Why is a jester associated with a cone?  We find our answer in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Oedipus Tyrannus, in which Swellfoot says, "Sustain the cone of my untroubled brain, / That point, the emblem of a pointless nothing!" (I.i.).

Our illustration is from an advertisement c. 1872.

From Walt Mason: His Book, 1916.

The Latin phrase says that times change, and we change with them.  But the illustration reminds us that we can face backwards and might even gain an umbrella along the way.  This illustration encapsulates our Oddfellow approach to life.  We're reminded of a moment in childhood, when the family car was passing by a horrendously stinky paper manufacturing plant.  We suggested that everyone breathe through their mouths until we moved out of range of the stench.  Our kid brother — with all the wisdom of the eternal twelve-year-old — sneered derisively, announcing what was obvious to him, that we'd be inhaling the fumes either way.  We remained silent, too dumbfounded to communicate what was obvious to us, that just because one has to breathe it doesn't mean one can be forced to smell it.  So, too, in this illustration — just because the pony is charging ahead doesn't mean we can't look whichever way we choose and keep an eye out for an umbrella and medicine bag to make the journey more bearable.

From St. Nicholas, 1897.

Q: How is a jack-in-the-box like Norma Desmond?

A: They're both still big; it's the pictures that got small.

"Only clowns try to find suitable clothes. ... And they turn nonsense into a sacred rite. ... [E]ven Art often fails to do for us what a clown does.  Laughter and tears together. ... With his tragic clumsiness ... he lurches out over the reality that we have lost.  When he grasps for support he grasps at fantasies, and when he stumbles he falls out of the world altogether." —Ernst Kreuder, The Attic Pretenders

If you've ever wondered about the precise location of the funny bone, here it is.  From Otterbein College's yearbook The Sibyl, 1905.  The text reads, "Here's where we jab you."  (For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.)

It's only funny if the black cat laughs, from The Ottowan, 1914.

"Never shall I forget the repulsive sight that met my eye as I turned round."  From The Works of Charles Dickens, Household Edition.

An illustration from The Return of Peter Grimm, Novelised From the Play by David Belasco (1912).  The caption reads: "'Sleep well,' said Peter Grimm.  'I wish you the very pleasantest of dreams a boy could have in this world.'"

An illustration from Social England under the Regency by John Ashton (1890).  The caption reads: "A clown and a grasshopper."

His face had been white as a ghost for weeks, but no one had given it a second thought. From The Letters of Charles Dickens (1893).  The caption reads: "The dying clown."

The context here is that the matronly year 1866 is on her way out, with Father Time pulling her offstage like a kite as he pirouettes a segue; the new year 1867 enters downstage as a comely danseuse, ready to pas de deux with Punchinello.  But what caught our eye is the middle-ground action — two clowns maintain a tension/equilibrium (a precursor to Bosonic — er, Bozo-nic — string theory?).  One is bald and stout, the other bearded and gaunt, but they joke around (literally in circles) as a concerted comedic constant.  These clowns may be our favorite Yin/Yang symbol to date!

We think he is only half joking: an illustration from an 1855 issue of Punch magazine.

John Leech sketched this for a tale about a clown who had to crack jokes in a circus while his wife was in her dying agonies after fatally missing her footing on a leap from a standing position on horseback; the rip in the hoop is meant to suggest the initial letter I of the story.  From Cornhill magazine, 1864.

An illustration from a 1906 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "When I came back he was still staring at the water."

Pre-dating the hilarious comedy series "Childrens Hospital" [sic] about a clown doctor who heals through the power of laughter, here's an illustration from an 1891 issue of The Strand magazine.  The caption reads: "Bravo Slap-Bang!"

Pre-dating the hilarious comedy series "Childrens Hospital" [sic], about a clown doctor who heals through the power of laughter, here's an illustration from an 1891 issue of The Strand magazine.  The text reads: "'Doctor,' said the clown to the physician, 'do not be jealous, but it seems to me that my tomfooleries have done more good than your prescriptions.'"  The caption reads, 'Thank you, Slap-Bang."

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook: