Confucius Didn't Say That: Funny Edition

There's a common trope in Western culture about "the sad clown".  Of course like many cliches, there's some truth behind it. Who can forget the tragedy of the suicide of Robin Williams?

Well, I might have just brought you down, but good news, my fair reader, it's time to bring you back up with another exciting blog post about another FAKE CONFUCIUS QUOTE. This one comes courtesy of a website called "Goalcast" and it's on their "23 Confucius Quotes to Convert Your Knowledge Into Wisdom" page. 


 "The funniest people are the saddest ones" - Confucius


It's pretty easy to dismiss that Confucius didn't say this as Confucius wasn't the Seinfeld of ancient China. 
  

Hey, Confucian scholar, you probably noticed this is based on 7:37 in the Analects.

This surprisingly strikes at the core of the whole project, as Confucius didn't come up cliched aphorisms, but taught people how to live. In other words, the goal wasn't to describe truth but to live it. Confucius was a teacher first, so when Confucius does describe something, it serves a purpose of making a larger point about our ethics or character.

For example, this is from 8:11:

"The Master said: “Perhaps you could be as handsome and as talented as the Duke of Zhou. But if you are arrogant or stingy, those good qualities will not be noticed.”

You can imagine Confucius breaking into a conversation his students were having about the Duke of Zhou with this ditty. This is classic Confucius, its might sting a little if you were rebuked but his logic and reasoning is spot-on. 

I could not find any instance of Confucius speaking about funny or humorous people. There's no mention of the term "funny" in the Analects, The Great Learning or The Doctrine of the the Mean. There's a few references to Confucius laughing but there are definitely not any sections on laughter, humor or funny people in general. 


I also couldn't find any example of Confucius speaking about sad people either.  There is no mention of the term "sad" or "sadness" and little about crying. There are a few mentions of "mourning" but they relate to how best to mourn or how best we should treat those in mourning like in 7:9: 

"If the Master sat beside a person in mourning, he would not eat to the full. If he had wept on a certain day, he would not sing."


At this point, I can't find the original person who said this quote. I got nothing for ya on this. Most attribute this quote to Confucius or it is left anonymous. 

As for judging if this is a good quote, I am not personally particularly fond of it. Although it can be true in the generic sense, it's too broad and general for my taste. While it's true that many funny people are sad we should also recognize there are lots of other people who aren't funny that are also sad.

I suppose my next question is did someone who was unfunny come up with this quote to feel better about not being funny? Like, "Hey you may be funny, but you're secretly sad and depressed on the inside, so you try to act funny on the outside in hopes of feeling better!"