Top card in the deck.
Funny trumps everything.
It's only a game
Funny world is only a game. That's one of our principles. We build funny world on stories, and use reality for props and comic material. Our performances are acting, not real, entertaining ourselves and others. Our funny money is something to play games with and keep score.
The funny mission uses games to enliven missionary work, parties, and the quest for funniness. Funny world is an adventure game. Funny production is an economic game. Our goal is to make funny money and expand the funny economy.
Funny games are in the formative stage. The immediate challenge in building funny world is to play and develop the games. Funny money is also in its infancy. Games are necessary to give it value and meaning.
Games provide rules and structure for building a game world. Without games funny world would fall down. Funny world is built on games.
Missionary game
The missionary provides a stack of funnies. Prospective players read them and keep those they like. The story is they are contributing to building funny world, like buying bricks, except they get money instead of giving it. Their selection is very personal and distinctive. They are creating the character and content of this new world.The missionary gives them a certain amount of credit, nominally following the $100/hr standard, though $1 to $5 per minute is easier for short contacts. The funnies start out at a dollar each, and the players can select more funnies as their credit increases, or add to their value by writing an amount on the back.
The missionary earns the same amount, invested in the same funnies in the missionary's personal collection. That transmits player choices into the game world via the missionary, so they can feel they're contributing to funny world even if they do nothing further.
The missionary can use the funnies as cue cards, presenting each point and then dropping the funny on the table in front of the other player. The game respects players' privacy. Their contributions are anonymous.
Story gameFunny world needs content, funny stories, ideas, jokes, skits and performances. The story game is a party game for generating stories. We write our ideas on funny money and look for a chance to play them.
A story has a theme or topic or title to start things off, and then it's a sequence of what comes next, playing our funnies in a string to spell out the story. The funny that gets the most votes or the most investment is added to the story.
The story game is maybe the most fundamental of the funny games, and the least developed. It has antecedents in the story circle, where players add to the story in turn, and the script conference, where some consensus is needed.
Investment gameThe investment game follows from the story game as what to do next. It may start with deciding the rules of the story game, writing proposed rules on funny money and collecting votes or investment. The way we decide the rules is a metagame, and we will use it for designing all our games.
The next thing we do with the investment game is plan the next party. This is an example of event planning, which may indeed call for an investment or commitment of time, materials and money.
The funny money we invest makes us shareholders, and the biggest investor is in charge. We want to invest enough to make it happen, but not so much as to bear the bulk of the burden. Even though we may have plenty of funny money, we have to think before splashing it around, since we may be left holding the bag.
One-on-one network gameWhenever two funny people meet they can trade funnies. They compare their inventory, their vision of funny world, and see what they have in common, and also what they have that's new and different. Then they can trade, which is like the missionary game played both directions.
The missionary game is win-win, with the missionary earning 100% of what the customer gets. That makes the two-way game a quadruple win. Every encounter is an opportunity to make funny money, and increase the variety and value of assets brought to the next group game.
Repeated two-person contacts make for a communication network, where news and new funnies are circulated. It works by phone, making funny money out of phone memos. It can work by email and weblog too, but things are funnier in meatspace.
We're in an adventure gameThe new contact is interviewed for a job in funny world. Sounds great. But the pay is funny money. That's what confirms this to be not real. It's an adventure game, and players try to make funny money and advance in funny world.
What are the goals of the adventure game? To explore the funny frontier. To set up practical jokes for other players to stumble into. To find the mythical source of funniness, or the ultimate joke. To accumulate funny money and rule over the largest possible territory. Recruit players to build your funny project. A treasure hunt for prizes hidden in funny world.
Funny chaosGames don't necessarily provide rules and structure. We can create silly games for no reason at all. If they produce laughter they contribute to funny world. Funny world is based on chaos and perfect freedom. We don't produce any more structure than we need. The prime function of games is to entertain. Games with or without rules are independent play spaces within the chaos of funny world. They don't rule funny world. Funny world is a game which transcends all rules but one: must be funny.
Game designWe invest our funny earnings in an inventory of funnies, some representing active projects, and carry these around as our wealth. There are one-to-one games that exchange copies, and party games where we combine our investments to pursue funny projects, and create more funnies and funny money as the night proceeds.
The funny money says something. It stands for something. It tells us what we're about. It communicates with others, and brings them into the game. At the party, our wealth counts, but only if we're working with others. And we can see ourselves get both richer and smarter as we accumulate new funnies at a party.
Normally, nothing remains from a party except litter and memories. Now we leave with a record of the best parts. Next day, we'll look at our new funnies and remember. Next party, these reminders come back, in some new combination, and we build on them rather than starting over each time.
How to we design funny world? Get random contributions from everyone. No designers, no expense, no lead time. How efficient!
Funny money matching fundsWhen we invest our funny money in future parties or events, then we have to match it with our share of labor, materials or money to make it happen. If there are patrons of the arts around, they may agree to match the funny money investment in certain projects.
Donors don't have to wait for projects - they can invest in a funny. If it says exactly what they support, their investment will find its way into the right projects.
This links serious money to funny money, which could be a danger. The rule is funny first. Funny money leads. It's the primary value. Serious money comes in later, in a support role. Then growth is humor-based and not trying to fit a business model.
Funny money and Time DollarsAs an economist, I've done some work on volunteer win-win currencies such as Time Dollars, which can also receive matching funds. Details may be found at mustbefunny.com/timedollars.
The parallel with funny money is close. Our funny money games will teach us how Time Dollars work. There is a crucial difference: Time Dollars are serious.
Time Dollars are for doing good in serious world. When I tried to make funny money feed into Time Dollars as a charitable purpose I ran into difficulty, weeks of effort, producing a monster. We can now see that violated the funny faith. See Chapter 2, The Purpose Trap and Pure Faith in Funny.
After that I left funny money free to develop in its own way, independent of any serious currency or serious ideas. Eventually we may come back to Time Dollars, but only after we've established funny money as the superior currency.