David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest takes its title from a line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The phrase appears in Act V, Scene I, during the famous graveyard scene when Hamlet holds the skull of Yorick, the court jester he once knew. Reflecting on mortality, Hamlet says that Yorick was "a fellow of infinite jest." The line is rich with irony—Yorick, once full of life and humor, is now reduced to a silent skull. Wallace's title echoes this meditation on mortality, madness, and the search for meaning—core themes in both Hamlet and Infinite Jest.
