A “roast” of a celebrity, boss, or the U.S. President during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a contemporary version of a court jester’s role to check power by humorously inverting an influential person into the butt of a joke. I think this is at least partly an instinctive social test for despots — if the King kills the Jester, so to speak, that’s a powerful signal that they can’t be trusted. If someone can’t take a joke, that’s an equally good sign not to work for them.