[Artemisia] Heckling from the peanut gallery

[tangl]

 Hello y'all! Constance has made a comment regarding what is effectively heckling, and, as a consistant court heckler, I thought I'd step up to the woodshed and take my licks. I personally can vouch that I don't heckle because I am trying to offend or belittle people and their achievements during court. I do it because, here in Artemisia, we are laid back enough to allow laughter in our courts. Anyone who attended my own Pelican ceremony can vouch for the fact that I prefer some levity, but that, when need be, I can be serious and even, I dare say in a fit of arrogance, almost elegant. I behave that way because otherwise, I fear people might get *too* serious about this game and start thinking it is something not to be laughed at. When that happens, the SCA becomes something to be endured, not enjoyed. I lived in a place where levity in court was not tolerated. You sat there, in your spot, and dealt with the fact you couldn't hear court unless you were in the two front rows. Jokes were only for the royalty to hear and laugh at. If someone started to say something too loudly, so that more than the royals would be in on the jest, it seemed as though they were shushed, and told to lower their voices, because they often did do just that. I personally love our courts here. I love the fact that Her Majesty covered the tripping stair at Coronation with humor, taking the tumble upon Herself as being done to entertain Her. I love that Queen Alayna was so caught off guard during the ceremony where I was invested as Golden Wing Herald, she demanded, "What is down your shirt!?" I love Alan leaning over to me when he was on the Crown Prince's throne and I was in the front row of the audience, and telling me the joke about the frog. I love that we can have people laugh and smile and entertain, even though we are dressed in our finest velvets. There is a story out there about the Ragabash, the jester of a sept, which is expected and required to test the laws of the sept by pushing the envelope, playing pranks and bending or breaking the rules. Their place is to do this, in order to see if the laws are valid and still worthy of being laws. I see these hecklers as being those Ragabash, making jests so we never take ourselves too seriously. When it comes down to it, half the men are sitting there in dresses and tights, and when you bother to think about that, it takes the edge off the more self-important pompous folks. We're a bit silly, and I don't think it a bad thing to point that out, even during court. I would refrain from doing it while people are taking Oaths of Fealty, or going through the actual ceremony of a peerage or investiture. However, during the other bits of court, it seems to be a fun idea. Tangljester

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