The CyberComedy Challenge

[bigdamnhero]

Can't concentrate on work today and could use a good laugh, so here's a challenge game inspired by the CyberComedy: Is It Possible? Thread.

One of the best methods of spoofing a genre is to take the conventions/cliches of the genre and push them to their (ill)logical extremes. A few examples, borrowed from Neil Stevenson's Snowcrash:


Convention: Corporations run everything.

Comedic Extreme: Everything is a franchise. The church on the corner is The Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates #4672; the subdivision where a character lives is The Mews At Windsor Place #563,434; etc.


Convention: Japan rules the world and the Yen is the global currency.

Comedic Extreme: US currency is still in circulation, and may even be required for some official transactions, but has become so devalued that you need a wheelbarrow full of $10,000 bills (Clintons) and $1,000,000 bills (Reagans) to buy anything.


Right? Right. So, each poster will name a cyberpunk genre convention; the next poster will suggest a comedic twist on that convention, and then list another convention/cliche for the next poster, and so on. First up:

Convention: Cities are gang-ridden urban blights surrounding a few islands of super-rich techno-luxury.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Cities are gang-ridden urban blights surrounding a few islands of super-rich techno-luxury.
Comedic Extreme: Everyone in the cities, regardless of race, not only speaks in the language of gangsta rap but in its cadence as well. Every conversation, including ordering your lunch, has phat rhymes and a backbeat. In the rich part of town, the air is always filled with muzak of the most insipid variety that nobody really enjoys but they feel they have to play to keep up appearances.

Convention: Rich corporate executives always hire lowlfie mercenary scum of dubious reputation to do their dirty work.

[Curufea]

Comedic Exteme: Dirty work includes janitorial and occasionally catering. Some gangs are reknowned for their Ninja Cleaning skills. Possibly so much experimental inventing takes place that secret corp labs need military expertise in disposing of rubbish.

Convention: Anything can be bought if you have enough money. Capitalism is God, money is power.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Comedic Extreme: The wealthy have turned pointless extravagance into a high art form. Homeless dumpster divers routinely find suits that cost the equivalent of $10 million in the trash, discarded after being worn for only a few minutes. There is a booming cottage industry that involves offering the decadent wealthy forbidden luxuries (such as the meat of endagnered or even extinct species, even utterly impossible ones to procure such as Mammoth or Brontosaur) and then presenting completely ordinary goods in such a way that the purchaser never knows the difference, and they get away with it because the purchasers couldn't care less. There are 1300 Mona Lisas in secret collections, each of whose owners believes it to be genuine and none of whom realize that the real Mona Lisa is still hanging in the Louvre where it belongs (this is the result of a legendary 2063 heist that was actually a cleverly-designed hoax by the curators, who were getting tired of all the unsuccessful attempts to steal the Mona Lisa so they hired a retired burglar to stage a "successful" one).

Convention: Anyone can, if they wish, transform their body into the Ultimate Killing Machine.

[Killer Shrike]

Comedic Extreme: The wealthy have turned pointless extravagance into a high art form. Homeless dumpster divers routinely find suits that cost the equivalent of $10 million in the trash, discarded after being worn for only a few minutes. There is a booming cottage industry that involves offering the decadent wealthy forbidden luxuries (such as the meat of endagnered or even extinct species, even utterly impossible ones to procure such as Mammoth or Brontosaur) and then presenting completely ordinary goods in such a way that the purchaser never knows the difference, and they get away with it because the purchasers couldn't care less. There are 1300 Mona Lisas in secret collections, each of whose owners believes it to be genuine and none of whom realize that the real Mona Lisa is still hanging in the Louvre where it belongs (this is the result of a legendary 2063 heist that was actually a cleverly-designed hoax by the curators, who were getting tired of all the unsuccessful attempts to steal the Mona Lisa so they hired a retired burglar to stage a "successful" one).

Convention: Anyone can, if they wish, transform their body into the Ultimate Killing Machine.


Comedic Extreme: Medical nanotech is so advanced that people are innoculated at birth with cellular replicators and are effectively unkillable by anything short of weapons of mass destruction...and not always even then. Kinda like roaches.


Convention: Despite the existance of a perfectly anonymous world spanning virtual reality network, corporate reps always go to the trouble to meet the deniable assets they hire in run down bars in dangerous parts of town face to face.

