A town of fools is the base of a number of

joke cycle A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...

s found in various cultures. Jokes of these cycles poke fun at the stupidity of the inhabitants of a real or fictional populated place (village, town, region, etc.). In

English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Chris ...

the best known butt of jokes of this type are the

Wise Men of Gotham Wise Men of Gotham is the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, in allusion to an incident where they supposedly feigned idiocy to avoid a Royal visit. Legend The story goes that King John intended to travel ...

. A number of works of

satire Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

are set in a town of fools. The ''

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature The ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' is a six volume catalogue of motifs, granular elements of folklore, composed by American folklorist Stith Thompson (1932–1936, revised and expanded 1955–1958). Often referred to as Thompson's motif-inde ...

'' includes the motif J1703: "Town (country) of fools".

Archetypal fools by place of residence

hail from the village of

Gotham, Nottinghamshire Gotham ( ) is a village in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of about 1,600, measured at 1,563 in the 2011 census. It is in the borough of Rushcliffe, and has a parish council. The name Gotham comes from the Old English for "goat h ...

*German

Schildbürger The ''Schildbürger'' ("citizens of Schilda") are a topic in German chapbook tradition corresponding to the Wise Men of Gotham in English-language tradition. Background The "people of Schilda", of a German town of "Schilda" (fictitious – not the ...

residents of fictitious – not the actual town of

Schilda Schilda is a municipality in the Elbe-Elster district, in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. It is also the source of inspiration for Bach's Brandenburg concerto. History From 1815 to 1947, Schilda was part of the Prussian Province of Brandenbu ...

. Stories about them originated from a 1597 book ''Das Lalebuch'' about the residents of a fictional town of Laleburg *Greek residents of Abdera. The ''

Philogelos ''Philogelos'' ( grc, Φιλόγελως, "Love of Laughter") is the oldest existing collection of jokes. The collection is written in Ancient Greek, and the language used indicates that it may have been written in the fourth century AD, according ...

'', a Greek-language joke book compiled in the 4th century AD, has a chapter dedicated to jokes about dumb Abderans. **Example: An Abderan sees a

eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2n ...

talking to a woman and asks whether she is his wife. The Eunuch replies that he is not able to have a wife. The man persists: "Perhaps she is your daughter?" *Finnish residents of the fictional town of

Hymylä In Finnish folklore, Hymylä (variants: Himola, Huikkola, Hyvölä, Hytölä, Hämälä, Hölmölä) is a mysterious place for the banishment of a child who failed in a children's game, usually, the game of riddles. With a chant, e.g., "Hyys, hyy ...

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

Wise Men of Chelm The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States ove ...

Edward Portnoy
Wise Men of Chelm
''

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ''The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe'' is a two-volume, English-language reference work on the history and culture of Eastern Europe Jewry in this region, prepared by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and published by Yale Uni ...

'' *Danish Molbos (residents of

Mols Mols is a small Danish gathering of hilly peninsulas in the southern part of the larger peninsula of Djursland on the east coast of Jutland. The largest peninsulas of Mols comprise Skødshoved to the west, and Helgenæs to the east. Mols' ...

) famed for Molbo stories *

Kocourkov In Czech culture, Kocourkov is a fictional place, whose inhabitants are attributed with doing various stupid things, similar to stories about other towns of fools: (how they sowed salt, how they dragged a bull to the church roof to graze the gr ...

, fictional Czech village of fools *''Fünsinger'' from the

Fünsing Fünsing is a fictional German " village of fools". The 19th century ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' by Brothers Grimm defines the word Fünsinger as a silly person, a simpleton whose actions provoke laughter; Latin: ''baburnus'', '' stultus'' and compar ...

village of fools, known, e.g., from ''Schwanks'' by the 16-th century German poet and playwright

Hans Sachs Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German '' Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poet, playwright, and shoemaker. Biography Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the chur ...

Towns of fools in satire

Mendele Mocher Sforim Mendele Mocher Sforim ( yi, , he, מנדלי מוכר ספרים, also known as Moykher, Sfarim; lit. "Mendele the book peddler"; January 2, 1836, Kapyl – December 8, 1917 .S. Odessa), born Sholem Yankev Abramovich ( yi, , russian: Сол� ...

set some of his stories in a fictional town of Glupsk ("Foolstown", from Russian, ' глупец' for "fool").

Dan Miron Dan Miron ( he, דן מירון, born 1934) is an Israeli-born American literary critic and author. An expert on modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Miron is a Professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is currently the Leonar ...

suggestsMikhail Krutiko
BERDICHEV IN RUSSIAN-JEWISH LITERACY IMAGINATION:From Israel Aksenfeld to Friedrich Gorenshteyn
/ref> that its prototype may be found in a fictional town Ksalon, a Biblical name כְּסָלוֹן, Kesalon/Ksalon may allude to the Hebrew word ''kesil/ksil'' (כסיל), "fool",

David G. Roskies David G. Roskies ( Yiddish: דוד ראָסקיס; born 1948, Montreal) is an internationally recognized Canadian literary scholar, cultural historian and author in the field of Yiddish literature and the culture of Eastern European Jewry. He is t ...

, ''Against the Apocalypse. Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture'', 1999
p. 66
/ref> from his story ''Beseter ra'am'' ( he, בסתר רעם), a satirical description of life in a ''

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

'' in Russian Empire.

Hillel Halkin Hillel Halkin ( he, הלל הלקין; born 1939) is an American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist, who has lived in Israel since 1970. Biography Hillel Halkin was born in New York City two months before the outbr ...

gave his reasons why during his translation of ''Beseter ra'am'' he used the untranslated Hebrew name Ksalon instead of the "low hanging fruit" choice of "Foolsville".

, "Adventures in Translating Mendele" , *

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...

set a series of is satirical

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticis ...

s in a fictional town of ("Foolstown", from Russian, ' глупец' for "fool"), culminated in his novel ''

The History of a Town ''The History of a Town'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, История одного города, Istoriya odnogo goroda) is a 1870 novel by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. The plot presents the history of the town of Glupov (can be transl ...

''. *In

Isaac Mayer Dick Isaac Mayer DickAlso: ''Eisik Meir Dick'', ''Eisik Meier Dick'', ''Isaak Meir Dick'', ''Ayzik-Meyer Dik'', ''Isaak Mayer Dick'', etc (1807 – 24 January 1893) was a Russian Hebraist, Yiddishist, and novelist. Life Dick was born in Vilnius. Hi ...

1872 novel ''Di orkhim in Duratshesok/Duratshtshok'' (''Visitors in Durachok'') the "fool's town" is a fictional Russian town of Durachok, where the Russian word дурачок means "little fool". For some reason Dick decided to place Jewish simpletons in a Russian location.Ruth von Bernuth, ''How the Wise Men Got to Chelm: The Life and Times of a Yiddish Folk Tradition'' In the book Dick draws a comparison of Duratshesok with Chelm saying that Helm has a reputation of ''vilde harishkeyn'' (wild foolishness) and gives the examples thereof, which turn out to be retellings of Schildbürger stories and their imitations.

Notes

References

{{reflist Joke cycles *

Archetypal fools by place of residence

Towns of fools in satire

See also

Notes

References