The Last Laff

**"The Last Laff"**is the second episode of *Rewritten,*the first season, and the 2nd episode overall.

It was published on June 6th, 2017.

In the episode, in the past, Flippy makes a startling discovery and later the climates of Toontown begin to drastically shift. In Fantasyland, the Chief of Police puzzles over a dead body.

## The Episode

===FANTASYLAND===

=Present Day=

Chief Constance Miller of the Fantasyland Police Department opened the door to the morgue and stepped into the chilly air. The mortician, Sepulchra Rigor, sat behind the desk with her gaunt face and arched eyebrows gazing morosely back at the Chief.

"Good morning," Sepulchra crooned.

"I'd like to see the bodies again, if you don't mind."

Sepulchra was already out of her chair before Constance could finish. There were no other bodies to speak of.

"They're the same as they were last week," Sepulchra said, "and the week before. And the month before. And the year before. The same as three years ago."

"And yet they're still preserved," Constance quipped.

"I do my job right," Sepulchra muttered, handing Constance the key to the body lockers.

"We have new evidence," Constance said, meeting Sepulchra's skeptical stare. Of course there was no new evidence. The only murder in Constance's career was unsolved. In fact, it might not even be murder. The cause of death was a ruptured heart. But it went beyond all known facets of human anatomy. All the doctors in Fantasyland were stunned. Sepulchra was not able to make a definitive opinion then, or now.

Constance unlocked the body locker and slid out the tray of the first person. They were young, a woman, with short black hair. Unidentified.

The second was another woman, this time elderly. Her skin had splotches of blue; cerulean blue; on her body. Bruises? No. It was as if the skin itself had once been blue.

The third was a man, older, with ashen gray hair. He had freckles and a kind face. Dead face. He was the only one to be found with a belonging.

Constance thought back to that night three years ago. Three bodies were found in three separate parts of Fantasyland, all believed to have died around the same time. But how? How were they connected? None of them had definitive causes of death. Just the "ruptured heart" diagnosis. It was as if they just appeared in the world. Dead.

Constance went to the evidence table and lifted the journal from the dead man. He had been clutching it. The initials "CN" were engraved on the back. But, to Constance's disappointment, the journal was completely empty. Nothing at all. Who was CN? Pictures of the bodies had circulated Fantasyland for the last three years and no one could identify any of them. Not one person.

Shaking her head, stymied once again, Constance replaced the bodies and left the morgue.

===TOONTOWN===

=Ten Years Ago=

Dr. Cumulo Nimbus was making meticulous notes in journal and did not hear the door to the laboratory open.

"Afternoon," a familiar voice called. Dr. Nimbus whirled around and squinted through his glasses at the newcomer.

"Professor Pete!" he exclaimed and extended his bright blue bear paw, "How lovely to see you!"

"And the same to you," the blue cat responded with an amiable handshake. He held up a bag from the Chortle Cafe.

"I brought you lunch."

"How kind," Dr. Nimbus said and thanked his friend. They sat together at Dr. Nimbus' workstation. It was an enormous table that was cluttered completely with blueprints, beakers, microscopes, indeterminable lab equipment, and paper. There was a small pocket of empty space where Nimbus and Pete sat. The walls were inundated with drawings, sketches, designs, and even more blueprints. The yellow paint could scarcely be seen beneath all the white paper.

"Tell me about your students," Nimbus said as he took a bite from his sandwich.

"Oh they're doing well," Pete replied. "I have a few troublemakers this year but ultimately I'm confident they're learning. How about you? What does our Mayor have you doing now?"

Nimbus smiled broadly and looked in the direction of the portrait of the Mayor of Toontown that was hung proudly on the wall.  Nimbus was in the habit of hanging up a picture of the serving Mayor, regardless of his own opinions. The current Mayor, Mickey Elias, was a close friend of Nimbus and definitely a favorite.

"Mickey is tricky," Nimbus laughed. "I'm working on an emergency contingency plan. The little black mouse Mayor thinks it may be beneficial to have."

Professor Pete stopped chewing.

"An emergency contingency plan? How do you mean?"

Nimbus waved his hand.

"So if Toontown faced a severe attack, we would be able to protect ourselves. Or save ourselves, I should say. Toons are not the fighting sort."