[bigdamnhero]

These are great - I may have to run this campaign some day! :lol:


Convention: Despite the existance of a perfectly anonymous world spanning virtual reality network, corporate reps always go to the trouble to meet the deniable assets they hire in run down bars in dangerous parts of town face to face.
Comedic Extreme: The Net is so overcrowded with robot-avatar advertisements (“Hi, I’d like to talk to you about your insurance coverage”), vandals (“Crap, some punk just spraypainted my avatar!”), drunken idiots looking for trouble (no consequences if you lose), and other annoyances that it’s impossible to get any actual work done. So after about 5 minutes, most cyber-meetings end with “Screw this! What’s your physical location? I’ll be right over.”

Convention: Print is dead – everything is electronic/virtual.

[mattingly]

Convention: Print is dead – everything is electronic/virtual.Comedic Extreme: All print is dead. Even toilet paper. Bathroom necessities are taken care of through a cybidet, powered by lasers.

Convention: Skills and careers have become so specialized that there are people who professionally jack their heads into computers.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Skills and careers have become so specialized that there are people who professionally jack their heads into computers.
Comedic extreme: Every task, however routine, is so complex that it requires a specialist. It is no longer possivle to do your own laundry because the cloth is so complicated: you must take your trousers to one specialist, your socks to a second, your underwear to a third (and the specialist who cleans male underwear won't touch female underwear), etc. The job of a fry cook is so complicated (due to the unpredictable effects of nanotech on digestion) that the required license requires five years of training and a Masters degree in nanobiochemistry.

Convention: Every government function that can be privatized has been privatized, as have some that can't.

[BobGreenwade]

Convention: Every government function that can be privatized has been privatized, as have some that can't.
Comedic Extreme: Cities, counties, states, provinces, countries, and even the United Nations can be bought and sold on the stock exchanges. While corporations own most of the national stocks, even common citizens can own a few shares. Naturally, dividends are paid quarterly; all government income is through tarriffs and user fees, with taxes a thing of the past.

Convention: Anything is available... for a price, usually cash.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: Anything is available... for a price, usually cash.

Comedic Extreme: Anything is available for a price. Lives can be bought in 12-packs! It's only $999,999,999.99 for a cure to the common cold! There are even divices that can't exist thanks to real world physics but sre somehow available! Portable Holes! Invisibility Creme! Anything you can think of, and some things no human (nor cthuloid) mind can comprehend!

Convention: Rock & Roll music is still around despite the current times (our time) being the age of Techno and Rap.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Comedic Extreme: Why just cover a legendary band when you can clone them? Some enterprising promoter has gotten his hands on the DNA of the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, etc. Clones of all these legendary bands play all over the world, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Not to be outdone, hip-hop promoters have cloned Dr. Dre, Eminem and Tupac Shakur. These clones have the appearance and voices of the originals, but may or may not have all the same skills -- and may or may not know they are clones....

Convention: What little law enforcement remains is astoundingly corrupt and incompetent.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: What little law enforcement remains is astoundingly corrupt and incompetent.

Comedic Extreme: Law enformement by Anarchists who also happen to be the Keystone Cops.

Convention: You can make yourself look like anyone/anything you want.

[BlackSword]

Convention: You can make yourself look like anyone/anything you want.
Comic Extreme: People will pick popular faces to mimic. Just as the Rachel Green haircut from Friends became the most popular haircut of all time, now you can look like your favorite sitcom character head-to-toe. Hundreds of Rachel Greens (or the characterdu jour) run around town.

Convention: Information is power.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Information is power.
Comic Extreme: The most power-hungry people will hoard information on the most obscure topics imaginable, on the off-chance they might one day be useful. The man who has memorized every line of dialogue in every Star Trek episode ever made is regarded as a near-deity, surpassed only by the one who has memorized every line of dialogue in every Gunsmoke episode ever made.

Convention: People are so incredibly jaded that only the most depraved and shocking things have even a chance of amusing them anymore.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: People are so incredibly jaded that only the most depraved and shocking things have even a chance of amusing them anymore.

Comedic Extreme: The Masochistic Tango.

Convention: Slang for seemingly every occasion.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Comedic Extreme: whenever you move from one apartment building, neighborhood, or office to another you have to learn an entirely different language. If you go next door to visit a friend, the doorman at the building will be unable to answer even the simplest of questions, because he cannot find his 1462 Ash Place to 1478 Ash Place Dictionary. Use a common word like "cheeseburger" a block down the street and people will attack you because you have mortally insulted them, and there is no word in any human language that is not viewed as a reference to either sex, violence or religion by somebody (but if you attempt to discuss sex, violence or religion in plan English nobody has the slightest idea what you're talking about).

Convention: There are useless but gaudy neon signs for everything.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: There are useless but gaudy neon signs for everything.

Comedic Extreme: There's even cyberware with Neon Signs. Heck, your cells have neon signs.

Convention: Netrunners are unconscious while running the net.

[Killer Shrike]

Comedic Extreme: whenever you move from one apartment building, neighborhood, or office to another you have to learn an entirely different language. If you go next door to visit a friend, the doorman at the building will be unable to answer even the simplest of questions, because he cannot find his 1462 Ash Place to 1478 Ash Place Dictionary. Use a common word like "cheeseburger" a block down the street and people will attack you because you have mortally insulted them, and there is no word in any human language that is not viewed as a reference to either sex, violence or religion by somebody (but if you attempt to discuss sex, violence or religion in plan English nobody has the slightest idea what you're talking about).

Convention: There are useless but gaudy neon signs for everything.

Comedic Extreme: So much so that the most effective marketing is as plain as possible, to the point that minimalism is on the upsurge. Most ads are so minimalist that only people that already know what it means can even understand it.

Convention: Its more important to look kewl than it is to be competant. Form over function is rampant.

[Curufea]

Comedic Extreme: All print is dead. Even toilet paper. Bathroom necessities are taken care of through a cybidet, powered by lasers.
I love that. In fact - just about everythiing should be powered by lasers - toasters, shavers, telephones, televisions....

[bigdamnhero]

Convention: Its more important to look kewl than it is to be competant. Form over function is rampant.
Comedic Extreme: Big Honking Enormous Nasty-Guns...that do 1d6-1K. Highly fashionable body armor that offers 2rPD. High-tech night vision goggles that only have a 20-degree field of vision. Moreover, any character carrying equipment that is actually effective must take Distinctive Looks: Dresses Like A Dork.

Convention: Many (if not most) 90-pound girls can beat the snot out of most (if not all) 250-pound men.
Actually, that one's pretty comedic already, isn't it?

[BobGreenwade]

I think we can start combining stuff here....

The President of the United States is hired every four years by the company's Board of Directors, the only qualifications being that he must look extremely "kewl," understand the slang used in Congress' bills, have all seven seasons of The West Wing devoted to memory, and have someplace to plug in the large, portable, cybernetic neon sign that will identify him as "The Prez."

[Curufea]

Sounds just like Zaphod Beeblebrox to me, man!
He's so hip, he can't see his toes over his pelvis!

[tgrandjean]

[Convention: Many (if not most) 90-pound girls can beat the snot out of most (if not all) 250-pound men.
Actually, that one's pretty comedic already, isn't it?

Comedic Extreme: There is a well known fact that there is a inverse ratio of weight to effectiveness. Some of the most effective ninjas are actually 10 year old girls. Never underestimate the Girl Scouts.

Convention: Corporate employees are routinely headhunted by rival corporations.

[Curufea]

Comedic Extreme: So much so that there are implemented procedures for extraction teams to follow. Some corporations are so heavily kidnapped from, that teams need to form queues and book ahead. Filling out the necessary paperwork is done for politeness sake.

Convention: Everyone uses personal vehicles that have been heavily modified and customised. No one uses public transport.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Everyone uses personal vehicles that have been heavily modified and customised. No one uses public transport.
Comedic Extreme: Yet public transportation is still running anyway, with busses and trains armed to the teeth like military convoys and no passengers whatsoever. It makes those in power look good if "the trains run on time", desptie the fact that nobody rides the trains, and they keep saying "we have to keep the infrastructure intact in case of emergency". The only people actually on the trains and busses are drivers and cosudctors who are so frightening and heavily-armed that even the gangbangers avoid them.

Convention: There is an illegal street drug for every occasion, every one of which is terrifyingly addictive.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: There is an illegal street drug for every occasion, every one of which is terrifyingly addictive.

Comedic extreme: Is it John Lennon's birthday? LSD* time! Is it christmas? There's a drug just for celebrating the late JC! Be sure to put some hallucinogens into those trick-or-treat bags!

* I know that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds had absolutely nothing to do with LSD, but most folks still think it is.

Convention: Cyberware is imperfect.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Cyberware is imperfect.
Comedic Extreme: The reliability and side effects of cyberware are utterly unpredictable, largely due to the cheapness with which it is manufactured. And the less you pay for a piece of cyberware, the more bizarre its failures. You might well percieve everything in your field of vision as being a unform shade of purple, have a built-in hard-mired micro-iPod playing your own personal soundtrack for life that always chooses the wrong song for the occasion, and can have hypertasters put into your tounge and nose that alter the flavor of food in random ways. Cybernatically enhanced musculature and weaponry has a habit of failing at the worst possible time. Everything is under warranty, but the agreements are so arcane and incomprehensible that the RMA on your Wolverine-brand claws (which won't even cut bread) takes five years and the services of an entire team of lawyers.

