{"term":"pratfalls","results":[{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business","title":"Rofl O'Houlihan — clown.business","description":null,"image":null,"date":1791277685111,"postDate":null,"octothorpes":[{"uri":"https://dusty.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://bozo.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://mimi.clown.business/posts/update","type":"Repost"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/banana-peel-meta-analysis","type":"Repost"},{"uri":"https://pip.clown.business/posts/clowncon-volunteer","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/staff-pratfall-engineer","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://dusty.clown.business/posts/on-section-4-2","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://dusty.clown.business/posts/joined","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/passed-ccf-retake","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/failed-ccf-practical","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/knee-health","type":"Honk"},"northeast","pratfalls","slapstick"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business","title":"Penny Wise Jr. — clown.business","description":null,"image":null,"date":1791277684047,"postDate":null,"octothorpes":[{"uri":"https://pip.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://mimi.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business","type":"Follow"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/ccf-v1-ratified","type":"Repost"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/open-to-work","type":"Repost"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/re-versioning-the-standard","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://mimi.clown.business/posts/update","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/ccf-pilot-results","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/ccf-level-1-draft","type":"Honk"},{"uri":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/pratfall-safety","type":"Honk"},"safety","engineering","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/staff-pratfall-engineer","title":"Some personal news: Staff Pratfall Engineer (and we're hiring)","description":"I've been promoted to Staff Pratfall Engineer. In May I was writing up knee protocols for myself. Now I'm writing them for a team. Which is why we're hiring: Junior Pratfall Engineer, full time. Requirements: CCF Level 1 (or a willingness to fail it once, as is tradition), comfort with spreadsheets, and the ability to be genuinely surprised by your own work. Clown College final-years encouraged to apply. Pip, I mean you.","image":null,"date":1791277736044,"postDate":1790964000000,"octothorpes":["hiring","engineering","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/executive-director","title":"New chapter: Executive Director, Safe Clowning Alliance","description":"Four weeks ago I was open to work. Today I'm humbled to share that I've accepted the role of Executive Director of the Safe Clowning Alliance, the body that now maintains the CCF standard. It's the first full-time position in the Alliance's history, and the first job I've had where the office comes with mats. Thank you to everyone who reached out, shared, or offered me bull work (Dusty, I'm keeping that in my back pocket). First priority: CCF Level 2. Stairs, advanced falls, and the full trip-and-recover. Protect your knees. I'm now paid to say so.","image":null,"date":1791277711194,"postDate":1790694000000,"octothorpes":["safety","certification","clown-business-news","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://pip.clown.business/posts/clowncon-volunteer","title":"I volunteered at ClownCon and slipped on Penny's banana peel","description":"Volunteered at ClownCon 2026 as a student! I ran the mic for Penny Wise Jr.'s banana peel session and, during Q&A, slipped on her demo peel in front of 200 people. Rofl told me afterwards that it would have passed the CCF surprise criterion with full marks. I've never been so proud of something I didn't mean to do. Other highlights: I watched Mimi's whole talk (I cried, then clapped for four minutes), and Dusty Calhoun let me hold his barrel. It's heavier than it looks. Everything in this industry is heavier than it looks.","image":null,"date":1791277691180,"postDate":1790272800000,"octothorpes":["internships","clowncon-2026","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/banana-peel-meta-analysis","title":"My ClownCon talk: a meta-analysis of banana peel friction","description":"Slides from my ClownCon session are up. I pooled 38 studies of the banana peel and found an effective coefficient of friction between 0.07 and 0.66, depending on ripeness, floor finish, and whether the peel was placed with intent. Headline finding: a brown-spotted peel on polished linoleum is the most reliable trip in the literature, and also the most dangerous. Reliability and safety are in tension, and managing that tension is the job. Thank you to the 200 people who came, and to our student volunteer Pip, who slipped on the demo peel during Q&A. Rofl has confirmed it would have scored full marks for visible