"Indeed," Pete said. He swallowed. "Is this to protect us from another War?"

Nimbus's face hardened.

"After the War..." Nimbus sighed. "It would be wise to prepare ourselves. Of course none of us want it to happen again..."

"Never," Pete agreed. It had been centuries since the War ended, but every Toon felt its repercussions even now.

"But in the case that something should arise," Nimbus continued,  "we must be ready."

"So what is this emergency contingency plan?" Pete asked.

Nimbus shrugged.

"A way out. It's called the Emergency Portal."

"A way out?" Pete repeated. "To where?"

Nimbus bit his lip.

"Somewhere...fantastical."

===FANTASYLAND===

=Present Day=

Eileen Irenic frowned at the label on a can of peaches. It had high fructose corn syrup? She replaced the can on the shelf of the Emporium and looked for a more organic option.

Unable to find one, she meandered her way to the checkout desk. The shopkeeper was busy talking gossip with the two town socialites, Vidalia VaVoom and Clarabelle Cow. They were speaking quickly and voraciously.

"Well I heard that *Henry* is with *Anne* with now. I know, *I know!* The scandal of it all. I fell so bad for poor *Katherine*. She must heartbroken. What a horrid way to find out too."

"Yes yes but Henry hasn't been very devout to Anne either. I've seen the way he looks at Jane. You know, from the market."

"STOP! NO way."

Eileen, not one for gossip, stood idly in the line and picked at her finger nail polish. Behind her, something moved. A light filled her peripheral vision and she instinctively turned.

The glass box containing that gaudy fortune teller rip-off was levitating. Floating, literally, off the ground. Eileen looked at the ceiling, expecting to see a wire or cord, but saw nothing.

"Whoa," Vidalia VaVoom muttered at the checkout desk. Eileen saw the shopkeeper, Vidalia, and Clarabelle staring.

"How is that happening?" Vidalia asked the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper just blinked.

"No idea," she whispered.

Eileen, grateful that she was not crazy and others could see this strange phenomena, crept toward the box and stared inside. The fortune teller animatronic, Esmeralda, was gazing blankly through the glass.

Then she spoke.

"I sense a portal opening to a Toon world. Have you seen this portal?"

Eileen raised her eyebrows. A what world?

Before anyone could react, the box lowered to the ground and went dark.

"That was eerie," Clarabelle said. She quickly turned to her friends.

"What is a Toon world? Where could that be?"

"It's probably a restaurant or something," the shopkeeper said, "Some cheap advertisement."

"Or, or," Vidalia said with giddiness, "this is the proof that magic exists! Maybe there is a portal! Somewhere...beautiful."

"Like Oz?" Clarabelle snorted.

Eileen listened to these theories with mild interest. She too was curious what the box's message meant, but she was not all that enraptured in it. Perhaps the shopkeeper was right. Toon Portal was a restaurant or attraction opening soon and that was an advertisement.

Although, Eileen though, then why wouldn't the shopkeeper know her own machine was advertising something? It was strange, for sure. Nothing could explain the levitation.

A Toon world, Eileen mused. What could it be?

===TOONTOWN===

=Five Years Ago=

Dr. Artery, a tall red dog, swung into the room and gleefully shook Flippy's hand.

"Not everyday the Mayor himself comes into to see you!" Dr. Artery exclaimed. Flippy smiled weakly. He didn't feel like being political today.

The cardiologist's office was small, only two rooms; the waiting room and the office itself. Artery didn't even have a secretary. But the practice was quiet and out of the way and certainly away from speculation. The building was tucked away on Loopy Lane and Flippy was sure no one saw him slip inside. There was probably scant need for such clandestine actions, but Flippy felt a bit embarrassed to be here. And he didn't want his citizens to think their Mayor had a weak heart.

"So," Artery said, adjusting his stethoscope, "what brings you into my office today?"

"Um," Flippy said, trying to find the words, "the other day I was...overcome with a sensation in my heart. Like I couldn't breath...but...I also felt...well..."

Dr. Artery was watching Flippy intently.

"My heart is fine," Flippy said suddenly.

Dr. Artery lifted his eyebrows.

"I see?"

