The Royal Joke

On the eve of a wondrous evening, packed with fire twirlers, acrobats, and all the food one could stuff down their mouth there was a call from a mighty King for some laughter. “Bring in the Jester!” the King ordered. You see, everyone was celebrating because on this night the king’s daughter was married off to an ally. A prince was granted the hand of this king’s daughter for not only alliance but servitude to the king and his ever-growing kingdom.

Since his days as the prince, our mighty king dreamed of expanding his lands, his riches, and his legacy! Gifted with three beautiful daughters and two brave son’s the king maneuvered his kingdom into more power over the years. Mighty conquests with his sons and ever needed alliances provided by the hands of his daughters. Now, I know you must be thinking, this king seems a bit full of himself but on the contrary while he indeed enjoyed the fruits of his labor his goal was always to grow in power and pleasures for his family and their benefit when he was gone; but that didn’t stop his ego from getting the best of him from time to time, which is where we are on this night.

As the jester approached, through the crowds of royals and the beauty of the kingdom's largest and most grand ballroom he set his sights on the bride. “Why, what a lovely palace we have here tonight”, the jester started taking the princess's hand with a bow, “almost as beautiful as the groom, oh I mean the BRIDE!” The crowd erupted in laughter and the princess quaintly slapped the jester on the shoulder. “And what do we have here?” The jester continued his way down the royal line, now to eldest of the son’s. With a bow he says, “Now this is a royal specimen! I think you could take the old man now, let’s start a mutiny!” Again, the crowd laughs and the son smiles and pumps his biceps toward his father, almost to say; I’m coming for you father. On his last stop the jester bows, this time out of respect, on his knees and lowers his head to the floor in front of the mighty king and queen. Without moving, he simply pops his head up, looking at the queen and says, “Oh my, the king sure has a lot of riches, is he overcompensating or what?” The crowd barrels into the mightiest laughter of the night and the queen simply covers her smile and looks at her husband, who is not laughing. Once the crowd notices the king’s displeasure with the jester’s joke, a chilling silence fills the room. After a moment of the king simply staring at the jester, he erupts into laughter and pulls the man off his knees and into a bearhug.

“Do not worry, I may have you killed one day but not today! Life is not that serious my friend, I can always take a good joke!” With that, the crowd went back to laughing and dancing the night away as the jester became the hit of the ball. It is important to note that this could have gone badly for the jester, so there are two lessons here. One, life is not that serious. We all live and will all die someday, so try not to take it so seriously. The second thing? Know your audience because not everyone has learned the first lesson yet!