In the Indigenous tradition there are a group of people called Heyoke (Souix) or Kokopelli (Southwestern Peoples) who have as part of their mythology the task of presenting themselves as backward or oppositional. In a small closed society they had the important task of calling those who were an ego problem back to the greater good and away from ego.
The Western tradtion has this mythology embodied in the Jester. In both traditions they did this through humor and very often satire. The object was not necessarily ridicule but to point the powerful towards more than their ego.
I've come across a group of people who are doing this same mission in the health care debate. When a Heyoke does his/her job well it's both funny and unsettling. I think this group meets the criteria, and I have nothing to add.
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