While out in space, the Green Lantern is contacted by the Guardians of the Universe who warn him of a creature which consumes gravity which poses a threat to the universe. With no choice but to kill the creature, the Green Lantern uses his power ring to force it to consume it's own bodily waste until it dies. Green Lantern then returns to Earth to begin looking for a new career in his civilian guise of Hal Jordan.

Meanwhile, an advanced civilization on another corner of the galaxy has created a comedy/entertainment robot named Hilar. However, upon activating the robot they are horrified to find that the robot only causes negative things to happen when it tries comedy. With it made out of the indestructible Eterno-Metal, they cannot destroy the robot so they opt to deactivate it and dump it in a junk yard. Developing sentience, the robot reactivates itself and decides to try and bring comedy to other people on other planets since the people of Ghyra would just deactivate him again. Building a ship, "Hilar" manages to flee the planet and end up on the planet Earth when he decides to follow the Green Lantern back home.

There he finds it hard to adapt to life on Earth and when a police officer tries to pull Hilar off the road, he finds that he is violently thrown aside. Fleeing from the law, Hilar slips into a television studio where a comedy program is being filmed. Deciding to lend his own talents, Hilar crashes the show and the audience is horrified by what Hilar passes off as comedy. Elsewhere in the city, Hal Jordan has taken up a job as a salesman for a toy company when he sees the television program which Hilar is interrupting.

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