How dangerous was it to be a jester? - Beatrice K. Otto
10th century jester Jing Xinmo
may have overstepped
when he got chased by a dog,
then teasingly told the Chinese emperor
that he shouldn’t let his kids
go around biting people.
The emperor took offense
and trained an arrow on Jing.
But instead of begging for his life,
Jing cracked another joke.
Luckily, this pun landed—
so the emperor’s arrow did not.
Contrary to common belief,
jesters weren't just a medieval
European phenomenon,
but flourished
in other times and cultures.
The first reliably recorded jester
is thought to be You Shi,
of 7th century BCE China.
He declared that, as a jester,
his words could not give offense.
This privilege was important
to the jester’s position—
but was sometimes violated.
Jesters had unique relationships to power:
they could be viewed as objects of mockery
and also as entertainers
and trusted companions.
People became jesters by various routes.
They could be appointed due to physical
or neurological differences,
plucked from a pool of entertainers,
or recruited by a traveling courtier.
Such was the case when a royal servant
wrote King Henry VIII’s chief minister
in the 1530s.
He recommended a young boy to replace
the king’s aging jester, Sexten,
with the assurance that he’d be much more
pleasant than Sexten ever was.
Some jesters boasted unique talents,
like Roland the Farter,
of Henry II’s 12th Century court.
Every Christmas,
he performed a special routine,
the finale of which was
a simultaneous jump, whistle, and fart.
Additionally, jesters could influence
important decisions.
For example,
if the clowns of the Tübatulabal nation
of the Sierra Nevada mountains
thought a chief was leading poorly,
they could apparently
get the elders to appoint a new one.
And, of course, Jing Xinmo knew
how to sway the Chinese emperor.
A local magistrate once requested
that the emperor stop trampling farmland
during his hunting sprees.
Infuriated, the emperor
had the magistrate hauled before him.
Jing facetiously suggested that
the magistrate be put to death immediately
and that the emperor
let the peasants starve
instead of harvesting the land
and paying taxes,
all so he could gallop about freely.
Presumably seeing the absurdity
of his own behavior,
the emperor laughed
and pardoned the magistrate.
In 1596, a French man
was condemned to death.
But Mathurine, one of the relatively few
female jesters on record,
intervened in return for payment.
With her help, the man’s wife
successfully pleaded with King Henry IV
for her husband’s life.
Although rare, jesters were
sometimes fired or even killed
for taking their mockery or criticism
too far.
In 1638, Scottish jester Archy Armstrong
worsened his already
contentious relationship
with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop had recently revised
the Scottish Book of Common Prayer—
an act that garnered strong opposition
and incited riots.
Taking the opportunity
to further humiliate him,
Archy asked the Archbishop,
“Who’s the fool now?”
For which he was banished from the court.
Three years later,
after the Archbishop’s arrest,
a pamphlet began circulating
that ridiculed him,
which was said to be the work
of none other than Archy.
Meanwhile, some jesters openly mocked
their royal bosses without consequence.
11th century Persian jester Talhak
suggested the sultan was a cuckold,
implying his wife was unfaithful to him.
One day, as the sultan rested
his head on Talhak’s knee,
he is said to have inquired,
“What is your relation to cuckolds?”
To which Talhak replied,
“I am their pillow.”
And when 19th century Persian shah asked
whether there was a food shortage,
jester Karim Shir’ei joked,
“Yes, I see Your Majesty is eating
only five times a day.”
Even when rulers were considered
divinely appointed,
some jesters managed to speak truth
directly to power,
and reveal— in so many riddles,
jokes, or skits—
who the real fools were.
