Jestope

Jes-to-pe

noun

Definition: A hopeful attitude that things will work out, which does not shy away from looking at difficult or even extremely difficult circumstances or realities. A belief that comedy is a way that we can examine the difficult realities of our world. Jestope is informed by the alternative history of the jester as someone whose real roll it was to speak truth to power under the protective guise of jest or humor.

While jestope is a very useful, and often underused, tool or emotion, when taken too far it reaches into the utopian or dystopian side of its meaning.

Usage: He held a jestopic belief that our species would make it off the planet, and an equally jestopian awareness that it would be only a handful of us that would.

Origin: Jack Sullivan, Santa Barbara Field Studies, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, 2016

Jest (Old Engilsh)  + Hope (Gemanic)  + Utopian (Greek) Originally meaning “not place”.