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The content below is from Episode 162 of the Who’d a Thunk It? Podcast

RECOMMENDATION SEGMENT

  • This week I recommend Chimp Empire on Netflix.
    • My Aunt Toni suggested it to me over this past Memorial Day weekend while I was teaching her how to play Catan
    • Exploring the fascinating world of the largest chimpanzee society ever discovered as they navigate complex social politics, family dynamics and dangerous territory disputes.
    • Shannon and I watched 2 episodes so far and we are baffled by the drama that plays out in the Forrest of Ngogo. No stage pieces, no script, no acting… just chimps.

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT

  • To begin with, the job of jester has been around going back to humanity’s earliest recorded history, as well as spanning just about every major culture on Earth. Beyond entertaining the masses, from Egyptian Pharaoh to the first Emperor of China, the wealthy have frequently employed the services of these individuals.
    • Over the centuries this line of work matured and as we get into Medieval times in the Western world, we start to see court jesters that somewhat fit the common stereotype depicted today. Although it should be noted they weren’t called “jesters” at this point, rather usually something like “fool” or “buffoon”. The jester name, deriving from the Anglo-Norman “gestour” meaning “storyteller”, wouldn’t come about until around the 16th century.
  • Were you the class clown in school?
    • If you weren’t, I’m sure you knew who was the class clown. The guy or gal who seemed to bend or break any rule that got in the way or humor.
    • I consider myself a laughter junky and it’s gotten me into quite a few tight spots in my days. Like the time I drew a large blow-up doll in art class or the time I pantsed my buddy in middle school only to accidentally pull down his boxers as well… effectively flashing him to the entire hallway. Yeah, regret does come with the gig sometimes… but what about those who made class clown an official career?
  • Today we have comedians, a profession which I am obsessed with. I watch/listen to comedic podcasts all day long. I watch the stand-up specials of my favorites. They are my favorite live performances to attend. I have so much appreciation for the philosophical nonsense of modern comedy… but where did the job of modern comedy come from?
    • These modern orators getting paid for laughs surely didn’t just spring up out of nowhere… did they?
    • Nope
  • The mideival jester could be seen as a morbid version of the modern comic. A distant relative to Dave Chappelle’s and George Carlins of our society can trace their career’s lineage back to the goofy outfit wearing clowns from centuries ago.
    • I will admit the Jester and the modern comedian are two very different jobs and a good argument could be made that the two are hardly comparable. With their celebrity status, and the more successful comedians pulling in a fortune every year, it is hard to compare them to the often physically deformed humor slaves of medieval kings.
  • During the 11th and 12th centuries, the term ‘minstrel,’ which meant ‘little servent,’ commonly referred to musicians, singers, jugglers, magicians, and tumblers.
    • In the tail end of the 12th century these minstrels started to be called Joculator and Joculatrix. This is when the term follus or “Fool” started to spring up referring to the jesters that had earned their freedom. They would be paid in the form of land. But Fools rarely were given freedom and land on their lord’s estates without some conditions. If the Fool was freed, that usually meant their master liked them and would require the fool to return to perform whatever their brand of entertainment was for certain times of the year, usually during parties.
      •  A fool named Roland le Pettour was given 30 acres of land by King Henry II, probably when he retired, on condition that Roland returned to the royal court every year on Christmas Day to “leap, whistle and fart”.
  • There were two main types of Fools
    • There was the Licensed Fool and the Natural Fool.
      • In both cases, those with physical deformities, such as extreme hunchback, malformed limbs, particularly ugly visages, etc. were prized, as were dwarfs, perhaps the most famous of which being Lord Minimus, who we cover in detail in an episode of our BrainFood Show podcast- Lord Minimus: The Renaissance Dueling Dwarf.
    • The Licensed fools typically wore the patchwork garb you see on Harley Quinn (Joker’s girlfriend) in comics and they would sometimes wear donkey tails.
      • These licensed fools had to be very knowledgeable in the art of entertaining and in the art of companionship as their royal masters spent a lot of time with their fools
      • They were rather quick witted.
    • The Natural Fools were, well, the concept of a Natural Fool didn’t age well.
