Officially Released Joke Buttons

There are multiple officially released joke buttons known for the game of Button Men. The first is inspired by the Fantasy set, Dead Guy [(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)]. The second is James Ernest, [(π) (ꝏ) (ꜟ) (X)], and the third is Buzzing Weasel [ (F) (R) (P) (G) (S)].

Lastly is a semi-functional repeat set featuring Cheapass Games staffers known colloquially as "Women of Cheapass" or "Cheapass Enternal." This set consists of buttons primarily made to amuse the employees of Cheapass Games.

Dead Guy can be found on the Fantasy set page.

James and The Buzzing Weasel are explained below in Cheapass's and others' own words:

James Ernest

Recipe: Pi, Infinity, The Square Root of Negative Two, and X

Created: August 1999
Source: John Kovalic
Designer: John Kovalic and Joshua Howard
Artist: John Kovalic
New Rules: Nothing important
Tournament Legal? No

Probably the most hard-to-find Button Man that’s not unique, the James Ernest button has become infamous enough to make this list. John Kovalic created a small number of these to hand out to friends at Gen Con 1999, and probably no more than 20 copies exist.

The Button is potentially the most powerful Button Man in existence, although it’s debatable whether it could ever make a starting roll. Richard Garfield, PHD and creator of the Magic: the Gathering card game, has argued that it is impossible to randomly generate a number between one and infinity in a linear distribution, and that this is the essential flaw in the famous “two envelopes” paradox. Combine this with the impossibility of even describing “i” in real terms, and the pi-sided die seems like a walk in the park.

Buzzing Weasel

Recipe: F R P G S

Created: Summer 1999
Source: Undisclosed
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: John Kovalic
New Rules: Five Unique Dice
Tournament Legal? Yes

The Buzzing Weasel is one of those infamous Button Men created on a whim and available to a select few. A game industry internet club created a limited number of Buzzing Weasels and distributed these buttons to its membership in the summer of 1999. The five letter symbols have no meaning outside the context of this button (many of them are now defined as Swing Dice), but they are defined on the Buzzing Weasel as:

F: “Fudge” die. Rolls -1, 0, and 1 in a linear distribution. Is worth either 0, 1, or 3 points depending on who you talk to. Zero, because that’s twice its average roll; One, because that’s it’s highest value; Three because it can vary between 3 different values. It’s a fruitless debate, really.

R: “Regular” die. Equivalent to an “X” Swing Die.

P: “Prestige” die. A variable die which can be any size between 30 and 100 sides, the Prestige Die cannot make any Attacks and is not worth any points.

G: “Gamer” die. A variable die which can be any size between 3 and 21, except for the common die sizes of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20.

S: “Screw” or “Suck” die. A 7-sided die. If the S die makes an attack and rolls odd, its owner gets another turn. If it rolls even, its owner loses.

Despite its multivariability, the Buzzing Weasel is probably the least effective Button Man ever devised. Its weakness stems from a conspiracy of the Fudge, Prestige, and Screw dice: The last thing a player with the Weasel wants to do is make attacks, specifically with the Screw Die. Unfortunately, the Fudge nearly guarantees that he will go first, the Prestige die is powerless to attack, and the other two normal dice are soon captured or locked out. The result is that the Buzzing Weasel is almost always forced to make multiple attacks with its Screw Die, and nearly always loses the game by killing itself.

Cheapass Internal

The Women of CAG were made up on a whim during the con season in '01 by Fuzzface and was originally called "Booth Grrls". The first three feature pics of CAG staffers/demo monkeys Joyce Godecke, Liz Lindsay, and Julie Haen, and use the recipes of the Catfight girls from the Origins promo set (although note that Julz' button has an error--she has 2 d4's instead of 2 d8's in her recipe). The Agatha button features a pic of Liz in her Agatha Heterodyne costume (the same pic is used on the Liz button incidentally), and uses the recipe for the Agatha button from the "Girl Genius" set from Studio Foglio. In '02, Jessica McEwan added herself to the Women of CAG lineup, using Micro's recipe from the Origins promo. The Ultra-Rare for the set, Denise, is actually John "FuzzFace" McMahon's wife and has the same stats as the BRAWL rare Sydney.

Another button from inside Cheapass is "Rikachu," based upon a commercial for the Pokemon video game. Also known as "Pikapooch," it features a dog in a Pikachu hat. To quote: "The Rikachu the Pikapooch button was created by Elizabeth Lindsay, lead CAG Demo Monkey. If you've seen the TV commercial for Pokemon in which the dorky boy with the lisp is trying to play Pokemon Trainer with his dog, then you've seen Rikachu. He's a dog wearing a Pikachu hat and a decidedly nonplussed expression. Oaktree further elaborated on the button on the buttonweavers forum. "[Rikachu] was "official" in that the genuine article could only be gotten at the CAG booth from Liz in person--at Origins, if you brought your program, the CAG ad with the art for the Tess button was opposite a page with an ad for Pokemon featuring a picture of a dog wearing a Pikachu hat. Ask Liz nicely, and she'd make you a Rickachu button (by hand-writing the numbers directly on the ad, cutting it out, and buttonizing it) along with a Tess button. (She still had a stash of extra Rickachu "art" with her at GenCon, so if you came by for Bush/Gore/Cthulhu you might have gotten one there as well.)"

Joyce z(4) (10) (10) (12) z(12) (there are two artworks for this button) (this button is a functional reprint of Nickie from Brawl: Catfight)	Liz (6)(6)z(12)(20) (20) (this button is a functional reprint of Sonia from the Brawl: Catfight set.)	Julz (4)(4)(8)(12)z(20) Julz 2 z(4) z(6) z(8) z(10) z(X)
Jessica g(4)g(4)(12)p(12)g(X)	Ultra-Rare: Denise z(4) z(6) z(8) z(10) z(X)	Rikachu the Pikapooch (1) (1) (1) (1) (Y)
	Original blank of Julz courtesy of "Fuzzface" McMahanon	A fan-made blank for Rikachu using a scan of the ad from the "Thunderstorm" Pokemon gift box.