Flippy said nothing more. Dr. Artery, surprisingly, did not look confused at all. Instead, he placed his stethoscope on Flippy's chest and instructed he breathe in. Flippy sat uncomfortably, breathing in huge gulps of breath for the doctor. Eventually, Artery removed his stethoscope and went to the wall, where he stood by a chart.

"You're right, sir, your heart is fine. Because you seem unable to describe the sensation, I'm going to ask you a few questions."

"Okay," Flippy said meekly.

"Was this sensation painful?"

"Yes."

"Was it sharp? Like a stab? Or more of a reverberating nature? Like a pang?"

"Pang," Flippy said, remembering the wave of whatever it was that crossed him in Dreamland when he locked eyes with the Cog.

"And did you feel sad afterward?"

Flippy's ears shot up.

"Yes!" he cried.

Artery nodded.

"The problem, then, is with your laff."

"My laugh?" Flippy said, and began laughing.

"No no," Artery said, gesturing to the chart. In the center of the diagram of a heart was a small circle with the word "laff" printed neatly.

"The laff of a Toon is inherently what makes us us. It is present in all species hearts, though they may vary. The laff keeps the Toon happy and alive. It's what drives us every morning, every day, every night, to continue to smile and laugh and be cheerful. And strive for happiness and contentedness. It is the epitome of our being."

Flippy stared.

"Yeah that sounds familiar. I think I learned it in school."

"Oh definitely you did. Laff is important but it usually raises no concerns. Inside us, the laff meter, if you will, rises and falls as Toons experience happiness or in rare cases, sadness. Because Toons thrive on happiness, our laff meters need to remain high. But sometimes, times of sadness will lower our laff meters."

"How can I increase my laff?" Flippy asked, perhaps a bit too desperately.

Artery went back out into the waiting room and returned a minute later with an ice cream cone. As Flippy licked the cool dessert, he felt himself getting cheerier.

"It's working!" Flippy yelped.

Artery grinned and went back to the chart.

"The most common cause of a decrease in laff is the death of a loved one, though the regular hardships of life can easily contribute. The most drastic case of laff I ever encountered was a patient who lost both her children in childbirth. She was absolutely distraught, poor woman, and almost went sad."

"Went sad?" Flippy asked, setting down his ice cream.

Dr. Artery frowned and looked distraught himself.

"When laff is depleted, the meter, if you will, turns green inside the heart and begins to devour the heart itself. Emotionally, when a Toon goes sad...the world becomes an unimaginable prison of darkness, fear, and worry. Absolutely horrific. No escape, no chance of happiness."

Flippy listened, transfixed.

"But...what happens to them?"

"Toon Headquarters has managed to alter the portal system to allow sad Toons to instantly teleport to the playground so that HQ officers can provide emergency toonups. There have been so few cases in the past decades that I doubt you were briefed on the matter. I have never heard of a sad Toon in my career."

Flippy nodded. He wondered what a sad Toon looked like.

"Mayor Flippy," Dr. Artery said slowly, "this is none of my concern but I must ask you to think about whatever it was that caused you to lose laff. It doesn't sound like you lost a loved one. Perhaps you are struggling with Mayoral duties and that has got you bummed out. But if there is something out there that made you lose laff, it is very dangerous."

Flippy swallowed hard, trying not to think of the Cogs he just brought to Toontown.

===FANTASYLAND===

=Present Day=

Professor Pete slid through the closing door of the police station, turning over the events of the day in his head. The man in his classroom. That red-skinned man. It was so odd. And something inside him was certainly struck, because he could not forget what was said.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Those five words kept replaying in Pete's mind, like a broken record.

"Is Constance in?" Pete asked the desk clerk. She buzzed the Chief and Pete ambled back to her office.

"Pete!" Constance said with delight as her friend entered the room. She stood from her desk, which was overflowing with papers.

"If you will give me one moment..." she said, rifling through the ones closest her. Pete glanced at them. They were photographs.

And one of them caught his eye.

He turned quickly toward it. A photograph of a man with grey hair, freckles, and light blue splotches on his skin. His eyes were closed and his skin was pale. This was the photograph of a dead man.

And yet he recognized it. Him. The man. For a second. He knew that face, that person.

"Pete?" Constance whispered, "Do you know that man?"

Pete stared, soaking in the face, trying to remember where he saw it. Who this person was. But he couldn't remember. It was as if a cloud had fogged his memory. As if this person was not meant to be remembered.

"No," Pete said, "but he looks so familiar."

"He's been dead for three years," Constance said. "I haven't been able to identify him. He's been in the morgue ever since."

Pete looked at her in confusion.

"3 years? Shouldn't he deteriorate?"

Constance shrugged.

"He hasn't."

"And you don't know who he is?"

"Nope," Constance replied. She pointed to a photograph of a journal. "His initials are CN."

CN.

C.N.

Why was that too familiar? Who *was* he?

"I'm sorry," Pete said finally. "I don't know who he is."

Constance looked disappointed.

"What can I do for you today?" she asked. Pete explained the man in his classroom.

"I was wondering if you had any records of such a man? I mean, surely you don't see someone with *red* skin often."

"That is true," Constance said and led Pete to a filing cabinet. She removed a folder marked "Eccentric Appearances" and opened it on her desk. Four photos were inside. One was tattooed completely from head to toe. Another had gigantic ears with enormous earrings. A third was so short that Pete couldn't believe they were real. The last was severely overweight. None of them matched the man in Pete's classroom.

"I keep this folder in case someone describes a witness or person that sounds too unreal to be true," she explained. "If he turns up, I'll let you know."

"Thank you," Pete said.

"Let me check the computer," Constance said and fired up the machine. She sifted through documents for about five minutes before returning the same result: nothing.

"He may be from somewhere else," Constance said absentmindedly.

"Like where?" Pete asked.

Constance stopped herself. She gazed around the office. No one had ever visited from beyond Fantasyland.

"I don't know..." she muttered.

===TOONTOWN===

=Three Years Ago=

"Your Doodle will be waiting for you at your estate," Piggy Pie said with a smile, handing the customer a Pet Shop receipt. The eager little mouse beamed with joy.

"She will?"

The mother mouse took the receipt with a polite grin.

As Violet Vance bagged the Doodle food, leash, and toys into a bag, she made sure to slip in the mandatory literature the Toon Council insisted everyone take. It talked about laff meters.

"We have one of those at home," the mother mouse said when she saw Violet drop the pamphlet in the bag.

"Sorry," Violet said. "Everyone is required to have one."

The mother took the bag and fished in it for the brochure and curtly dropped it on the desk. Piggy Pie maintained the hospitable smile until the woman left, at which point a scowl replaced the smile.

Around the Dreamland Pet Shop, laff meter brochures littered the floor. Quite literally in every nook and cranny. There was probably more brochures in Toontown than there had ever been Toons. The Toon Council wanted to ensure everyone knew what the laff meter was and how to toon another up.

The Pet Shops had a sudden uptick in sales after the brochures came out, as they specified Doodles as toonup providers. It certainly made Piggy Pie and Violet busy at work. Especially as the Christmas holiday grew closer.

"Almost time to close," Violet remarked.

"And only four Doodles left in shop," Piggy Pie said. "They're really flying off the shelves."

Behind the desk, in the Doodle pen, four of the creatures hobbled about, wagging their tails and letting their thick pink tongues dangle from their agape mouths.

As Piggy Pie counted the jellybeans in the cash register, a metallic voice sounded from behind the Pet Shop, on Pajama Place.

"Cog," Violet said with a grimace. "I wish they didn't come so close to the playground."

"They're not allowed in the playground," Piggy Pie said. "Thankfully."

"Remember when there weren't Cogs?" Violet asked.

Piggy Pie sighed. She certainly did. It was only two years ago that the Cogs came to Toontown. They were placed in factories, warehouses, businesses. Shopkeepers bought some for their stores. Those never bothered Piggy Pie. Sure, sometimes she felt a bit off when entering a shop and a Cashbot Cog stared her down as it sifted through purchase receipts. Apparently that was what the brochures described as a decrease in laff.

But soon there started to be more of them.

