“An unemployed jester is nobody’s fool” is a jocular saying that has been printed on many images.
 
American actor, singer, dancer and comedian Danny Kaye (1911-1987) sang in the movie The Court Jester (1955):
   
“A jester unemployed is nobody’s fool!”
 
However, the movie was released in Japan on December 24, 1955, and in the United States on January 27, 1956. “An unemployed jester is nobody’s fool.—Wellington News” was printed in the Parsons (KS) Sun on October 15, 1955.
     
   
Wikipedia: The Court Jester
The Court Jester is a 1955 musical-comedy, medieval romance, costume drama film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury and Cecil Parker.
 
The movie was written, produced, and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama for Paramount Pictures. It was released in Technicolor and the VistaVision widescreen format.
     
IMDb (The Internet Movie Database)
The Court Jester (1955)
Quotes
Hawkins: I was battered and bruised, but the king was amused / and before the siesta, he made me his jester / and I found out soon, that to be a buffoon / was a serious thing as a rule! / For a jester’s chief employment, is to kill himself for your enjoyment / and a jester unemployed is nobody’s fool!
 
YouTube
Danny Kaye The Court Jester 1955 The Maladjusted Jester
Mar 12, 2014
laserme
(Spoken at about the 6:00 minute mark.—ed.)
     
Newspapers.com
15 October 1955, Parsons (KS) Sun, “Kansas Clip,” pg. 6, col. 1:
An unemployed jester is nobody’s fool.—Wellington News.
       
Twitter
Sandra Cormier Turnsek
@Chumplet
“A jester unemployed is nobody’s fool.” - Danny Kaye -This takes me back to my childhood watching Sunday afternoon movies on TV
5:34 PM · Sep 26, 2009·Twitter Web Client
 
Google Books
Our Lady of Greenwich Village:
A Novel of Church, State, Politics, and Kindred Spirits
By Dermot McEvoy
Pg. ?:
Often he threw out curious asides such as “An unemployed jester is nobody’s fool” and “Did you know that Cy Young never won a Cy Young Award?” to the bafflement of his customers.
 
Reddit—Showerthoughts
Posted by u/SpanishDancer March 17, 2016
An unemployed jester is nobody’s fool.
 
Reddit—Showerthoughts
Posted by u/Wowiejr September 12, 2019
An unemployed Jester is nobody’s fool
 
Twitter
Bob Kostic
@causticbob
An unemployed Jester is nobody’s fool!
6:36 PM · Oct 22, 2021·Twitter Web App