Jesting, Jesting, One, Two, Three

Here at Harvard, we are all too familiar with the Flatterer, the Opiner and even the Sinner. But recently a new subspecies has made its joculor appearance: the Jester. Or to bee more precise, the merry and roguish wearer of the Jester hat. In the past few months, the Jester hat has become the accessory to choice for the young and tragically fashionable, whether they find themselves on the ski slopes or in the Yard.

The hats come in a multitude of fabulous colors and are made mostly of zinchilla (fleece). They come with bells and sans bells. They are mysterious. Why do so many students wear them? Are jester hats just another style? Are they merely an attention-getting trend? Or does wearing them amount to making a subversive and socially rebellious political statement? In short, is there a subterranean Jester hat movement of international proportions?

Since the middle ages, the Jester hat has been a rollicking reminder of life's lighter side. Also known as the fool, the Jester was an often deformed or dwarfed comic entertainer whose idiocy, whether real or cleverly affected, provided amusement for exalted members of the medieval court. According to the Dictionary of the Middle Ages," the fool's cap consisted of a single "horn" or several (usually three) floppy peaks, each capped with bells, pom poms, bangles or tippets. The hat provided the Jester with the means to successfully complete his mission of insult, flattery, and buffoonery.

But time have changed, What in the Middle Ages represented only a subtle subversion could today be a full-fledged movement. As a disillusioned members of Generation X, FM has been wanting to join a movement for a long time. The jester hat movement could be the one FM has been waiting for! But how to join? First step--to infiltrate.

PLAN ONE: The quest for a Jest(er hat):

FM calls selected athletic stores in the Cambridge area and speaks with various sales representatives. A transcript of the conversation is recorded here.

First Attempt:

FM: Excuse me, but do you carry jester hats?

Anonymous Store-Owner: Jest-a-what?

FM: Jester hats.

ASO: Never heard to them. (Hangs up).

Second Attempt:

FM: Excuse me, but do you carry jester hats?

Friendly Sales Rep at Eastern Mountain Sports: We just ran out. We got a whole shipload at the beginning of the Christmas season, but now they're all gone.

FM: Interesting. Any insight as to why?

EMS: I'll tell you, it's funny, last year we got them in and very few people bought them. This year the hats came and went out the door immediately.

FM: Very, very interesting...Who buys them mostly?

FS: Let's see, if I was going to generalize, I would say it's mostly people ages 16-24--a lot of young beer-drinking men who think of it as a joke, and just do it for the hell of it. It's definitely a source of amusement as well as a form of childish regression. But also young kids buy them, especially the hats with bells, largely because they see them around and think it's cool and funky.

Dizzy with the radically democratic prospects of different groups purchasing jester hats--children and adults, boys and girls, Marxists and capitalists, beer-drinkers and Gatorade-consumers--FM cautiously but excitedly whispers: Do you think a jester-hat movement is afoot?

FS: What? ( Pause.) No. Thank you for calling EMS. Bye.

Next stop on FMs' search for the source of this puzzling fad: the Lampoon. FM consults with a former Lampoon editor. "Well, basically the Lampoon was founded by a bunch of Masons who believed in subverting the system. If you don't wear a three-tailed cap with bells, that can't be accomplished. So, yes, they are worn in the Lampoon." But the editor does not know where the sacred store of jester hats are kept in the Auburn St. castle. "Hell no, I can't even find the bathroom when I'm in there."

Ever-persistent, FM calls the fearless Lampoon leader himself, club president John Abound III '95. "Well, we do make jester hats....The vast octopus which is Lampoon merchandising department has distributed jester hats to our subsidiaries, although we are not selling them to the general public."

But is the Lampoon openly seeking to proselytize and gain Jester hat converts? "Look, although in one sense the Lampoon is the hotbed of Jester hat ideology, if you want to know the truth, Jester hats are a big practical joke," insists Abound. "There is nothing cool about a Jester hat. I mean, the Jester has gotten a lot of good press, but basically they were a bunch of physically deformed imbeciles. We're going to make money out of it along the way, but the Lampoon is horrified and ashamed at any such movement."

But not even the vast octopus which is the Lampoon can dissuade FM now.

PLAN TWO: The Friend with the Jester hat. FM approaches such friends.

FM: Do you ever wear your Jester Hat?

Friend: No, I don't, just keep it on top of my computer, where things often get too serious. So I use it to lighten up the mood.

