First, saw Back to the Future on the big screen, awesome, full house, totally worthwhile. Though gaming related I'm still working on the idea of world set in an alternate universe 1955 where hot rodding is king and McCarthy became president and super atomic powered science is everywhere. Seeing Marty skateboarding through the streets of 1955 AMERICA! certainly only fans the flames.
Secondly, I have to apologize to my one pal as my other buddy (brother in all but blood) and I somehow began discussing the brown smarties test in our usual over the top boisterous way as we drove home. Sorry my main man stuck in the backseat as I went a little nuts fueled by fatigue over the topic. As it turns out I had never heard of the idea and frankly didn't honestly get the concept. So tracking it down on SNOPES it looks like it was Van Halen was the origin of the idea, though with M&M's, but whatever. 
What is important is the concept. My bro was totally rousing (purposefully as he is want to do :P ) me with the idea that the test was to make sure everything on the check list would be done, because if you didn't do this one simple thing that could easily be tested, how could we trust you with the big stuff. But its not the concept or metaphor my buddy was trying to use that twisted my brain out of order....it was the smarties part of it. That stupid little candy.
I get the need for check lists and an orderly way of doing things, hell I even applaud the big bold underline print the band used in their "munchie contract" to remove said brown candies, which more than what you get in most contracts. But time costing candy removal that has no differential other than color...isn't there more important things to do?
In my mind if a roadie spent a half hour going through your brown candies, that's a half hour wasted that could have been spent on stage setup. Something is going to get rushed and something is going to get missed contract or not. And if your are clear that failure on the smarties is your biggest issue (say by underlining and bolding it) and most likely to get me punished, I would be more likely to go short on other duties. Certainly my contract is violated, but you get electrocuted because I didn't check the amps because I was checking the candies...so no one wins.
To me it also seemed belittling in very master vs. slave dynamic or something a sadistic bully would come up with..which really raises my haunches. Certainly the little clip from snopes about the band trashing a room and doing thousands of dollars of damage over a brown M&M/smarties being found certainly seems to prove it was kind of juvenile regardless of its intent or post hoc justification. Cancelling the concert, civil suits, remanding payments and salaries would be the grown up way of dealing with contract failures.
But putting that all aside on the way home after the first drop off that relieved my pal in the back seat of our stupid ranting, my bro and I came up with the solution to getting the smarties passed my "that's stupid" shielding. Drop the smarties, use another analogy that makes sense in my brain. Hair products and pants came to mind.
Pants are always my go to. Hey, do you have your pants on, is pretty much my universal way of saying, hey I need to get ready to go both mentally and physically. Putting out pants as part of the above contract oddly makes sense in my mind because of its practical and easy to monitor. Though being rock and roll, pants are indeed often optional...thanks Red Hot Chili Peppers. Though in their case, socks are suitable alt.
Hair products makes sense to me, and especially now knowing it was Van Halen. Easy to check to see if you got the right stuff, even ordered in step by step by its application process would be an oddly suitable part of the analogy since it is clearly related to possible dividends directly related to the occupation (Hair metal needs good hair).
Hell making beds for the band, would even make more sense. Personally I'd put a brown smarty on their pillow noting that the contract specifically said M&Ms and nothing about other candy and the two are clearly not the same product, and thus force hours of putting sub-sections about differing candy applications and allowances. Their wasted time, not mine....wait this is how overly complicated non-sense laws get made in real life....crap....damn you Van Halen, you caused all the internet legal trolling!
So the moral of the story for RPGs is...err...rules, even lots of rules are fine. Following them are fine and probably a good idea. Being a rules lawyer for every littlest and innocent mistake might make you prejudice against small candies and likely to burn down your living room.
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