trickster

Mr. Gill looks back at that 1992 interview and others and realizes that the Jeff Beck he thought he knew is a mystery, a self-contradicting trickster with a tendency to be witty and evasive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

The work in question is a "maqāma" -- an Arabic literary form that often features a wandering "trickster."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025

A trickster genius with a mean moral code, Moretti turns out to be the music world’s Willy Wonka, complete with a mysterious throng of live-in devotees carrying out his revenge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025

Crudup plays 19 characters in the 80-minute performance, taking on the roles of everyone the titular confidence trickster comes into contact with.

From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2024

But I cry now—for the first time in years—in the underground corridor of the Ghanaian underworld, all while the ancestral spirit of my grandmother protects me from a trickster god.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

"Ravens have fascinated people forever," Marzluff said, noting the birds have been considered everything from "creators and tricksters" to "opportunistic pests."

From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026

And they told stories about characters like Br’er Rabbit and Anansi, tricksters who provided models for overcoming powerful oppressors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

Not exercising responsibility for safeguarding the property of the evacuees allowed “an interval of golden opportunity to swindlers and tricksters who had a terrified group of people at their mercy,” according to the apology.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025

But although screening at publishers is helpful, the arms race between screening methods and tricksters means it is unlikely to stem the tide of problematic papers entirely.

From Science Magazine ● May 31, 2024

What kind of tricksters invited accusers to examine them up close?

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock