Jester's Privilege

About

Jester's Privilege is a slang term describing the right of a court jester to joke about or mock any given subject without fear of punishment by the law. One of the court jester's primary duties is to mock the king and members of the royal court, with jester's privilege allowing this. Throughout the 2020s, the term became increasingly popular in memes, often portrayed as a tongue-in-cheek excuse for inappropriate comedic behavior.

Origin

While the exact origins of the term "Jester's Privilege" are unclear, one early source to use the term is the 1996 book "Ethical Consensus and the Truth of Laughter" by Hub Zwart, in which there is a chapter titled "The Court Jester's Privilege" that discusses the idea.^[1]

On December 1st, 2021, iFunny^[2] user Gundam posted a screenshot of the "Jester's Privilege" section of Wikipedia's article on jesters, adding the caption, "New legal defense just dropped," garnering around 40 smiles in three years (shown below). This is the earliest known meme to reference the term.

Spread

On February 16th, 2022, X^[3] user @anniebriated shared the same Wikipedia screenshot, writing, "it’s time I recognize my privilege," garnering over 38,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). It was shared by iFunny^[4] user PunishedMajorLee that same day, garnering over 2,000 smiles. On August 24th, X^[5] user @halomancer1 posted a photoshop of Kieran Culkin from Succession holding the Wikipedia clipping, writing, "he has jester's privilege in my mind," garnering over 1,500 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

In October 2022, a maladaptive pattern meme began spreading with the Wikipedia clipping for "Jester's Privilege" attached. For example, on October 24th, a version of the meme was posted to /r/Deltarune^[6] that gained over 1,900 upvotes in two years. On November 24th, iFunny^[7] user Ruka posted a version that gained over 13,000 smiles in the same span of time (shown below).

On March 13th, 2023, Tumblr^[8] user isawken posted a meme making reference to the importance of jester's privilege during the medieval ages, garnering over 90,000 notes in a year (shown below, left). It was reposted on May 1st by Redditor u/FelixAscends to /r/tumblr,^[9] garnering over 11,400 upvotes in nine months.

On October 28th, Instagram^[10] user jq3b94 posted an image macro using the term, which was reposted by Instagram^[11] usersatoshi__nakamoto on November 8th, garnering over 9,000 likes in three months (shown below, right).

On February 13th, 2024, X^[12] user @sheylasometimes posted the screenshot of the Wikipedia page, writing, "I have this," garnering over 68,000 likes in 10 days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References