Five guys named Moe (VII) – Verbeeck fool
The last in this series of paintings (for now, I keep stumbling across new ones) bears a striking resemblance to our mysterious Moe No. 4. This...
Five guys named Moe (VI) – Vogtherr fool
The latest in our series of fools peeping through their fingers, this one is a woodcut by Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger (1513-68), dated to around...
Humour and survival (II) – Odessa
Humour can help people cope and even survive. As the cartoonist Chappatte put it, it helps us digest the horror of the world, and breathe a little...
Humour and survival (I) – Kyiv
We know from Rubinstein, who mocked and cavorted in the Warsaw Ghetto, that jesters and humour can play a role in even extreme and violent...
Five guys named Moe (V) – Laughing fool
Another version of the peeping-through-fingers theme, this one closely resembling the second in our series, which we'll call the Wellesley fool. It...
Bad behaviour
Antonio da Trento, known as Nanino (Little Dwarf), belonged to the court of the Marquis of Mantua. There is a letter written in dialect in 1495 from...
Not deeply philosophical
The jester Guo Sheren 郭舍人is often paired with Dongfang Shuo, coming off worst in riddle-battles. Here, Sima Qian 司馬遷 tells us that this favourite...
Five guys named Moe (IV) – Laughing fool or jester
The peeking through fingers stance is enigmatic, this we know. This version of it, apparently a pretty straightforward twin of the second in our...
Defying predictions
Tenali Rama is one of the great legendary jesters of India, and stories about his exposing corruption, lies and nonsense abound. He even exposed...
How dare a jester criticize?
They do dare, it's one of their quiddities. Even when it's a serving or former Prime Minister or similar. Again, a jester criticizes a powerful...
Five guys named Moe (III) – Jester looking through his fingers
This version of the 'peeping through fingers' jester was attributed by Tietze-Conrat in her 1957 book to the artist Pieter Huys (c. 1519-81),...
Wise guys play the fool
As the jester Giraff says in Victor Hugo's play about Cromwell (1827), the jester can always save his skin, and in order to reach old age in a world...
Mock you may not
At a banquet given during the Taihe reign period (827-35) of Emperor Tang Wenzong 唐文宗 (r. 827-40), a jester mocked Confucius in a variety show...
Five guys named Moe (II) – Laughing Fool
The second in our peeping-through-fingers series is almost identical in stance and props to the anonymous 'Laughing Jester' recently featured,...
No fooling – why we still need fools
I was struck by this comment of Robert Reich regarding high level, low quality decision making ('blunders') among the powerful. Reich spots a common...
Hide the fool till tempers cool
Occasionally a jester hit a raw nerve in their mockery and would then go into hiding until the royal wrath cooled. In this case, Sexton, a jester...
In praise of folly
Today's the day you can be sureYou can't avoid and shouldn't ignore,The day that we can all affordto lark about and at last accordOurselves the time...
Five guys named Moe (I) – Laughing Jester
The 'Laughing Jester' by an unknown Dutch artist is generally dated to around 1520. This work, which is the front cover illustration of the Fools...
Damask for the fool
In Europe, court account books are a mine of information concerning payments, in cash and kind, made to jesters. This gives us some insight into...
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