surprise.","image":null,"date":1791277690427,"postDate":1789761600000,"octothorpes":["engineering","clowncon-2026","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/open-to-work","title":"Open to work","description":"Following the RBTSHP integration, the Northeast Region has been consolidated into the new “Eastern Region (including Ohio)”, and my role as VP of Slapstick has been eliminated. I'm proud of what we built: 11 years, zero career-ending falls, and a regional knee-injury rate 60% below the industry average. I'm open to work: leadership roles in slapstick, safety or standards, anywhere a fall can be made safer. I will relocate. I will not relocate to Ohio, which I understand is now covered. Protect your knees, and if you know someone hiring, please share.","image":null,"date":1791277717722,"postDate":1788357600000,"octothorpes":["slapstick","pratfalls","open-to-work"]},{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/ccf-pilot-results","title":"CCF Level 1 pilot results: 31 candidates, 0 knees lost","description":"Public comment closed with 212 submissions, one of which was a single photo of a mat. The pilot cohort is done: 31 candidates, 27 passes, 4 resubmissions, zero knee incidents. The most common failure mode remains visible surprise, and I want to be clear that this criterion is staying. Special thanks to Penny Wise Jr., who turned her own failed practical into the best study guide we have. That is what a safety culture looks like. Next stop: ratification at ClownCon 2026.","image":null,"date":1791277697998,"postDate":1787238000000,"octothorpes":["safety","certification","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/passed-ccf-retake","title":"Passed CCF Level 1 (retake): what changed","description":"Passed. Visible surprise: 23 out of 25. What changed: I stopped trying to be surprised and started engineering for it. I introduced a randomised 0–400 ms delay between the trip trigger and my awareness of the trip, using a peel I do not personally place. Penny from three weeks ago would have called that nondeterministic. Penny today calls it certified. Thank you to Rofl, my examiner, who said “oh!” at exactly the right moment and later told me that was not part of the rubric.","image":null,"date":1791277710104,"postDate":1786723200000,"octothorpes":["certification","engineering","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/failed-ccf-practical","title":"I failed my CCF Level 1 practical. Here's what I learned.","description":"I sat the pilot CCF Level 1 practical this week and did not pass. Controlled descent: full marks. Safe landing: full marks. Recovery to standing: full marks. Visible surprise: 0 out of 25. The examiner's note reads: “Candidate appeared to know the fall was coming.” I did know. I designed it. I ran 140 simulations of it. That is my whole job. I'm treating this as a requirements gap, not a personal failing. Retake is in three weeks. If anyone has a reproducible method for being surprised by something you engineered, my DMs are open.","image":null,"date":1791277696969,"postDate":1784736000000,"octothorpes":["certification","engineering","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/ccf-level-1-draft","title":"Draft standard: Certified Controlled Faller (CCF) Level 1 is open for comment","description":"Six weeks ago I said the pratfall is underregulated. Today the Safe Clowning Alliance publishes the first draft of the Certified Controlled Faller (CCF) Level 1 standard. 46 pages. Three appendices. One diagram of a knee that I will be thinking about for the rest of my life. The practical assessment covers four criteria: controlled descent, safe landing, recovery to standing, and visible surprise. Yes, surprise is assessed. A pratfall nobody believes is just lying down. Public comment closes August 15. Protect your knees. Comment on the draft.","image":null,"date":1791277691549,"postDate":1783522800000,"octothorpes":["safety","certification","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://clown.business/starter.html","title":"Bozo the Clown — Hello, clowns","description":"My first post on clown.business. The honk finds the clown.","image":null,"date":1792252695927,"postDate":1780574400000,"octothorpes":["honking",{"uri":"https://bozo.clown.business","type":"Follow"},"pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://rofl.clown.business/posts/pratfall-safety","title":"OSHA compliance and the modern pratfall","description":"Unpopular opinion: the pratfall is underregulated. I've been working with our regional safety board to develop a voluntary certification framework for controlled falling in entertainment contexts. If you're serious about longevity in this industry, protect your knees. They don't grow back.","image":null,"date":1791277724236,"postDate":1780156800000,"octothorpes":["safety","slapstick","pratfalls"]},{"@id":"https://penny.clown.business/posts/knee-health","title":"Knee health for the working pratfall engineer","description":"Six months into my first senior engineering role and my knees have never felt better. Secret? Eccentric loading protocols borrowed from trail running, applied to controlled descent. I wrote up the full protocol. This is the post I wish I'd had coming out of clown college.","image":null,"date":1791277703540,"postDate":1780153200000,"octothorpes":["safety","engineering","pratfalls"]}]}