BUFÓN - JESTER: A WORD REVIVED

 

Words of old can be revived and gain new currency today. The jester—once a fixture in royal courts, employed to entertain with wit and antics—has returned. Among history’s most famous jesters, Diego Velázquez immortalized El bufón Calabacillas, Don Sebastián de Morra, in portraiture, while Poland’s Stańczyk entertained three kings with his sharp humor.

Jester, joker, fool, clown, court jester, and buffoon—these terms, akin to the Spanish bufón ("a comic figure tasked with amusing kings and courtiers through jests and gestures")—resonate once more. Today, in Washington, D.C., the role has been revived, along with the word itself. The modern “court jester” is no longer merely a figure of amusement but often a sycophant, a flatterer whose primary function is to keep the powerful appeased through obsequious praise.

In Mr. Musk, President Trump has seemingly resurrected not only an old profession but also its attendant implications.