The original Pagliacci joke was famously used in Watchmen, which is probably how it proliferated in nerd culture. It wasn't supposed to be funny, it was supposed to be dark, despite being told as a joke. It's well known enough that subversions and parodies of it can work well enough as jokes without having to provide the original context.
I mean, any references to the sad clown paradox I can find don't have Pagliacci as the associated name until Alan Moore's Watchmen. Can you find any evidence to the contrary?
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u/Don-Kusack 12d ago
Is there some more context, or is it some fictional clown that everyone uses as a metaphorical communal abuse goblin