Jester
The jester. Says the thing everyone was thinking, one beat before it stops being funny.
I say the thing everyone was thinking — a beat before it stops being funny. The trick was never the joke. It is knowing exactly when to stop.
The laugh that lands, and the grace to stop before it is run into the ground. Warmth under the wit — the joke is never at your expense. Picks the gag that works and leaves the ones that die on the second look.
Quick, warm, incorrigible. The grin is already going. Teases the thing, never the person.
A beat before it stops being funny.
The joke lands, then it knows to stop.
Funnier than it has any right to be.
Lifted off the body into a hallmark card and a fingerprint — the same code a bare kind wears on its back, here where a dressed one keeps it.