“Come hither Professor Antonius; let’s study how people have fun in this strange place.” Professors Antonius and Carolinus left their hotel and walked to the park. There, they saw four men playing Frisbee.
“Where exactly can we locate the ‘fun,’ Professor Carolinus? Is it in the players’ hands, just after they have released the projectile…er…flying disc? Is it after the men catch it? I seem to remember playing a similar game as a child. It involved a small white sphere and a large brown glove. One would throw the sphere and then his partner would throw it back. If I recall correctly, the quantitative amount of ‘fun’ peaks just after you have successfully secured the white sphere. Perhaps, by studying the hormonal levels of the subjects before and after they catch the flying disc, we can pinpoint the source of ‘fun’ these players are having.”
“That may be true, Antonius,” Carolinus replied, “but I feel you are focusing too heavily on the biology of ‘fun.’ By interviewing them, we can inquire about their childhood, and their first experiences of ‘fun.’ Then we can map how early childhood experiences contributed to this curious phenomenon of ‘fun.’ Then, we can interview them about their surrounding culture and its beliefs and customs. I am willing to wager, that as these subjects are parts of a greater socio-cultural system, ‘fun’ is not something that inherently exists—in the biological sense—within these men, but rather is socially constructed. And, as these social agents within a cultural system begin to have ‘fun’ they further reinforce its existence within that culture.” “Brilliant Carolinus!” Anthony exclaimed.
The two scholars approached the four men and began to interview them. Antonius inquired about their amount of daily exercise, eating habits, and alcohol/tobacco use. Carolinus asked about their culture’s rituals around ‘fun,’ and their societies’ views on pain and pleasure. The men politely answered the questions for about a half-hour, but were soon eager to return to their game.
Antonius wandered about the average amount of time the men spent having ‘fun.’ It seemed that ‘fun-having’ might contribute to general happiness and well being…something to consider for future research. Antonius concluded that when the subjects were having fun, they preferred not to be interrupted. Perhaps sharp changes in hormone levels made them less tolerant to interruption while ‘fun-having.’
Carolinus concluded that the subjects came from a culture that did not kindly receive strangers. The men had been polite enough, but after 30 minutes of questioning, they had become slightly rude, with one of the subjects even telling Carolinus to shove her clipboard up her “pompous ass.” Carolinus wandered what it was about fun that made these people so insistent on having it.
The two scholars returned to their offices just as evening was approaching. The hot air of the day had cooled down to a very pleasant temperature. The summer sun was still out in the sky. Both professors each began writing books about their findings. Antonius wrote about the chemical element of ‘fun’ and “fun’s” contribution to serotonin levels. He posited that ‘fun’ had developed because it strengthened a group’s social bonds.
Carolinus’s book was about the socio-cultural aspects of fun. She explored how the culture’s ideas of ‘fun’ influenced its reception in society. Her central thesis was that, as the men’s society had associated ‘fun’ with pleasure, enjoyment, and overall good feeling, ‘fun’ became something human agents felt inclined to experience. She also wrote a smaller though equally well-received book about the customs of the men’s society. She argued that their cultures emphasis on ‘fun-having’ created an element of distrust of outsiders who perhaps had different ideas of ‘fun’ and its place in the world. Their culture distrusted strangers due to its strong beliefs around ‘fun.’
Needless to say, both books were very well received and were heavily talked about within academic circles. Both professors were awarded Scholar of the Year at their universities, and for some months, their universities’ website proudly displayed links to an article about the books. The university felt that the books demonstrated its continuing superiority among American schools. After the fanfare began to die down, Nike donated 8 billion dollars to the university for further research into “fun.”
Epilogue
The widespread success of the Professor Carolinus and Professor Antonius’s books created a rush to study the men and their culture. Soon, the men’s society was overrun with anthropologists, sociologists, and various other academics drooling to study this society of ‘fun.’ After a couple years, the park where the men had played Frisbee was turned into a museum. The men, who said they “just wanted to be left the fuck alone,” were greatly distressed by this mad rush to study them. Due to frequent visitors and phone calls to their place of work, they eventually lost their jobs and had to move to the country of Professor Carolinus and Antonius. There, they worked as night watchmen and retail clerks. I am willing to wager that in their new country, they did not have as much ‘fun’ as they used to back in the good old days. However, all is not lost, as Professor Antonius is hard at work developing a drug that can simulate ‘fun-having.’ It will cost 2,500 dollars per pill and won’t be covered by most forms of insurance.
The End