Convention: Virtual pop idols, actresses, porn stars, etc. who are indistinguishable from the real thing.

[mattingly]

Convention: Virtual pop idols, actresses, porn stars, etc. who are indistinguishable from the real thing.Comedic Extreme: In fact, there are no longer any real pop idols. The software companies have already modeled every possible appearance, and when a rising talent emerges, the software companies sue them for patent infringement.

Convention: Mercenaries strategize important raids, with backup plans.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Mercenaries strategize important raids, with backup plans.
Comedic Extreme: Mercenaries strategize everything, with backup plans. Domino's clerks hate them because it takes them three and a half hours to decide what they want on their pizza, taking every concievable contengency into account, incluidng the quality of this year's winter wheat crop and the availability or non-availaibility of Pan Crust.

Convention: Anyone would sell their family to the slaughterhouse if they could get a good price.

[tgrandjean]

Convention: Anyone would sell their family to the slaughterhouse if they could get a good price.

Comedic Extreme: ... And in fact they do! Tastee Ghoul is coming to a neighborhood near you! Now with convenient pick-up and drop-off service. Try the Long Island Long Pork Special! Now with Improved Seasoning!

Convention: It's always night, and raining, and no one really remembers what the sky looks like.

[AdamLeisemann]

Convention: It's always night, and raining, and no one really remembers what the sky looks like.

Comedic Extreme: The only folks who don't get flood insurance are the corporates in their massive skyscrapers who are in no danger of drowning in the floods caused by constant rain. Anyone who finally gets a good look at the asky will most likely react as though they have encountered Cthulhu himself (go crazy.)

Convention: Netrunning is like astral projection

[Curufea]

Comedic Extreme: So much so that hackers often have other New Age experiences on the Net as well. When they come back to their meat body they have realigned their Chakras, obtained a new Spirit Guide, have computed the personal Horoscope of everyone in the group and know what their lucky numbers are.

Convention: Everyone is armed. Usually with guns.

[tgrandjean]

Convention: Everyone is armed. Usually with guns.

Comedic Extreme: ... Occasionally with fruit.... (Cue Monty Python sketch....) Everyone including the nosey little old lady who you did chores for way back in 202X has so many guns, knives, katanas, kitchen appliances, etc hanging off of them they look like a walking weapons catalog. Most places don't even bother with a check your weapon policy as it takes far too long to disarm anybody. I mean, you have to close sometime right? Weapon checks by the police can take as long as time served.

Convention: Ecological collapse....

[BlackSword]

Comedic Extreme: There is a well known fact that there is a inverse ratio of weight to effectiveness. Some of the most effective ninjas are actually 10 year old girls. Never underestimate the Girl Scouts.
I like this idea, The Girl Scouts are actual scouts, a mercenary band that doesviolence for hire. They are trained with a variety of weapons and hand-to-hand styles. They don't have merit badges, their badges represent what campaigns they have served in.

[Lucius]

Convention: Ecological collapse....

Comedic Extreme: resulting in almost constant rain, and a sky so dark and overcast, it's effectively always night time.

Convention
It's always night, and usually raining.

Lucius Alexander

Convention
Lucius Alexander is always accompanied by a palindromedary.

[austenandrews]

Convention
It's always night, and usually raining.
Comedic Extreme
The entire planet is perpetually overcast. The greenhouse effect raises temperatures and melts Antarctica. The new steppeland is populated by megacorporation headquarters. At Christmastime, the entire giftgiving world's finances flow toward Antarctica. This sets up a planetwide harmonic of resources with Xmas gifts flowing from the North Pole and money flowing to the South Pole - a sort of capitalistic gulfstream (which is plane to see).

Since the common man loses money in this exchange, historians refer to it as the "polar fleecing." Consumer confidence wanes, resulting in a stock market crash known as the "polar bear." To placate the populace, corporations issue a new credit card. People quickly dig themselves deep into debt. This credit card is named the Polar Express (don't heave loam without it).


Convention
Everyone wears leather or latex.

[BobGreenwade]

Convention
Everyone wears leather or latex.

Comedic Extreme: Cloth? What's that? Everything worn is made from leather, latex, rubber, or some similar substance -- even underwear. And for those who are really tough, the leather is made of human flesh.

