Culture / Our Court Jesters Are Disappearing Just When We Need Them Most In this authoritarian moment, we need defiant comedy more than ever. During an interview on the eponymously named Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, comedian Zach Galifianakis took note of the jester’s disappearance. “All the podcasters that have had the president on now—they don’t do their court jester,” Galfianakis said. That is not the job of the court jester. This is the historical role of the court jester: to say what no other member of the royal court would be permitted to without fear of losing their head.