The Second Best Colony of Second Best Puppet 156 is a colossal, orderly nation, ruled by Noah with an iron fist, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, ritual sacrifices, and smutty television. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 6.716 billion Second Best Puppet 156ians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 89.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Second Best Puppet 156ian economy, worth a remarkable 1,269 trillion cards a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Uranium Mining, Woodchip Exports, and Book Publishing. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is an impressive 189,022 cards, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

The delay between passed legislation and real world implementation is often a decade or longer, photos of picturesque coastal buildings are set against a backdrop of smokestacks and ship hulls, inheritance tax has recently been abolished, and declaring that "some kids are just born evil" is not endearing Noah to progressive thinkers. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Second Best Puppet 156's national animal is the legendary, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Second Best Puppet 156 is ranked 274,229^th in the world and 1,296^th in Two for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 35.59 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.