Now Cogs walked the streets, with no where to go. They would fly in--literally, fly, with a small rotor on top of their heads that disassembled itself when they landed--and walk the streets. Start at one end, reach the other, turn around, head back. And then they would stop and fly away. To where, Piggy Pie could not say. She did not know where they came from. And the Toon Council was shockingly quiet about it. Ichabod Irving, the Leader of Dreamland, Piggy Pie's home, dodged the subject every time someone mentioned it. Violet said the same was coming from Heidi Babel, the Leader of the Gardens. No one wanted to discuss the Cogs.

They're unnatural, Piggy Pie thought. They're not Toons. Why did they come here?

Violet told Piggy Pie that she heard the Mayor had something to do with it. Was that true? Flippy, the benevolent dog, the candidate Piggy Pie supported in *both* elections, was responsible for bringing the Cogs to Toontown?

If so, where did they come from? They certainly weren't alive. They were mechanic, robotic. And so they must have been built by someone.

"What if we lose our jobs?" Violet asked quietly, pulling Piggy Pie out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"Our jobs," Violet repeated. "What if the Cogs replace us?"

Piggy Pie couldn't help but laugh.

"They wouldn't. The Pet Shop managers hate them. That's why we don't have any."

"The Pet Shop in Melodyland has a Bean Counter."

Piggy Pie raised her eyebrows.

"Really?"

Violet just sighed. Piggy Pie wrinkled her snout in distaste.

"I'm more concerned about their faces," she said. Violet cocked her head.

"Their faces?"

Piggy Pie pictured the Yesman she saw on the way to work that morning.

"They're ugly. Unfriendly. They never smile. They're...well they look wicked. I don't think there's happiness inside them."

She shuddered.

A sudden smile filled Violet's beak.

"Did you see the new end table in Clarabelle's Cattlelog? I bought one yesterday."

Piggy Pie smiled in appreciation at the sudden change of subject. She was about to respond, when a scream outside startled her.

Then another scream. A shriek.

And another.

"What in the..." Violet said and hurried from behind the counter. Piggy Pie stole after her.

They ran outside and saw the Playground in an uproar. Below, on the bed-shaped plaza, heads were turned to East. On the two verandahs circling the bed, Toons were pointing at the sky. Piggy Pie didn't have to see what they were so scared of. She could tell simply from the light.

The sun was rising over Dreamland.

For the first time in its history.

Dreamland earned its name centuries ago because the sun never shone on that part of the Town. It was always night. A beautiful, peaceful, serene night. And now the sun was lifting over the headboard of the Playground.

Toons were flabbergasted by the sudden shift. There was no warning, no time to react, or think. There was the sun, the hot orange Toon sun, casting its rays on the shadowy corner of Toontown. The first dawn.

Piggy Pie doubled back. She saw Violet do the same. They both clutched their hearts.

Their laff.

Sharp pangs.

Piggy Pie met Violet's horrified gaze. Their laffs were decreasing.

"We have to go," Violet gasped.

Together, they hurriedly locked the Pet Shop. Each pulled out their transport holes and, with one final look at the sun's unexpected and unprecedented arrival in Dreamland, jumped into their holes.

To home. To be with their Doodles. And be happy.

Outside the windows, the Christmas decorations gleamed delightfully. Slate Oldman left his shop, The Blizzard Wizard, in the Brrrgh. He stepped off the stoop to grab the morning paper, but there was something horribly wrong. His rabbit ears perked and glanced down Walrus Way, the street he knew so well.

The sun was abnormally bright, and abnormally hot.

Slate looked down at his paws; his socks were wet. The snow around his shop had melted. The snow all down the street was melting. The sewers were overflowing with water.

And there was no snow. No fresh snowflakes dotting the clouded sky. In fact, there were no clouds. Just the sun.

But there was one thing the same. The Cogs. They continued to walk the streets as if nothing had changed. As though impervious to this new curse.

Blasted things, Slate thought bitterly. Ugly, cantankerous creatures.

A Cog near him, a Cold Caller, jettisoned smoke from its neck.

Pollution, was Slate's first thought. The Cogs have done this. With their pollution. But how exactly? Climate changes don't occur overnight. Something big must have occurred. But the Cogs were not organized. They were at the orders of their Toon masters.

