money. We build funny world with it. We invest in stories and ideas and projects and productions, and some pay off and others die. Our funny money is our vote in shaping funny world.
What right have you to take the word "wealth" which originally meant "well-being" and degrade and narrow it by confining it to certain sorts of material objects measured by money?
--JOHN RUSKINThe laugh standard
Ideally, funny money is based on laughter. In comedy, our laughter is a form of applause, and we'll clap for the best jokes and again at the end. We can also show our appreciation by throwing funny money. Funny people will get rich.
We don't have to wait for shows. We can reward anyone anytime who makes us laugh.
Even if we're serious, we have an essential part to play in making the money and spending it. Even if we're serious, we get to make funny money out of nothing.
People may laugh at funny money. That's OK. That shows it's working. The $100/hr standard
How fast can we create, earn or spend funny money? The minimum wage in funny world is $100/hr for work or play. That's how much the lowliest serious person can make, though funny people may earn a lot more. To liven up a party, we can make it $200/hr if we're naked.
Nobody's watching the clock. It's just a guide so we have a common value standard, and all our funny money is equal. That says in funny world we're all equal, whoever and wherever we are.
And rich! $100/hr guaranteed whether we work or play. No poverty in funny world. No unemployment. Automatic welfare.
Why work? Bob Black asked that question in a famous essay back in 1985, which almost invented the funny economy right there. No one should ever work, he said. But we figure people can do whatever they want, so we don't discriminate between work and play.
Sex-based currency
There's a radical faction in funny world who base their money on the $1000 big bang. They call their money free dollars, and it's written up at mustbefunny.com.
There are endless varieties of funny money to create. It's not one currency, but every kind we can imagine, so long as it's funny.
Funny economics Q & AQ. Why is funny money more profitable than regular money?
A. First you can make as much as you want. You don't have to wait for money to come along. That wipes out poverty.
Next, it's win-win. The old money is zero sum. The dollar changes hands and total wealth stays the same. When you spend funny money it's new money. If you spend and earn $100 with the same player you'll both end up $100 richer. Thats a 200% improvement in profit over regular money. When you spend you are building the funny economy.
Third point: The funny money we receive can't be spent. Why not? Because we can make all the spending money we want. If we spent someone else's (a) we'd be poorer (b) it's rude. Here, take this person's money, I don't think it's worth keeping.
Q. Isn't it worthless if we can't spend it?
A. No, it means our savings rate is 100%. This compares with about 0% of the old money. So funny money gives us a giant savings rate that ensures us a prosperous future. It also makes for a fantastic funny money growth economy.
Q. Yeah, but then we still won't be able to spend it. What good is it piling up?
A. We invest it. In funny business. In building funny world. We vote with our funny money whatever we want in funny world. We put our savings to work. We create funny world in a very real sense with the money we earn. Instead of putting food on the table, we're building a world.
Q. Are we just investing in hot air? Does anything get done?
A. The purpose of funny business is usually to get something done, and this is usually organized by the major investors. Anyone can do the work and earn $100/hour minimum wage. This is how we build and run funny world.
Q. Do we put an amount and signature on our funny money?
A. Not required. We can do a lot without them. If we're playing a game then we'll probably use amounts. We may use player names. Real names and signatures? That could be serious.
The funny economy
Funny money measures funny production, and we work (or play) to earn funny money, to increase the gross funny product (GFP), to grow the funny economy.
What do we do with our funny money? The best thing we can do for the economy is invest it in more funny production. This reinvestment of earnings produces maximum growth for the funny economy and our own fortunes.
How does it work in practice? A group of funny people gather together regularly to party. This is the basic production unit in the funny economy. At a good party there's plenty of laughter, and we reward each other with funny money.
Then there's a party game where we can invest our funny money. There may be a theme, typically creating a comedy show or routine or story or event. We invest in our favorite ideas, and the top ideas go ahead. Meanwhile, we're still rewarding laughter.
Parties and funny productions make up a healthy funny economy at the grassroots local level, simple enough to start anywhere.
Funny money and funny economyFunny money measures our progress to funniness. To get rich is glorious. We don't have to be religious about it.
The grand vision of funny world is a booming funny economy that leaves the serious money economy behind. Funny money is based on a higher value than serious money, and in a growth sector: entertainment.
When we say, build funny world, there's a definite goal: overtake the serious economy. We can measure it, and our progress at every point. We have a goal of growth, leaving content free, but it must be funny.
We can't make what we can't measureIn engineering we say we can't make what we can't measure. Funny money will measure and reward our funny production, and the mbf mission reduces to an economic model. We work to produce funny, consumers pay us for it, and funny people get rich.
We invest our funny money in building funny world. How big is funny world? How fast is it growing? Does it even exist? Without funny money we wouldn't know.
Happiness has no exchange value. Unhappiness is always in circulation. Life is continually minting new denominations of unhappiness. In the meeting places of the world, night and day, these change hands. The unhappy move through the streets with their pockets bulging. The happy are static, like gold in the ground.
-- Peter SchjeldahlDon't be cruel
Cruel, sadistic or mocking humor is not funny to the victims. This is not a good way to make people laugh. You won't earn any funny money that way. Funny money is given by the recipients of humor to whoever makes them laugh. This automatically ensures that only benign humor gets into the funny economy.
