Some people can’t take a joke, especially if the jokes stink

Umorismo operistico

April Fool’s week

RIGOLETTO HOPPED, SKIPPED, AND CARTWHEELED into the castle’s dressing room, ready to report to his first day amusing the Duke of Mantua. Even though he’d never appeared before the Duke, or any nobility (he’d trained as a dwarf clown at Il Patetico traveling circus), he’d kept his ear to the floor (which was easy for a dwarf) and picked up enough gossip about the court’s peccadilloes that he’d have them in stitches.

The dressing room was little more than a privy with an extra table for costumes and clothes, mainly because the Duke had told the head jester Ropodoppo that his jokes were shit, so he might as well have plenty of shit to work with. Best of all, today was April 1, April Fool’s Day, an auspicious day for his debut. In fact, he arrived prepared to prove to everyone, even his fellow jesters, he was the ascendant King of the Jest.

He wore the more traditional hat with the ears of an ass stitched to his cap, and a red and yellow patchwork tunic (red and yellow being the colors of the Duke’s herald) with bells for buttons. Ropodoppo and Rologetto sat on their wobbling stools, pulling on their leggings. Ropodoppo pointed at Rigoletto as he bounded through the door. “Look at lo stolto.¹ Dressed like…