Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 26, 2012

Hey, dudes and dudettes! Old saying: “Much truth is spoken, or acted out, in jest.” Colbert is a throwback to the court jester of European medieval times, who could “get away” with “speaking truth to power”. The jester could confront the king, no matter how powerful, in a way nobody else could. Certainly not a powerful lord of a large castle who ruled many knights (aristocrats) and farms run by serfs (potential foot soldiers) who could, and sometimes did, organize enough other lords to rebel and fight his-and-their own king. They would CHALLENGE His Excellency, FIGHT him, and sometimes OVERTHROW him, USURP his throne and grab his lands, people (including wives and courtesans), castles, and other wealth (such gold, jewels, objets d’art, etc.). Afterward the victorious lord becomes the new king — the king is dead; long live the king! — “was obliged” to kill the king and ALL of the king’s descendants in order to head off a counter-challenge by, say, an overthrown king’s grown prince, or years later, by his growing-up prince.) The court jester could get away with SAME MESSAGE (such as, “Mene mene tekel upharsin”) as used by the upstart Lord, because the jester (having no power save the weapon of truth-against-power) manifested no economic / military threat, whereas the Lord (having great military and economic power) WAS a threat. The idea of this kind of clown/actor/jester goes back even further — to Hosea of the Hebrew Bible. Under God’s orders, Hosea marries a “ho” (short for wHOre) Gomer by name, in a “court jester” type of “street theatre”. Hosea represents the Lord and Gomer represents the supposedly “one God only” (monotheist) nation of Israel. In the “street theatre” plot, Hosea marries the ho Gomer (a good deal for her, since Hosea presumably was definitely NOT “all hat and no cattle”. True to her character, Gomer abandons her husband and their children and commits adultery on them. Under Jewish Halakha law Hosea has the right to have Gomer stoned to death. But under God’s countermanding order Hosea does not do so, does not follow God’s own Halakha law, but allows Hosea to SHOW MERCY to the adulterous Gomer, spare her life and remarry her. (She must have been a “looker”!) Message: Since Hosea reps God, and Gomer reps whoring-after-other-gods Israel, if God allows Gomer to return home and re-marry the ever-faithful Hosea, then the message obtains: If Israel will forsake its lovers (foreign gods) and return to the only-one-and-true God Yaweh, then God will not destroy the people of Israel. Message: Mercy! Grace! Abundant pardon! Of course, we know from ancient history, both sacred (Bible) and secular (archaeology) that Israel — both kingdoms, the northern one and the southern one, subjects under two dynasties — was destroyed, the northern kingdom by the Assyrians, and some years later the southern one by the Babylonians.  As a “jester” candidate speaking truth to power, Colbert stands in far better company than any of the candidates running in the GOP primary! And so obtains the old saying, “Much truth is spoken in jest” = “Much truth is spoken by jester”. Bottom line: Colbert may be the greatest “court jester” in our times in our nation. (Jon Stewart isn’t really a “court jester” type, since he doesn’t “act out” in that particular tradition. By contrast Garry Trudeau IS a “court jester” type, who “acts out” via his comic Doonsbury.)