      • The Natural fool had some sort of mental disability or mental health issue. They were entertaining naturally… See what I mean by it didn’t age well?
      • One attribute the noblemen liked about Natural Fools is that they spoke the unfiltered truth.
  • TodayIFoundOut.com writes about the Natural Fool:
    • An example of a Natural Fool we have William Sommers who replaced King Henry VIII’s previous Natural Fool, Sexton, who was originally gifted to the King by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
      • Moving on to Sommers, while he was considered a “natural fool”, it’s not really clear what his particular mental deficiency was. Noted as having an incredibly quick wit, being a master of satire, and occasionally giving wise council to the King, he ultimately became one of Henry’s most trusted advisors. That said, he was otherwise apparently incapable of taking care of himself, to the point that King Henry VIII went so far as to ensure that one William Seyton would be employed to take care of Sommers after the King died.
      • As an example of one of his many antics, according to an early 17th century account by comedic actor Robert Armin, at one point the King’s juggler, Thomas, was doing his thing when Sommers sauntered in with milk and a bread roll in hand mid-performance. Sommers then began singing,
        • This bit Harry I give to thee
          and this next bit must serve for me,
          Both which I’ll eat apace.
          This bit Madam unto you,
          And this bit I my self eate now,
          And the rest upon thy face.
  • He then promptly chucked the milk in Thomas’ face, much to the amusement of all present.
  • Highly favored by the King, Sommers appears in a 1545 portrait “Henry the Eighth and His Family” with the King, one of his former wives Jane Seymour, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, son Edward, and Mary’s own jester, Jane the Fool, who is thought to have also been a “Natural Fool”.
  • Going back to the Natural Fool’s gift at speaking the “unbridled truth”, it turns out this was also something highly valued in Licensed Fools as well, though contrary to what is often said, while they were far more free to say whatever came to their minds, they still had to be tactful, especially with an audience.
  • For example, as beloved as Sommers was, even as stated included in a family portrait, on a few occasions King Henry VIII got so mad at him, he threatened to kill him. For example, in 1535 when Sommers apparently joked that one of King Henry’s children was a bastard… perhaps a little too close to home on that one.
  • The job of Jester really started to grow during the Tudor era (1460’s to 1603) in Europe. The jesters of this time doubled as servants or the equivalent of modern-day assistants. They followed the head of an estate or court around, entertaining sometimes, but usually delivering messages even in dangerous situations.
    • So these jesters and fools were expected to entertain and entertain well. But even if freed, would be expected to answer their lord’s every beck and call on any given day. The king or lord might ask the Jester to go get a bunch of items on their shopping/grocery list, take care of the family pet/animals, deliver messages, and expected to be able to deliver a 30 minutes standup routine whenever asked for…. it was A LOT.
    • These court jesters were expected to be a jack of all trades when it came to entertainment. If a jester only knew juggling, they would get paid a meeger sum compared the jester who knew how to juggle, spit jokes, and do magic tricks.
  • In 17th century Spain, little people, often with deformities, were employed as buffoons to entertain the king and his family, especially the children.
  • Jesters were like today’s personal assistants… except there were no labor laws… They were personal servants and could be murdered on a whim.
    • A Jester could be asked to deliver unsavory news to a nobleman’s enemy and if the Jester was killed doing so… it was no big deal.
    • Even on the battlefield a Jester could be asked to deliver a message to the enemy.
  • “Don’t Kill the Messenger” was common term used back then and it wasn’t a metaphor.
    • Pissed off enemies would send Jesters back to their camps via trebuchet or sometimes they would just send the Jester’s head.
  • The Jesters would sometimes be tasked with boosting morale in their camps, but sometimes even on the battlefield.
    • Jester’s would sing or crack jokes while knights were thrusting spears.
    • Like “wow, do these Frenchmen smell or is it just me?!”
    • Funny stuff to think about going into brutal hand to hand combat and hearing the weird looking guy in a clown outfit making fun of the people you are murdering.
    • But sometimes the enemies would target the Jester for his or her antics.
  • IFoundOutToday.com writes about another famous Jester:

In another case we have the famed jester Triboulet who served under King Louis XII and Francis I. French poet Jean Marot described Triboulet as “a fool with an unsightly head, as wise at thirty as on the day he was born; with a small forehead and large eyes, a big nose and squat figure, a flat, long belly, and a hump back. He mocked, sang, danced, and preached in derision of every one…”

So famous he had a few characters in literature based on him, most notably in Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’Amuse, it is nonetheless reported his particular brand of satire didn’t exactly make him popular among the court to the point that he was apparently frequently beaten by those he’d offended. Legend has it, whether truth or not is impossible to tell, this led to an exchange between himself and King Francis in which he told the king one of the members of the court had threatened to kill him. The King purportedly replied to this, “If he does, I will hang him a quarter of an hour afterward.” To which Triboulet supposedly quipped, “Ah, Sire, couldn’t you contrive to hang him a quarter of an hour previously?”

In another famed instance, he angered the King via making fun of the queen, whereupon his execution was ordered. However, legend has it that given his years of good service, he was given leave to choose the manner of his death. After thinking it over, Triboulet purportedly told the king “Good sire, for Saint Nitouche’s and Saint Pansard’s sake, patrons of insanity, I choose to die from old age.” This so amused the king that he just had Triboulet banished instead of killing him.

  • These clever smartasses of the Mideival times were expected to be counsel, entertainer, errand boy, juggler, playwright, comedian, song writer, singer, dancer, and Roast Master General…
    • If the King was making a bogus plan, the Jester was expected to talk him out of it… but in a delicate way… lest he lose his head.
    • Some of them were paid a salary, some given that land retirement plan, and others weren’t paid at all.
    • but almost all were fed well, given good sleeping quarters, and had access to the most powerful people and their ears.
    • As for female jesters, they seem to have enjoyed all the same perks as their male counterparts, even relatively free to insult the men of power around them with a level of impunity, though, again, tactfully. As such, the job of fool is noted by historians as being one of the few career options held by men that was also completely open to women with no real associated stigma nor much of a difference in job responsibilities.
  • Let’s hear about a famous female Jester:

One of the more famous female jesters was a legendary woman known as Mathurine the Fool who served in the courts of Henry III and IV, as well as Louis the XIII in the 17th century. Mathurine was well known for her extravagant costume, modeled after the idea of an Amazonian warrior complete with shield, armor, and a wooden sword. While the sword wasn’t sharp, her wit by all accounts was, with perhaps the most famous example of this being that time she was reportedly criticised by a lady in waiting who complained that she didn’t like having a fool at her right side. Without missing a beat, Mathurine supposedly jumped to the lady’s other side and announced to the court: “I don’t mind it at all.” **Burn**

Mathurine also famously supposedly kept a would be assassin of Henry IV from escaping, as recounted in a 19th century edition of Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly where it states,

“Mathurine it was who arrested the youth who attempted to assassinate Henri IV, on the 28th of December. This youth, who had glided into the apartment unperceived, struck at the King with his dagger. “Devil take that fool with her tricks,” cried his Majesty… Mathurine sprang to the door, and barring the passage, prevented the escape of the King’s assailant.”

  • What happened to the Jesters?
    • Well the enlightenment happened.
    • Instead of keeping these entertainers in their house, nobelmen decided to fund the industry and go go plays.
  • The Jester is still around in an evolved form today.
    • From us Class Clowns that never went PRO
    • To the Joe Rogans, Shane Gillis’s, Tony Hinchcliffes of the world…
    • Instead of being a solitary position held by few, it is an industry… the headquarters of which is in the US of A! Hollywood! We Americans host the largest population of Jesters today.

CREDIT: