Bouffon

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Bouffon (Eng. "buffoon", "jester") is an art form which originally concerned the "ugly people" of France, during the French Renaissance. For perhaps the first time in their history, people in France then were beginning to care about their physical looks^{[citation needed]}. According to leading Bouffon teacher Philippe Gaulier, excessively-ugly people, lepers, prostitutes, heretics, the mad, and those with disfiguring scars or deformities were "banished to the swamp" socially. But a notable exception was made during festivals, when the bouffons were expected to entertain the "beautiful people": as, for example, in the famous scene of Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, in which the hunchback Quasimodo entertains the crowd.

During these performances, the bouffon's goal was often to mock the beautiful people as much as possible. The bouffon might target verbal attacks at the leaders of mainstream society, such as government notables or high officials of the Roman Catholic Church. They often used satire to entertain the crowds.

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