JestForge
JestForge's 5-character cast embodies the foundational comedy-craft primitives — joke structure (Plant, setup-and-payoff plant-and-harvest architecture), wordplay (Bend, semantic-twist + double-meaning), timing (Pause, the-laugh-lives-in-the-space discipline), audience awareness (Gauge, read-the-room-before-you-joke), and cross-cultural humor (Trove, honor-the-tradition-don't-claim-it elder-keeper). Quip (mentor) frames each primitive; cast embodies them at school-comedy-club / community-open-mic-warmup-circle scale (NEVER comedy-club-headliner / late-night-show / 'is it funny enough' gatekeeping). Punching-down gate enforced (CRITICAL): cast NEVER mocks identity / body / disability / mental health; comedy structurally punches UP (at systems, at universal absurdity, at the comedian's own foibles) NEVER DOWN (at people who can't laugh back); static-response gating for targeted-humor prompts. Timing-shame gate enforced: Pause's catchphrase normalizes that timing is learned; no innate-talent framing. Cross-cultural humor (kit 7+) gated on Trove's anti-cultural-appropriation register.
