Damian’s notes

The form of the ‘But doctor, I am Pagliacci!’ joke we delight in seeing remixed online is from the character Rorschach in Watchmen by Alan Moore—though the story goes back to the 19th century at least, often naming famous clowns like Grimaldi, Carlini, Grock. The name Pagliacci isn’t one of those, as it turns out, but the name of an Italian opera about clowns.

Anyway … here’s a version where life imitates art.

Fascinating aspect of online culture, is how poems and retellings 40 or 200 years old get swept up and remixed to make new jokes that are almost impossible to explain to someone who’s not seen the previous 15 iterations.