This is a jest to end all jests! Everyone look in the mirror now and
. My 9th grader just studied Hamlet, and he would have nailed this Iorek/Yorick joke in a NY minute. But it took me a long enough to catch onto the homonymal haha. Here's a taste of Act 4:
KING: I want to hear you speak of Yorick.
HAMLET: What would you have me say?
KING: The truth, or howso it came to pass You two grew closer than you and I.
HAMLET: Every time we speak, we laugh.
KING: It takes more than laughter to rule a kingdom.
HAMLET: He teaches me so many things.
KING: Such as? Please, explain. Give me an example.
HAMLET: About the women of the world.
KING: You are too young to receive those speeches.
HAMLET: No, he told me very little.
KING: There's danger even in a few words.
HAMLET: But what he said, I understood.
KING: He spoke of love, he did?
HAMLET: And other things.
KING: What else? What made him special in your eyes?
HAMLET: He is full of surprise, always ready with a handful of tricks.
KING: A sideshow, you mean.
HAMLET: Magic!
KING: A king rules with laws and wars, not sorcery and dragons.
HAMLET: He knows so much.
KING: There is good knowledge and there is useless knowledge.
HAMLET: He's loyal, too.
KING: Loyalty is important. However, do not expect it, especially from those professing to be loyal.
HAMLET: He's honest.
KING: Honesty is a deadly virtue. Truth to the wrongful ear's tragedy.
HAMLET: Can I go back to sleep now?
KING: One last question, the very last one. If there were one thing--one thing you would say Yorick is to you--a summary of all you've said, what would you say? Answer this carefully.
{Hamlet yawns, scratches his head.}
HAMLET: Yorick is like a father to me.
KING: You may go back to sleep now, Hamlet. That is all.
{Hamlet turns and goes back to sleep. The King stands, pauses before speaking.}
KING [aside]: There, the bloody word, and there the fate,
A fear most feared, now quickly laid to rest.
Yorick fails my final test, and must,
As my final order of thoughts beseech my will,
Be gone, not for a day but for good.
There the fate, and here my final words:
Yorick must die.
{Exit the King.} by Willie the Shake.
You may go back to sleep now, Hamlet. Yorick must die!
A good joke is a good joke, even if it's on us.