The country hadn’t been the same ever since the government outlawed comedy three decades ago. Some comedian by the name of Bobby Goldstein, who was all the rage back in the day, made one too many jokes about how the presidency was handling the war overseas. This was not at all uncommon back in the day, but once some loon quoting one of Goldstein’s gags made an assassination attempt on the president’s life and took out the First Lady by mistake, a law banning jokes against the president was quickly passed. When the feds realized how easily they were able to get away with it while the country was in mourning, they also outlawed political satire of any kind.
It probably would’ve been fine if they stopped there, but the US government was like a bad gambler—they didn’t know how to stop when they were on a roll. The next thing everyone knew Congress was passing the Comedy Prohibition Act, which made all forms of comedy illegal. Sitcoms were pulled off the air, Hollywood stopped producing comedy films, and television censored jokes from older movies like they were obscenities. All types of comedians from stand-up comics to sketch comedy actors found themselves out of work. A person couldn’t even tell a joke on the street or laugh out loud at a funny thought without spending a night in jail. It turned the entire country into one dry, humorless place that took itself way too seriously.
But this was all good news for some people. Just as it was proven when they outlawed alcohol in the last century—in times of prohibition, the mafia prospered. Comedy didn’t disappear. It just moved underground.
Since then, the joke trade had been a good racket for the Bozo Family. They created a large distribution network, selling bootlegs of old uncensored comedies as well as any comical films still being made overseas. But a large portion of the Bozos’ income came from the speakeasy-style comedy clubs they had all over Little Bigtop, where citizens could be entertained to their heart’s content for steep ticket prices.
The business proved more lucrative than extortion, drug dealing, and prostitution combined. It was nothing less than an empire. And the clown in charge of this comedy empire was a capo by the name of Buggy Buttons.