At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

from T.S. Eliot – The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock on Rap Genius

The Fool or Clown is a stock character in Shakespearean plays. He is sometimes a bumbling rube who talks above his level of understanding (the kind of figure Prufrock seems to have in mind here), but sometimes, as in King Lear and Twelfth Night, he is actually the wisest person in the play. The clowns in Hamlet are the gravediggers in Act V.

These lines might also evoke Polonius, the advisor to the King in Hamlet, who is ridiculously verbose and long-winded. Prufrock has some troubles with rambling around girls, too.

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