Someday, somewhere, somehow -- everything will be funny for everyone.-- Robert Stone, Damascus Gate.
Someday, somewhere, somehow -- everything will be funny for everyone.A Faith for the New Millennium
It's three words: Must be funny. It's the name, the whole doctrine and belief system, the one commandment, the discipline practiced by the faithful, the spiritual goal . . .more
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Nietzsche on comedy
167521 JUN 2008Zen practice of must be funnyThe jokes and uncertainty pile up to unknowability, and the mind stops.
547031 MAY 2008Alternative logical positions for mbf1. Serious inside and out. We work at becoming funny as self-improvement and people say, yes, that makes sense. 2. Serious inside, funny outside. Like any weird religion people make fun of. 3. Funny inside and out. Usually a one-joke fake religion that doesn't go anywhere. 4. Deadpan serious fake religion. This keeps going, and it's what we're about. We need to avoid the first three. Does that mean no comedy classes? Yes, make no effort to become funny. That would imply we believed our fake religion, whereas disbelief is required. We can remain hopelessly serious and free from any ambitions to save ourselves or change the world with funniness. Instead we use our seriousness to play deadpan and act out the divine mbf mission as a hoax. 532313 MAY 2008Hoax, confusion and freedomHoax, like funny, has no truth value. It does not have to be consistent. True and false can be mixed indiscriminately, whatever's funniest, and nobody can ever penetrate the confusion. This gives us freedom and spontaneity, to create funny world moment to moment, without planning or remembering what we told to whom. Some hoaxes are consistent, telling a specific set of lies to fool as many people as possible, but that's just a one-time joke. The funny world hoax keeps adding truth and lies to an ever-growing body of confusion, where everything is ambiguous. There is no master joke or central conspiracy. Funny world is decentralized, the sum of everybody's current contributions and worldview. The only consistency that holds funny world together is the rule, must be funny. 516619 APR 2008Julian Gough on divine comedy
--Introduction to essay "Divine Comedy" May 1997 at
511519 APR 2008Joseph Campbell on divine comedyIn The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Princeton/Bollingen 1949) Joseph Campbell gets into comedy on page 28:
Pretty radical for 1949. He's saying that tragedy destroys the old, while comedy brings in the new life, the reward of the hero's journey.
511416 MAR 2008Deviant logic"Three-Valued Logic is a small piece of a larger subject known as deviant logics -- systems of logic other than the classical two-valued system. The name Two-Valued logic refers to the two possible logic values: True and False. Now we are introducing a third value: Missing (or Unknown or Maybe). The people who are involved in the world of deviant logic are usually concerned with more philosophical issues, such as the possibilities of statements that are neither true nor false, or of different degrees of truth." -- David Kantor: "Three Valued Logic in Stata" 3-21-2001 507315 MAR 2008First funny money gameWe invest our funny money earnings in a personal stash of funnies, penciling in the dollar amounts. This is our wealth, our stake in funny world, used for matching and group process. It's kept safe and separate from the unlimited inventory of funnies we distribute to others. In our funny get-togethers, in pairs or parties, we work on vision and direction, puzzling out funny world and writing it all down on funnies, which are then evaluated and multiplied in the funny economy. Anything serious is subject to seizure by the Inquisition. 507213 MAR 2008One-down ignorant emotional fervorSerious missionaries are insufferable because they're saved and know it all. Funny missionaries are just the opposite. We're lost and pig-ignorant. We make up for it with emotional fervor. We're trying to make funny money and build funny world, but we're hopelessly inadequate. We have some clues in the form of funnies that we don't understand, but we have unshakeable faith that they lead to something wonderful. This places us in a position to ask for help from everybody. The funny cause is absurdly good but derided and persecuted, driven underground and fighting for existence. We play this drama of risk and mystery, and praise people ridiculously for any funny contribution. Then it's a joint exercise to interpret the funnies, piece together a picture of funny world, and proceed with this adventure. It's a least-effort method of recruiting through incompetence. 506911 MAR 2008Making a living in funny worldWe share the radical promise of must be funny, subversive, transforming, secret, absurd. Our naive missionary fervor must be ironic and disbelieved, a con or a hoax, an act and entertainment. We ask for help for the cause, even if it's just buying a funny, which they don't pay for, but we thank them effusively and add it to our funny money earnings, along with any laughter received. Our emotional true believer faith in things nonsensical is pure acting, and makes us funny right away, the end at the beginning. 506311 MAR 2008Crucial first step into funny worldWhat is this first step? To go out and make a living in funny world, to make our first funny money. We can print up funnies and spread the word; make people laugh; recruit others to the cause.
Our earnings depend on their response, $1 for funnies accepted, $1 per laugh, $1/minute for interested funny conversation. We keep a little book and credit ourselves on the honor system. Later we'll put our growing wealth to work (and play). Our first dollar earned is the most significant, our first step into funny world, first entry in the book . Objectively, funny money is worthless paper we can print by the trillions. Subjectively, our invisible earnings are worth infinitely more on the path to build funny world and become funny people. Thus the new recruit provides the core value for funny money, which will carry forward as we build the funny economy and become funny tycoons and millionaires. 506210 MAR 2008Make funny moneyFunny theory doesn't tell us what to do, and we don't know how to be funny, so funny money plays a key role. What we do is make funny money. This is supported by theory, but the top reason is that funny money is god of funny world (11449) and we don't question it. Funny money sets up our sitcom. We know how to play. Kids will love this. Adults may take a little longer, but appreciate the irony, that we play with worthless currency already, and know how to pretend it's real. 505805 MAR 2008Make funny moneyThe fictional goal in funny world is not recruiting, building or structure, since these are all vague and arbitrary. The goal that works is making funny money, and that builds the funny economy which builds funny world and fulfils all growth and funny visions. Using the serious economy as a model, we can look for ways to make a living and get ahead in funny world. Since it is a new world, there are great challenges and opportunities, and the ambitious can develop new industries. Yet it's only funny money, with no authority or substance. Everything in funny world is held up with the hot air of our theatrical performance. It's a funny paradox, that the goal that unites us and builds funny world is utterly worthless and insubstantial. Yet that's true of serious money also. Must be funny, build funny world? We don't know how. We don't know where to begin. Make funny money? Now we know. And everything we try to do with worthless currency will be funny. Funny money makes us funny. Then crank up the printer. Make funny money. It's worth whatever's written on it. If people give it back, it's not funny money yet. Find more occasions to give it away. Develop a story or act or game or puzzle to make it valuable. 504923 FEB 2008Funny world transcends the realm of form and dualityInstead it gives us illusion and uncertainty.
503123 FEB 2008Funny heretics vs. InquisitionAll heretics upon recruitment are sworn in as secret agents of the Inquisition. Similarly all undercover agents of the Inquisition have to play heretic. The truth behind this is we are all part funny and serious and play both parts. The irony is that the Inquisition is 100% serious and blind to funniness. It can only bust the weaker heretics who fall into seriousness. Therefore the Inquisition enforces the must be funny rule and provides valuable training and quality control. The funny vs. serious conflict gives us a sitcom, with deadpan dramatic roles recruiting, building, attacking the funny project. With funny money to keep score, it's also an adventure game.
502823 FEB 2008The heretics vs. Inquisition game goes back 23 years. Here's the original file, now added to the archives:
28 JAN 2008The Keats horseshoe principleKeats and the horseshoe [4902] is a very old joke, but it solves the paradoxes of must be funny. The common view of the one commandment is it's a joke, and acting as if it's serious compounds the joke. Being truly serious about funny is a no-no, and 8618 says missionaries must perfect their disbelief before they're qualified to preach must be funny as ultimate truth. At the same time 8662 said seriousness in pursuit of funny is no vice. That comes under acting as if, and the seriousness is a joke. Acting as if is the key that unites the serious/not serious conundrum. We act out the funny nonsense, and faithfully follow the divine algorithm, for the humor that's in it and the benefits we can rip off on the side. Must be funny is the magic horseshoe. We don't believe it for a minute, but if we act it out as a joke we'll find we're in a funny world of good luck.
490328 JAN 2008Keats, Chapman and the horseshoeWhen Chapman visited Keats one day, he saw a horseshoe above the door. "Keats! What's that thing doing up there?" "That's for good luck." "But you don't believe in any of that superstitious nonsense, do you?" "Of course not. But they say it works whether I believe in it or not!"
4902
When the highest type of men hear Tao, they diligently practice it. When the average type of men hear Tao, they half believe in it. When the lowest type of men hear Tao, they laugh heartily at it. Without the laugh, there is no Tao. ~ Lao-tzu
374627 JAN 2008
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True, False or Funny? Getting your way with triple logic 2008 archives
Print funny money at: mustbefunny.com
To
lie is human. -- Robert Anton Wilson
The
formula for success = X + Y + Z;
To
attain the impossible one must attempt the absurd.
"How do I save my own life?" the poet asked. "By
being a fool," God
said.
Do nothing.
Time is too precious to waste.
Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens
the mind and produces oblivion.
IF THE FOOL WOULD PERSIST
IN HIS FOLLY HE WOULD BECOME WISE
Of all our senses, the most highly developed
is nonsense.
Bad planning is the mother of
adventure
Start off each day with a smile and get it over with. ~~ W. C. Fields
God is a comedian playing to an
audience too afraid to laugh.
Jokes activate same brain region
as cocaine
Seven
days without laughter makes one weak.
Must
be funny and 9/11
To
move ahead we need a new set of lies.
If organized
religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the
marijuana of the lunatic fringe.
True
religion can be more dangerous than false religion, and our only
recourse is funny religion.
Forgive, O
Lord, my little jokes on Thee and I'll forgive Thy great big one on
me.
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
There are
three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter.
The first two are beyond our comprehension. So we must do what
we can with the third.
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