Buffoon Mobility Coefficient (BMC)

The Buffoon Mobility Coefficient estimates the degree to which a comic transforms a patently undesirable or exploitative role into an allegedly aspirational one through fictive mobility. Five variables — Uncompensated labor framing, Presence of a nominal promotion path, Rhetorical substitution of meaning for compensation, Hierarchical absurdity of the promotion itself, and Confidence of the selling authority — are each scored from 0 to 2.

The BMC has not been validated in any serious field and is unlikely to be. It nevertheless captures a real comic phenomenon: the inflation of bad positions through a theatrically optimistic advancement structure. Reference implementation: Working Paper No. 45 (BMC = 8.7/10; the confidence variable docked for the tiredness of a man who has filled this vacancy before).