Stewart’s colleague Stephen Colbert ostensibly fulfilled the traditional court jester role with his mocking take on then-President George W. The key to Stewart’s Culture of Comedic Critique is that it is entirely dependent on the audience – the equivalent of a bumper sticker that says “Vote Republican, it’s easier than thinking.” Of course, you could just as easily substitute “Democrat” for Republican and it would objectively be just as funny, but it would be subjectively interpreted very differently depending on the audience. It was the precursor to the Internet’s emotional porn, where text accompanying videos not only tell you what to think, but also what you should feel. Stewart created the dominant form of contemporary comedy, or perhaps post-comedy–the baldly signaled social cue, followed by the required response. While Stewart wins praise for bashing both sides, his critiques of the Left mostly focus on them being “chickenshit” or politically incompetent, while Republicans are condemned because of who they are. This was then transferred to congressional Republicans during the Obama Era and finally transitioned into a generalized contempt for conservative Whites as a group. His basic technique was to play a clip of Bush saying something absurd (or sometimes simply out of context) and then to stare blankly at the audience, inviting them to share in the scornful laughter at their cultural foe. Bush years by channeling the Left’s vague sense of occupation under the hated Texas President. Stewart made his reputation during the George W. “Stewart” was the first of the breed, transmuting Craig Kilborn’s fratty, cynical approach on The Daily Show into the SWPL liberal smugness that anticipated clickbait culture. And the three most renowned jesters in the larger parody we call a country are Steven Colbert, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart Leibowtiz. He’s not really a court jester, but a court’s jester. The contemporary court jester comforts the comfortable, mocks the powerless, and reinforces the System that grants him privilege. Today, the court jester has reemerged, but his role has changed.

The court jester had the unique ability to speak truth to the Crown, stating the bald realities that the powerful would rather avoid. In the Bad Old Days of the monarchs who built Europe, there emerged the figure of the court jester.

The court jester torrent