AboutWhat does the meme depict?

The 'Wise Confucius' meme, also known as 'Confucius Says', is part of the advice animal image macro series. It typically presents what starts as a sage piece of advice in the first part of the image. However, the latter half of the image often turns this wisdom into a pun. The meme template features a portrait of the supposed figure of Confucius, often accompanied by a humorous and unexpected punchline. Some versions also mimic a stereotypical Engrish speech pattern to add to the comedic effect.

OriginWho did it first?

The 'Wise Confucius' meme series draws its inspiration from the renowned Chinese philosopher, known for his philosophical text 'Analects of Confucius'. His writings, which date back to around 475 BCE to 221 BCE, are a significant part of Confucianism and have greatly influenced Chinese and East Asian ideologies. The humorous take on Confucius' idioms first appeared on internet humor sites such as JokeCenter and Unwind as early as February 2001. The image macros featuring 'Confucius says...' jokes in a typical advice animal format first emerged on the /v/ board of 4chan on April 29th, 2010. The image widely used in these macros appears to be sourced from the initial results of a Google Image search.^[1]