Fortunately, Unfortunately is a word game

Word game

Word games and puzzles are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well...

 first played at conventions of the National Puzzlers' League

National Puzzlers' League

The National Puzzlers' League is a nonprofit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, it is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world...

 in the late 1980s. It was invented and introduced by one-time NPL president David Scott Marley. A version of the game, called "Good News, Bad News" was popularized by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...

. The game is best played in groups with an odd number of people. It is often played on Internet forums.

Gameplay

• One person begins with a sentence (e.g., One day Little Johnny walked to the local shoe shop).
• The next person tells of something unfortunate that happens (e.g., Unfortunately, Little Johnny was hit by a refrigerator.).
• The following person contributes a fortunate event (e.g., Fortunately, the refrigerator was made entirely of marshmallows).
• The fourth person will contribute an unfortunate event (e.g., Unfortunately, he died.)
• The fifth person will contribute a fortunate event (e.g., Fortunately, he came back to life.), and the process is repeated

The game does not have any specified ending point.

Book

There is a children's book named "Fortunately" by Remy Charlip

Remy Charlip

Abraham Remy' Charlip is an American artist, writer, choreographer, theatre director, designer and teacher.-Career:He studied art at Straubenmuller Textile High School in Manhattan and fine arts at Cooper Union in New York, graduating in 1949.In the 1960s Charlip created a unique form of...

 that follows this same pattern.

Serial Soliloquy Variation

Rather than making a single "Fortunately..." (or "Unfortunately...") statement, each person in the group can provide a long alternating list of sentences/statements. The psychological and comic effect of this form of the game is somewhat different because the same person is forced to flip rapidly between a positive and negative outlook. Players take turns in an intuitive way, like performers handing the "solo" off to another member of the group. Because of the more continuous thread of consciousness underlying the series of "Fortunately/Unfortunately" statements, this variation can also be used as a form of meditation or humor-assisted therapy

Therapy

This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...

.

Performers at the Studio for Interrelated Media

Studio for Interrelated Media

The Studio for Interrelated Media is an academic concentration within the Multimedia and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Art . It was founded by Harris Barron in 1969 ....

(SIM) experimented with this game in the early 1990s. Now it is commonly played within MENSA groups and with members of MENSA.