The court jester was employed to say what the king needed to hear and would not otherwise be told — which made the jester, in practice, the most powerful honest voice in the palace. Comedy, at its best, still does this: saying the true thing in the only container the listener can receive without throwing it back. Nasreddin's most ridiculous stories are his most honest ones; the absurdity is the door, not the room.
Each step builds on the last.