Yesterday, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan.

Also, yesterday, it was announced that Nobel Laureate Dario Fo had died at age 90. Fo won the Nobel in 1997, to much controversy. An Italian playwright known for works of satire, he was criticized for attacking both Italian political figures and the Catholic Church. As Reuters reports, “His subversive humor won him a cult status, but also saw him periodically hounded off the stage and television in an attempt by the Italian establishment to muzzle him. He was barred from entering the United States in the early 1980s.”

The Nobel committee awarded him the prize for “emulat[ing] the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.”