Abstract
Tricksters are important characters in cultural development. Simultaneously culture heroes and stumbling buffoons, Tricksters bring cultural tools to the people and make the world more habitable. There are common themes in these figures that remain fruitful for the advancement of culture, theory, and critical praxis. This essay discusses Trickster's foundational scholarship as well as its analytical and generative applications in contemporary communication studies. Ambiguity and liminality are then presented as two interrelated aspects of Trickster's many possible subversive behaviors. A closing discussion of The Yes Men's innovative media hoaxes, documented in the film The Yes Men Fix the World, and communication scholar Thomas Frentz's autoethnography Trickster in Tweed connects ambiguity and liminality to the actual practice of making the world more habitable.