The Blessings of Having a Court Jester

Like many folks around the nation today, I cannot stop thinking about Stephen Colbert’s recent attack against President Trump. On May Day, Colbert went postal on POTUS during his monologue; real ad hominem stuff. Colbert concluded what amounted to a two-minute rant by saying, “You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head,” then, keeping with the theme of language and how Trump speaks (he doesn’t sign; he uses his mouth), Colbert concluded, “In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.” Ugh.

As expected, a bunch of folks called for Colbert’s firing. Fughetaboutit. Rachel Maddow will praise Trump before that happens. There was also an uproar about Colbert being homophobic. Blah, blah, blah. Colbert is a comedian. A comedian can say whatever he wants to say, then come back—if stuff hits the fan in a bad way—and lament, “I was only kidding…” It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card. Had Al Franken (D-Minn) said the same things Colbert did, he’d have been censured. Yes, the former Stuart Smalley, SNL’s self-help guru, could have called Trump anything back in the day, but now that he’s given up his comedian license he’s compelled to have gravitas ooze from every pore of his body. Colbert won't apologize, he said with gravitas, but he'll choose his words more carefully in the future. There; done: he's playing by the rules. Now he can go back to being an unbridled anti-Conservative.

Believe it or not, I’m all in favor of what Colbert did, but with an asterisk. I think Trump—make that every executive—needs someone to “speak his mind” without fear of retribution. "Cock holster" is a dumb thing to say about Trump—never mind disrespectful of the man's office—given his history of bedding beautiful women. But what about the line that led into that scandalous sniper-shot? Could POTUS benefit from a speech coach? Should he be taken to task for rambling, free-associating, and meandering off-point? Yes and yes! And while we’re at it, cancel the man’s Twitter account.

This is where a type of comedian—okay, a third cousin of a comedian—is a blessing to every executive: I’m talking about a Court Jester (or Fool), but not the type that was prevalent in the Renaissance era: a staff member in the households of noblemen, hired to entertain with storytelling, jokes, juggling and magic tricks. Executives should hire the type of jester Shakespeare gave King Lear, a confidant used to tell the king what he saw as the truth, which he was licensed—hell, mandated—to do.

In fact, as part of his role the jester would constructively mock the monarch. Rather than Colbert’s, “You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head,” a skilled jester might allow, “Me thinks the king confuses the court with verbiage gone verklempt.”

Why should every executive have a Jester? If you’ve got the stuff to get to the top of an organizational hierarchy, don’t you have the wherewithal to self-correct? And why a Fool? Why not some august senior advisor who’s been there; done that?

First, no statesman will get in POTUS’ face and say, “You sound like a blithering idiot.” When you get to the top, you are denied the honest feedback (by those in the system) that you got as a neophyte. Some kid in your organization with massive potential but a speaking style that is off-putting would be sent to a speech coach with zero hesitation. Not successful executives who are surrounded by sycophants sporting CYA tattoos on their deltoids. A Court Jester, hired to speak the truth, is indispensable, particularly in today’s world where “truth” is harder to find than African Americans who register to vote as Republicans.

If you just got ticked-off at me being “racist,” I’m not a comedian; I wasn’t “kidding,” but I did make the analogy I just did, above, to make a point. Rather, to share a point made by conservative (genius) columnist George F. Will who, on 10/1/2012, wrote the following about the presidential race between Obama and Romney in his Washington Post column:

Obama’s administration is in shambles, yet he is prospering politically. This may not, however, entirely be evidence of the irrationality of the electorate. Something more benign may be at work.

A significant date in the nation’s civil rights progress involved an African American baseball player named Robinson, but not Jackie. The date was Oct. 3, 1974, when Frank Robinson, one the greatest players in history, was hired by the Cleveland Indians as the major leagues’ first black manager. But an even more important milestone of progress occurred June 19, 1977, when the Indians fired him. That was colorblind equality.

Managers get fired all the time. The fact that the Indians felt free to fire Robinson—who went on to have a distinguished career managing four other teams—showed that another racial barrier had fallen: Henceforth, African Americans, too, could enjoy the God-given right to be scapegoats for impatient team owners or incompetent team executives.

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Like him or loathe him, Will spoke the truth about Frank Robinson’s firing. He also spoke the truth about President Obama, but when he did he was labeled a “racist.” Obama was President; presidents get critiqued. Not like Colbert critiqued Trump, we hope, but as Will and others critiqued Obama. Someone should have told MSNBC (and others of their ilk) that you do not have to be a racist to object to things that Obama did that seem, to you, to miss the mark. That’s what Jesters do 24/7/365, and in so doing do the Lord’s work. Everyone in an executive role needs that sort of feedback from someone you cannot dismiss as racist or otherwise malign.