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 The Choice Works of Thomas Hood, 1881.

This is identified by the Internet Archive as being from the 1776 proceedings of the general assembly of New Jersey, and we embrace it as a test of our agnosticism.  See for yourself: https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14595563708/

Here's some ostentatious charity from Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.  See our previous explanation of why both givers and takers of charity are debased.

"A winter nosegay," from The Choice Works of Thomas Hood, 1881.

From The Transformations (or Metamorphoses) of Insects, 1870.

From Blasts from The Ram's Horn, 1902.

"The clergyman making the experiment whether animals will drink intoxicating liquors," from Cobb's New Sequel to the Juvenile Readers by Lyman Cobb, 1852.

"It was not the echoes, said the goblin," from Gleanings from Popular Authors, 1895.