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Expert contributors provide alphabetically arranged entries for some 60 fools and jesters ranging from Woody Allen, Lucille Ball, and the Marx Brothers to Falstaff, Hephaestus, and Loki.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Woody Allen: The Clown as Tragic Hero by Douglas Brode
The Anthropology of Fools by C. Todd White
Robert Armin by Edmund Miller
Archy Armstrong by Dana E. Aspinall
The Badin by Yvonne LeBlanc
Lucille Ball by Bruce Henderson
Jean Louis Barrault by Barry John Capella
Beckett's Postmodern Clowns: Vladimir (Didi), Estragon (Gogo), Pozzo, and Lucky by Donald Perret
Jack Benny by Janice Keller
Birbal by Karen Treanor
The Bishop of Fools by Simonette Cochis
George Burns and Gracie Allen: The Jewish Vaudeville Tradition by Marcia B. Littenberg
The Camp by C. Todd White
Canio-Pagliacco and Petrouchka by William D. West
Charlie Chaplin by Daniel Green
The American Circus Clown by Del Ivan Janik
Commedia ell'Arte by Angelica Forti-Lewis
Native American Coyote Trickster Tales and Cycles by Ellen Rosenberg
The Drag Queen by Carl Bryan Holmberg
Sir John Falstaff by Alan Lutkus
Feste by Neil Novelli
W.C. Fields by Carl Bryan Holmberg
Folly in "In the Praise of Folly" by Charles M. Kovich
The Fop: "Apes and Echoes of Men": Gentlemanly Ideals and the Restoration by Moira E. Casey
Gimpel by Alice R. Kaminsky
Joseph Grimaldi by Nancy J.D. Hazelton
Forrest Gump: Innocent Fool by James M. O'Brien
Hamlet by Malcolm A. Nelson
Hephaestus, Hermes, and Prometheus: Jesters to the Gods by Margery L. Brown
The Heyoka of the Sioux by Elizabeth Hoffman Nelson
Clowns of the Hopi by Elizabeth Hoffman Nelson
Ben Jonson by Elizabeth Quay Sullivan
Buster Keaton by Alan Lutkus
William Kemp by James P. Bednarz
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy: Yin and Yang by Douglas Brode
Lear's Fool by Alan Hager
Loki, the Norse Fool by Carl Bryan Holmberg
The Marx Brothers by Vicki K. Janik
Merry Report by Vicki K. Janik
Paul the Apostle by Mary A. Maleski
Penasar of Bali: Sacred Clowns by Ron Jenkins
Pierrot: Dramatic and Literary Mask by John D. Anderson
Platus's Clowns by Aaron W. Godfrey
Puck/Robin Goodfellow by Jonathan Gil Harris
Punch and Judy by F. Scott Regan and Bradford Clark
Francois Rabelais by William J. Kennedy
Martha Raye by Bruce Henderson
Rigoletto by Peter N. Chetta
Schlemiels and Schlimazels by Joel Shatzky
The Sleary Circus by Anthony Giffone
Socrates as Fool in Aristophanes and Plato by David Luljak
Will Sommers by Andrew Vogel Ettin
The Sottie, the Sots, and the Fols by Donald Perret
South African Political Clowning: Laughter and Resistance to Apartheid by Ron Jenkins
Country Squires and Bumpkins by Janet S. Wolf
The Three Stooges by Henry Sikorski
Taishu Engeki: Subverting the Patterns of Japanese Culture by Ron Jenkins
The Tarot Fool by David Conford
The Tarot Fool in English and American Novels by David Conford
Touchstone by Alan Lutkus
The Vice Figure in Middle English Morality Plays by David N. DeVries
The Vice in Henry Medwell's 'Nature' by David N. DeVries
Mae West by Marlene San Miguel Groner
The Yankee by Jack Hrkach
The Zanni by James Phillips
Selected General Bibliography
Index

About the Author

VICKI K. JANIK is Assistant Professor of English at the State University of New York at Farmingdale, where she teaches courses in Shakespeare, drama, comparative mythology, drama, and other topics.

Reviews

?[T]his books should become a classic and is indispensible for humor shelves in any library.?-International Journal of Humor

?By taking fools seriously and by recognizing their value in cultural criticism, the editor has performed a monumental service to the state of learning; fools point to the instability of language and the fallibility of reason, ' and they hold secrets of their societies. A must for all reader levels.?-Choice

?This work is highly recommended for its extensive coverage and a scholarly, yet readable analysis of who or what makes us laugh--and why.?-ARBA

"ÝT¨his books should become a classic and is indispensible for humor shelves in any library."-International Journal of Humor

"[T]his books should become a classic and is indispensible for humor shelves in any library."-International Journal of Humor

"This work is highly recommended for its extensive coverage and a scholarly, yet readable analysis of who or what makes us laugh--and why."-ARBA

"By taking fools seriously and by recognizing their value in cultural criticism, the editor has performed a monumental service to the state of learning; fools point to the instability of language and the fallibility of reason, ' and they hold secrets of their societies. A must for all reader levels."-Choice