---
contentType: annotation
title: Welcome to Cultureland — note 3
annotationTarget: /essays/welcome-to-cultureland#footnote-anchor-3
newsletterUrl: https://chaosmap.substack.com/p/welcome-to-cultureland#footnote-3
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image: /images/chaos-map-share.jpg
---

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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.

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