FM: I see. Do you think a Jester hat movement is afoot?

Friend: Hardly, it's more a throwback to the dungeons and dragons phenomena. The people who wear them are the same kind of people who get aroused about Renaissance and medieval festivals.

FM (Realizing the extent of the friend's ignorance and with ulterior motives in mind): Well, since you're not wearing it, could I borrow it?

Friend: Sure.

PLAN THREE: To Find a Kindred Spirit Jester Hat Wearer.

Wearing the hat, FM cautiously approaches one Jester hat wearer in Harvard Square and attempts to make the sign of affinity.

FM: Greetings fellow Jester hat wearer.

Fellow Jester hat wearer: Hey. (Nods suspiciously, probably mistak- ing FM for another one of those freaks in theSquare.)

FM (proudly): I have my reasons, but I'm moreinterested in yours. Why are you wearing that hat?

FJHM: Well to tell you the truth, I have a goodfriend at the University of New Hampshire who madeit for me. He gets bags and bags of fleece andmakes all kinds of crazy hats. Last time, he mademe a cat-in-the-hat hat. But this is the one Iwear all the time.

FM: How come?

FJHW: Because it allows me to express myself ina silly way. I hike a lot and it's great to haveit on as a sort of fun reminder. I see theseJester hats a lot on the ski slope, where I thinkI think it also important for people to expresstheir creativity outdoors.

FM: How I can become part of the movement?

FJHW: What movement?

FM: The movement.

Awkward silence.

FJHW: Look, if you think this is some sort ofpolitical statement or movement thing, you're justwrong. It's a way to be creative, silly a littlerambounctious and to get attention.

No orchestrated movement to join? No colossaljester crusade afoot? It just can't be true.Walking down JFK St., FM confronts another Jesterhat wearer, one wearing a hat that hangs down pasthis mid-section:

FM: Fellow Jester hat wearer, why do you wearthe hat?

Ominous Silence.

FJHW #2: Look, if you really want to know, Iwear it to compensate for my own personalinadequacies. Inadequacies which I cannot name,express or even understand.

FM is devastated. No movement seems to beafoot, no spiritually uplifting subversivecrusade is under way, no ingrained culturalconventions arwe being over-turned. A possibility,however, remains--perhaps FM has been talking onlyto ignorant and benighted pawns.

In desperation, FM turns to Harvard'smaster-hat-maker-in-residence, Dave Blumenthal'94. "No, it's not political and it's not amovement. If you want to make some sort ofstatement through clothing, the jester hat isbasically the sillest and most extreme hat you canwear. Also, I suspect that the fleecy material ofthese Jester hats, suggests that the jester hatemergence is an outgrowth of the grunge, style aswell as a manifestation of the increasing interestin outdoor related sports."

Dejected, FM runs into Matt Boyle `94, owner ofa Jester-like hat with one long tail and no bells.FM explains the follies and disappointments of theday. Nodding sympathetically, Matt has thisexplanation to offer: "You see it's like this.Everybody has a certain life force within--call itchi. Well, two weeks back I read in FM that we'renow all wearing shoulder satchles. That means thatwe now have one free shoulder, and thus lessstraps on our life force. It's the same thing withthe Jester hat. The extra space in the floppytails of that hat also give more room at the innerlife force. As a result, these hat wearers nowhave a much more liberated life force. It's a newkind of synergy. It's physics. No, it's more thanphysics. It's a defiance of physics!"

A thumbing of the nose at the nose of the lawsof the universe, perhaps. But the truth is ugly,the reality nasty, brutish and short: there is noorchestrated Jester hat movement afoot, nosalvation for the downtrodden. As the highpriestess of hip fashion, the Style section of TheNew York Times, out it last week: "Hats havebecome a tease, a joke, a flamboyant gesture, anirreverent comment--an aside from straight up anddown fashions in clothing. Hats do not correspondwith wardrobes but with the spirit of thewearer....A surreal hat is just a quizzicalcommentary on the world--a mental shrugging of theshoulders."

One spirited wearer, Diana Gibson `96, who ownsa blue and pink Jester hat, says her hat serves auseful purpose in her daily ritual. "The bellsanoy the people on the shuttle bus in the morning," she says.

Alas, the wide array of reasons for whystudents don Jester hats can mean one thing andone thing only: there is no Jester hat conspiracy.For now, at least, it seems Jest is just hip