Or so the Toon Council would have everyone believe. So Flippy would say. In that emphatic voice of desperation he acquired over the last couple of years. That pleading tone for everyone to believe the Cogs are good, that they're not bad, that the laff literature being widely disseminated is a precautionary measure to reeducate the Toon population just because why not. But Slate was a wise old rabbit. He could see what was happening. The Cogs were detrimental to Toontown but it was too late to rid the streets of them. They couldn't be destroyed. And they were causing Toons to lose laff.

And now, they have destroyed the climate.

Snow melted in droves off the roofs of shops, pooling on the sidewalk below. Several of Slate's neighbors looked at him in fear. Well, not at, Slate thought with a chuckle. They were looking *to* him. For help. As they've always done. And Slate was not about to disappoint. He had a few ideas.

Rolling up the sleeves of his pajamas, he marched for the playground. The Brrrgh needed snow. And right now, it needed a blizzard.

And the Blizzard Wizard would deliver.

Doctor knew something was amiss when the ship pulled into the harbor of the Docks and the wind became icy. Not that usual cool misty breeze that greeted Doctor whenever the boat docked. It was frigid, subarctic, polar. A jagged gust of icy air, cutting into his blue bear fur like daggers.

Doctor stood on the deck of the ship with his fellow passengers, all of them noticing the wind. How could one miss it? The ship was almost in port, stretching out its gangplank. But the wind had knocked it aside. The gangplank struck the harbor wall and snapped off the side of the ship, plunging downward into the water. The ship began to list to its side as the wind intensified. Doctor held onto the railing and closed his eyes as an enormous cloud emerged over the Docks. Snow was falling rapidly from it.

What the...

Snow? In the Docks? Unheard of.

As the cloud descended, the air grew colder. And colder. Doctor was not wearing that many layers. Soon he felt his very bones quaking. He sank to the deck and pulled his arms around himself in a rueful attempt to keep warm.

The temperature continued to drop. And the boat stopped listing. The railing above Doctor iced over. Icicles literally grew in front of his face. The boat captain emerged from the bridge in amazement. The ship had stopped moving entirely. Doctor stood, shaking, snow piling on the top of his hat.

And gasped.

Around him, the Docks had frozen over entirely. In less than a few minutes, the harbor was ice.

What the hell just happened?

Flippy listened to Dr. Nimbus, his trusted science advisor, with a hammering heart. The bright blue bear was oddly calm presenting the most dire news in Toontown's history.

"The climate has shifted clockwise," Dr. Nimbus was saying, "in that the sun has risen in Dreamland, Melodyland has become shrouded in darkness, the Brrrgh is melting due to the warmth from Melodyland, the Docks have frozen over, the Gardens have become extra damp and clammy, and Toontown Central as you know is now akin to that of a moist garden. Though Toontown Central and the Gardens are relatively minor issues, it cannot be denied this climate shift can have cataclysmic repercussions. Dreamland's buildings are not meant to withstand sunlight, for example. And the Brrrgh is quite literally designed for polar temperatures. The Docks are not."

Dr. Nimbus paused. Flippy's thoughts caught up with him.

This is *my* Mayoral term, he thought. *Mine*. And this is happening to *me*.

"The change is not temporary. This is, telling from the first reports, permanent."

Why me? Flippy screamed inside his head to no one.

"Mayor," Dr. Nimbus said slowly, "I think this is the work of the Cogs."

Flippy leapt from his chair.

"NO!" he shouted.

Dr. Nimbus shrank back in shock. It was not like Flippy to have outbursts.

"No," Flippy repeated. "They are *docile*. They are *good*. They didn't do this. Not in one day."

"No," Dr. Nimbus agreed, "they didn't do this in one day. Something happened. But Mayor, please, see reason. The Cogs have caused trouble in Toontown. They helped a few years ago when the economy needed fixing but they have grown too great in number. And we can't get rid of them! You must talk to Dr. Molecule. Explain that the Cogs have caused the recent shift. He'll understand. He has to shut them down. Or at least a majority."

Nimbus sighed.

"Please, Flippy. Your Toons need you."

Flippy gulped.

"I will call Dr. Molecule," he said.

"Please do," Nimbus said. "Before something worse happens."

Fisherman Billy was sweating. His tongue lolled from his mouth. The temperature shift had made his pond on Silly Street extra humid. It wasn't anything unbearable. But Billy hated sweating. It made him feel gross.

