19th century, Europe, primary source, quotes, Russia, Russian
A salient characteristic of the jester is the right to speak out, or in any case, freely.  Their licence to say whatever they feel like is widely acknowledged even if sometimes it was curtailed by an offended king or other bigwig in the moment. After the court jester...
historical figure, North America, quotes, research
From an excellent study of Pueblo Indian clowns in North America, this is a beautiful and limpid summary of the role of clowns, as apparently bestowed by the gods. In addition to healing through laughter, there is the fact of free access and free expression –...
Europe, Hebrew / Yiddish, lexicon
Badkhn (or badchen or badchan) refers to Jewish jesters whose role seems to encompass the fool spectrum from village to itinerant to court, including wedding entertainers. Amos Goldberg says they shared the court jester’s licence to mock and ‘mercilessly...
Americas, bibliography, book chapter, English, research, South America
Taubes’ paper brings to light fresh examples of Mayan figurines, including sketches that are easier to interpret than some of the original examples. It looks at the relatively cheap and popular medium of figurines, and some parallels between their subjects and...
21st century, English, primary source, quotes, research
What better way to launch foolsareeverywhere.com than scientific evidence of their central role on earth and beyond. NASA has cleverly realised that the skills of the fool are essential to prevent mayhem when cooping up a dozen astronauts for months on end in a...
