This clip, of host Trevor Noah imploring the journalists in his audience at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend to understand their power and their obligation in democracy — to do better — rattled around the Internet this weekend, and for good reason: It’s a vital, urgent sentiment that is often forgotten by the day-to-day ridiculousness and piffle of modern media. It’s worth watching in its entirety, if you haven’t yet.

As important as Noah’s message is, I find myself drawn to the joke he makes in the middle, when he says that, in America, he can make fun of the President to his face, and “I’ll be fine.” He then turns to President Biden: “I’ll be fine, right?” It’s a great joke, and it’s also a reminder of just how different this administration is (and how every administration has been) from the last one. Former President Trump never attended a single White House Correspondents’ Dinner — which is totally fine, honestly one of the least objectionable things about him — but, more to the point, the idea of anyone (even his closest advisors, or his family members) ever making fun of him to his face, or even disagreeing with him, was unacceptable. No one was to mock the king.

But this is, of course, the opposite of how this is supposed to work — and at really anytime throughout history. As my colleague James Surowiecki has written, the court jester has played a key role in ruling classes since the dawn of organized governments. There has always been understanding that humor can both reveal inherent truths and make it easier for people to understand and process them. As Surowiecki wrote:

The figure of the jester, or the Fool, has existed in many cultures in many different eras, and though that figure has taken many different forms, one of its key characteristics is that jesters do not have to follow the same rules everyone else does, particularly when it comes to speech. They can say the things that others may be thinking but are too afraid to say, and can say them (usually) without fear of punishment. This is what defines the most famous jesters in Western culture, Shakespeare’s Fools, including Feste in Twelfth Night and the Fool in King Lear. In Lear, the Fool is the only character whom the old king allows to speak honestly to him, and he sees all the things about Lear that Lear refuses to see, or at least, admit about himself. And while Lear banishes his loyal servant Kent when Kent insists on telling him his treatment of his daughter Cordelia is wrong, Lear threatens his Fool with whipping only if he does not tell the truth. The jester who’s allowed to tell the rich and powerful what others will not is not just a creature of Shakespeare’s imagination, but was in fact a common figure at courts around the world.

What was key to jesters — or, in this case, comedians — is that they can point out larger truths in a humorous way that allows both leaders and the general public to digest them more easily. And — and this is Surowiecki’s key point — thus allow the leaders to more clearly see how they and their rulings are seen, and how they may adjust accordingly. That’s why the jokers are there: To say what needs to be said without direct, confrontational insult.

This is exactly what many of Noah’s jokes did. Some of the best ones:

• “Give it up for Kyrsten Sinema. Whoever thought we’d see the day in American politics when a senator could be openly bisexual, but closeted Republican? That’s progress.”
• “Even as first lady, Dr. Biden continued her teaching career. The first time a presidential spouse has done so, ever. Congratulations. Now, you might think it’s because she loves teaching so much, but it’s actually because she’s still paying off her student debt. I’m sorry about that, Jill. I guess you should’ve voted for Bernie.”
• [To Biden] “I think ever since you’ve come into office, things are really looking up. You know, gas is up, rent is up, food is up, everything.”
• “Fox News is sort of like a Waffle House. Yeah, it’s relatively normal in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down, there’s a drunk lady named Jeanine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in.”
• “Please be careful leaving tonight, we all know this administration doesn’t handle evacuations well.”

These are excellent jokes, but they also touch on larger truths, many of which are uncomfortable for those hearing them. But they, including Biden, still laughed. Because that’s what you do. That is what the purpose of humor is: To loosen up stuffed shirts, to poke overinflated balloons, to point out the absurdity that often disguises itself as regular, everyday life. And to have this done to you, to be mocked, to be unstuffed, as it were … it says something important about yourself that other people need to be able to know. It shows that you are flexible but confident: That you know who are and do not take yourself so seriously that you cannot stand for other people having different images of you that you yourself do. To be able to laugh at yourself does not mean you are weak. It means the opposite: It means you are strong.

It’s important. And it’s a welcome antidote to what we saw at the Oscars, which was a person so caught up in his own psychologies and dramas that he was unable to withstand even the lightest jabs from a jester, a person hired for that explicit purpose. The White House Correspondents Dinner is supposed to be a place for jesters, a place where the powerful can be roasted by the less powerful, whether it’s Stephen Colbert making fun of George W. Bush or Cecily Strong making fun of Obama or Trevor Noah making fun of Biden. Most famously, we saw how poorly Trump, before he was President, handled jokes from Obama and then-host Seth Meyers. To be able to take a joke is an aspirational human quality. We should want it from our leaders. We should even demands. Because we now see what happens when they can’t.

Will Leitch writes multiple pieces a week for Medium. Make sure to follow him right here. He lives in Athens, Georgia, with his family and is the author of five books, including the Edgar-nominated novel How Lucky, now out from Harper Books. He also writes a free weekly newsletter that you might enjoy.