The yellow dog lifted his bucket over his shoulder, teeming with fish, and hurried down the street to the Toontown Central Playground and its Pet Shop. He wanted to sell his fish and go home and be with his parents. He overheard some of the Toons at the pond talking about how the Cogs were the ones responsible for the climate shift. How was that possible? They always made him feel creepy.

As he walked down the street a brisk pace, he heard something behind him. He spun around on instinct, but saw nothing there. Cogs didn't walk the streets at night. So it was probably just something in a shop. Maybe a door slamming.

Billy began laughing to himself. I'm always scaring myself, he thought merrily.

He turned the corner.

And bumped into a Cog.

The austere face of a Head Hunter stared back at him. A murderous stare.

"You've messed with the wrong Cog," it said robotically.

"W-what?" Billy muttered. What was it doing here?

"You have trespassed on my territory, Toon," the Head Hunter continued.

Billy backed away.

"Sorry...I'm just going..."

The Cog lifted its hand. A red swirl of words formed in midair. Words Billy didn't know. Words that filled him with dread. Sadness.

"Time for some jargon," the Cog said with a nefarious smile.

It thrust its palm at Billy and the jargon attacked him. Feeling his laff deplete rapidly, Billy fell to his knees.

## Production

### Continuity and Story Arcs

Three dead bodies arrived in Fantasyland three years ago along with the rest of the evacuated Toons. Among them is Dr. Cumulo Nimbus. The bodies are unidentified due to the loss of memory among the Toons. Professor Pete has a moment of recognition when first seeing Nimbus' face, a bit of his former self bleeding through.

Ten years prior to the present (seven years before Exodus and four before the Cogs were first introduced), Dr. Nimbus and Professor Pete discuss the former's invention of an emergency contingency plan called the Emergency Portal. Using the portable hole network common in Toontown, Dr. Nimbus is able to evacuate all Toons outside of Toontown in times of emergency. This system would indeed be used for the Exodus.

The War is first mentioned and is alluded to being terrible.

Esmeralda, the fortune teller in Fantasyland, delivered the same message as in "Genesis," this time to Eileen Irenic, Clarabelle Cow, and Vidalia VaVoom.

The concept of laff is first explored. As opposed to it being a physical meter that one can see and count points on like in the game, laff is an inherent part of a Toon's biology and contributes to their state of happiness. Decreases in laff are rare in Toontown, and are usually attributed to tragedies such as the death of loved ones. Because of the recent advent of the Cogs, Flippy orders literature explaining laff to be distributed to Toons.

The climate of Toontown drastically changes as all biomes shift clockwise; The sun of Toontown Central rises over Dreamland, the sun sets over Melodyland, the ice melts in the Brrrgh and the Docks freeze over, the Gardens swamp, and Toontown Central becomes a Garden. The cause of such a sudden shift is unknown as of this episode, but it monumentally impacts the decision to evacuate.

The first Cog attack occurred, when a Head Hunter threw jargon at Fisherman Billy.

### References

The Chortle Cafe is seen providing lunch to Professor Pete and Dr. Nimbus. It is located on Loopy Lane in Toontown Central.

The previous Mayor of Toontown before Flippy, Mickey Elias, is first mentioned. He was the one who asked Nimbus to create an emergency contingency plan.

The conversation between Vidalia VaVoom and Clarabelle Cow references the love affair between Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour in the 16th century.

Clarabelle Cow mentions Oz, the land from *The Wizard of Oz*.

## Trivia

* The episode title is a play on words of the phrase "the last laugh," usually referring to the person who had the final word on a matter.
* Mickey Elias is a counterpart of Mickey Mouse, the popular Disney character. The surname, Elias, is a reference to Mickey's creator, Walter Elias Disney.
* Chief Constance Miller's folder in her Fantasyland office containing photographs of strangely appearing people is a silly concept and was added into the story to illustrate that despite the Toons being human, their silliness is bleeding through.
* Heidi Babel, the Leader of the Gardens, is a two-part reference. Heidi is short for hydrangea, a type of flower. Babel is short for Babylon, in reference to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
* Jargon is an attack used only by Double Talkers and Legal Eagles in the game.