“Jordan had lived a privileged, but unhappy life, and had been fascinated with researching what made people happy. He had found research showing that happy people lived longer, were healthier and more productive. Happiness was an all-round tonic. It also showed that with happiness came trust. He decided he was going to broadcast and print what he simply called ‘happy things’. He showed people helping others, programs about people’s relationships with animals, stories of success and triumph. There were stories of people doing ordinary things and being social together.
“At first it was a dismal failure, but his family supported him. They saw a new energy in him. The shows were inexpensive to produce, and Jordan stood up to the board members and shareholders. It also helped that Jordan was the largest shareholder, hahahaha.
“He also opened the doors to anyone who wanted to be involved, on a volunteer basis. He wanted to involve the public and give something back. Many young people stepped forward to help out and jumped at the chance to learn about broadcasting and production. The channel became a favorite with the younger generation who tuned in to see programs produced by people their own age, and from there its success grew and grew.
“Advertisers were carefully selected to allow only ads that were interesting to watch, and this opened up wonderful new opportunities for beautiful artwork and clever production. It was considered a privilege to be allowed to buy advertising airtime on the channel, hahahaha.
“Jordan ran a huge campaign to save paper and stopped producing any printed media. Everything was transferred over to an electronic version via the old Internet. This was part way in place, but still it was a bold move. And he applied the same model to this as he had with television. It homed in on happy things. Only a few select advertisers were allowed, and wonderful artwork appeared on the pages. Once again, he made it open to input from the public and the young people jumped on board. They needed little instruction to generate material for the Internet, of course. This side of the business was financially very effective, and he made huge donations to reforestation projects. He won support from all sectors, and other publishers soon followed suit.
“They were broadcasting and publishing information about interesting lives, showing different cultures and things going well. When there were sad or tragic times, these were shown with real feelings, how people coped and what they did. They took the panic and drama away and showed compassion and triumphs. The corporation became known as the ‘Happy Guys’. It was a far cry from what had been broadcast by the father of this brave young man.”
“What about The Laugh Show? Oh my, that was the best. I used to watch that when I was tiny,” came another voice, this time from the front row, where a woman with a flamboyant checked coat had started to laugh, just from the memory of it.
“Yes, yes. The Laugh Show was on three times a day,” the Professor explained and started to laugh before he pulled himself back to orator mode.
“All it did was show people laughing, for no reason what so ever. No jokes, clowns, clever puns or slapstick. Just people laughing. Research had shown that laughter, even if it was faked, produced happiness. The shows were a huge ratings success. Millions tuned in to join in the laughing. They helped us let go of worry and stress. After half an hour or so of The Laugh Show we all felt great. People lined up to be recorded for it and share their own special laugh with everyone. That’s how the Just Laugh channel started, which is on the Screen all day, every day now.”
The focus in the room moved away from the Professor and the small crowd was chatting and laughing together. It had become a party. Some were still sharing memories. A couple of people started to dance in the far corner, as the live band had struck up in the next room.