I don’t love pranks. I’ve never been a fan of April Fools’ Day, even as a little kid. Pranks always seem to me like they’re designed to pointlessly humiliate the other person so that everyone else can laugh at them.
Life is hard enough without purposefully making it harder for someone else when they’ve done nothing to deserve it.
So when I hear the phrase April Fools’ Day, I cringe.
But there’s another definition of “fool” that I prefer. Back in the olden days of yore and lore, kings kept fools in their entourage. These fools, also called jesters, were charged with entertaining the king and his royal guests, kind of like on-demand comedy shows, but without the Netflix subscription.
These jesters, or fools, were more than just comedians. They were often the only person in the king’s orbit who was not only encouraged to entertain, but they were allowed to speak openly about subjects other people would have been beheaded for.
Much like our political comedians these days, they poked fun at policies, politics, the audience, and even the king himself and his predilections. Fools got away with pointing out the ridiculous nature of palace events, national debacles, and the questionable things the king might say or do. And the king laughed and paid their fool to keep doing it.
Those fools were tasked with speaking truth to power.
In many of his plays, Shakespeare made frequent use of fools to show the counterpoint to a king’s beliefs or actions, and to point out the realities that the audience could see, but which those in power often miss. And he made it funny so we’d listen and the king wouldn’t kill them.
Modern political satirists and comedians owe much to Shakespeare and to his portrayal of the fools of the past. Fools were listened to back then, and we listen to them still. Often, our late-night hosts seem like the only people brave enough to speak truth to power. By making their points in a funny way, the rest of the world pauses to listen.
So for me, I’m changing my personal view of April Fool’s Day from a day to humiliate someone else with a meaningless but hurtful prank into a day to celebrate those humorists among us courageous enough to speak truth to power, and to make us laugh while they’re doing it. Netflix, here I come.
Happy April Fools’ Day to all of you fools out there. We need you. We see you. We thank you.
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