Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 January 15

= January 15 =

Origins of aphorism
Inspired by another editor, I was wondering who first came up with the aphorism: "When you are dead, you don't know that you are dead. It is difficult only for the others... It is the same when you are stupid...". It has found its way onto mugs, for instance, and googling gives various possible origins, including Belgian comedian Philippe Geluck (http://bestdialogues.com/tag/philippe-geluck/), a blogger in Italy called Carl William Brown (http://www.daimonquotes.com/quotes-against-power-and-stupidity/), and Ricky Gervais (http://www.justforspiteclub.com/?p=100). I'm not convinced that any of those came up with the original idea. Can anyone give any further suggestions as to where its origins might be found? Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:44, 15 January 2016 (UTC)
 * It does sound exactly like Philippe Geluck's humor in Le Chat. After a bit of googling, I found the orginal version: "La mort, c'est un peu comme la connerie. Le mort, lui, il ne sait pas qu'il est mort. Ce sont les autres qui sont tristes. Le con, c'est pareil." It's in the book "Ma langue au chat", originally published in 1995. here's the original cartoon . --Xuxl (talk) 14:21, 15 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Merçi beaucoup! I think there's a case for adding it to his article (which clearly needs expanding anyway).  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:29, 15 January 2016 (UTC)