Convention: Traditional names are passe; funky-sounding nicknames are in.

[tkdguy]

Convention: Traditional names are passe; funky-sounding nicknames are in.

Comedic Extreme: And all the people sign their names in leet speak.


Convention: Life is hard and often violent.

[Celt]

Convention: Life is hard and often violent.

Comedic Extreme: Infant death matches are the latest hit, with training taking place in the womb via subliminal sonics and gene-gineering. Maternal postnatal exsanguination is on the rise.

It should be noted to the OP "$10,000 bills (Clintons)" that Samuel P. Chase already graces the $10,000 bill.

Convention: Street level ruffians are regularly able to overcome vast spending and years of training in security

[bigdamnhero]

It should be noted to the OP "$10,000 bills (Clintons)" that Samuel P. Chase already graces the $10,000 bill.
Good point – the only modern US bill to feature a non-President, if I’m not mistaken. Though technically that should be graced. The US stopped printing $10K and other large denomination bills ($500K+) after WWII, and I believe they were all pulled from circulation in the 1960s or therebouts.


Convention: Street level ruffians are regularly able to overcome vast spending and years of training in security
Comedic Extreme: Life on the street is so tough that anyone without the equivilant of a 9th-dan black belt won’t make it past puberty. Conversely, corporate life is so soft that security force training has become so far removed from reality as to become a detriment in an actual fight: all punches are delivered at half-speed and half-strength, holds and throws only work against willing targets, etc. (Actually, I’ve been in a couple so-called martial arts classes like that…) In game terms, security training actually gives characters negative CSLs.

Convention: All nominal heroes are either villains-in-disguise, or hapless comic relief; only the Anti-Hero can hope to accomplish anything good.

[Celt]

Good point – the only modern US bill to feature a non-President, if I’m not mistaken. Though technically that should be graced. The US stopped printing $10K and other large denomination bills ($500K+) after WWII, and I believe they were all pulled from circulation in the 1960s or therebouts.

Sidebar: Correct on 'graced, obligatory wiki source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denomination_bills_in_U.S._currency), but let's not forget Al Hamilton, still in circulation and not a president.

[bigdamnhero]

Sidebar: Correct on 'graced, obligatory wiki source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denomination_bills_in_U.S._currency), but let's not forget Al Hamilton, still in circulation and not a president.
Doh! And I've even got one in my wallet right now. Rep for you.

[BobGreenwade]

Sidebar: Correct on 'graced, obligatory wiki source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denomination_bills_in_U.S._currency), but let's not forget Al Hamilton, still in circulation and not a president.And Benjamin Franklin.

[bigdamnhero]

And Benjamin Franklin.
Well, yeah, obviously I meant "only non-President except for Al Hamilton & Ben Franklin." You guys knew I meant that, right? :o

[Goes to sit quietly in corner for awhile.]

[tgrandjean]

Convention: All nominal heroes are either villains-in-disguise, or hapless comic relief; only the Anti-Hero can hope to accomplish anything good.

Comedic Extreme: Downtown bars often feature noteable scorecards with Hapless Bystanders Capped/ Kittens Rescued From Trees. Police forces are on the lookout for individuals running soup kitchens etc as well as any altristic streak on the basis of that they must be the individuals responsible for blowing up RivalCorp last week.

Convention: Black ICE.

[DEFCON Clown]

Comedic Extreme: Cities, counties, states, provinces, countries, and even the United Nations can be bought and sold on the stock exchanges. While corporations own most of the national stocks, even common citizens can own a few shares. Naturally, dividends are paid quarterly; all government income is through tarriffs and user fees, with taxes a thing of the past.

That is a very cool idea for a cyberpunk stye game! Just imagine the PCs have to stop a corporation from preforming a hostile takeover on their city, or someone is trying to decimate the stock value of their city but inciting the largest riot in the city's history in cyberspace and in real space! That gets you some rep, BobGreenwade!

[Curufea]

Convention: Black ICE.

Comedic Extreme: Black is soo last genre. Pink is the new black. Hackers coming up against Pink Intrusion Countermeasures find that if they fail, they get verbal tags for anything beginning with "p" (as apposed to the old "b" for black - hence the game "yes, no, black, white") - from now on, every time they wish to say a word beginning with "p", they say "pink" instead. Used by cybercops to self-indite hackers in interviews (they play the game, looking for the correct keywords/tags)

[Michael Hopcroft]

Thread Ressurection Chip!

Convention: There is only one person in the world who knows what's really going on, and he's a pain in the rear.

[Celt]

Thread Ressurection Chip!

Convention: There is only one person in the world who knows what's really going on, and he's a pain in the rear.

Comedic Extreme: And he's franchising. For the low, low payment of ¥4999 per month you can own your own dealership for enlightment.


Convention: Financial dominos can be topple giant megacorporations, create fortunes and waste economies with the tiniest electronic nudge or bad press report.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: Financial dominos can be topple giant megacorporations, create fortunes and waste economies with the tiniest electronic nudge or bad press report.
Comedic Extreme: As a result, the typical term of office of a megacorp CEO is approximately 38.4 minutes. he will usually recieve one check that includes his salary, his sgning n=bonus, and his severeance pay. And the rumor mill is so extensive that even such blatantly spurious assertions as "Dryer's now uses flesh-eating bacteria in their vanilla ice cream" will be believed by enough people that it poses a serious problem.

Convention: Nobody can tell what is real and what is an illusion anymore.

[ghost-angel]

Comedic Extreme: As a result, the typical term of office of a megacorp CEO is approximately 38.4 minutes. he will usually recieve one check that includes his salary, his sgning n=bonus, and his severeance pay. And the rumor mill is so extensive that even such blatantly spurious assertions as "Dryer's now uses flesh-eating bacteria in their vanilla ice cream" will be believed by enough people that it poses a serious problem.

Convention: Nobody can tell what is real and what is an illusion anymore.

Comedic Extreme: The Six O'Clock News. Oh - you wanted a fictional comedic extreme . . . Virtual Reality is so prevelant that sometimes people can't tell if they actually got up and went to work that morning of is their AI Alarm Clock was just f-ing with them.

Convention: The Hackers Code (of conduct)

[Funksaw]

Comedic Extreme: The Six O'Clock News. Oh - you wanted a fictional comedic extreme . . . Virtual Reality is so prevelant that sometimes people can't tell if they actually got up and went to work that morning of is their AI Alarm Clock was just f-ing with them.

Convention: The Hackers Code (of conduct)

Comedic Extreme: The Hacker's Code is stored on a Wiki and can be edited by anyone. The laws are byzantine and require an exorbitant amount of knowledge to contain it all. They're riddled with catch-22s as people make up new rules when they feel like it. This would be nothing except that rove bands of hackergangs go around enforcing it. However, if you commit ritual seppuku first, they won't go after your family.

Convention: 99% of journalists are corporate tools, the other 1% are psychotic drug-addled sots with criminal records.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Convention: 99% of journalists are corporate tools, the other 1% are psychotic drug-addled sots with criminal records.

Comedic Extreme: As a matter of fact, all the journalists who are corporate tools are also psychotic drug-addled sots with criminal records. Most reporting is done from bars and drug houses, which oddly enough does not interfere with the work actually getting done. In addition, every journalist on Earth is addicted to tobacco, which si seemingly unobtainable by anyone else in the world.

Convention: the greatest prostitutes ion the world are androids, genetically-engineered, or some other form of artificial life.

[ghost-angel]

Comedic Extreme: The Hacker's Code is stored on a Wiki and can be edited by anyone. The laws are byzantine and require an exorbitant amount of knowledge to contain it all. They're riddled with catch-22s as people make up new rules when they feel like it. This would be nothing except that rove bands of hackergangs go around enforcing it. However, if you commit ritual seppuku first, they won't go after your family.

You mean it's a giant game of Nomic enforced by psychos with guns? BWAHAHA!! Repped. (edit: well I would Rep you, but I can't as I need to spread it around ... dang)

I got nothing funny on the journalist thing, I think it's actually a truism so I'll let other ppl with a sense of humor take it.

[Killer Shrike]

Convention: Nobody can tell what is real and what is an illusion anymore.

Comedic Extreme: Not that it really matters. In fact, the vast majority of people prefer fake / processed / artificial to such an extent that anything real or natural is stigmatized.


Convention: The more decadent, nihilistic, illogical, selfish, short sighted, and self-destructive you are, the more survivable you are.

[Curufea]

Convention: the greatest prostitutes ion the world are androids, genetically-engineered, or some other form of artificial life.

Comedic Extreme: So much so, that what you are having sex with currently is now a fashion statment. Men go girlfriends shopping and women go boyfriend shopping. Shoes and ties are no longer the accessory of choice- but sextoys are. Furry, fuzzy, beeping and mild electric shocks are in. Gas powered and rotating are out (at least until next season).