Clowns have breasts but no milk

by Jennifer Ball

	笨	笑	哭
Meaning:	foolish	laugh	cry
Characteristics	crinkly eyes, funny face	crinkly eyes, open mouth	open eyes, teardrop, open mouth

 

 

 

笨 = stupid; foolish; silly; slow-witted; clumsy
ben4

笑 = laugh, smile
xiao4

哭 = to cry, to weep
ku4

Can you see the relationship of the above words? They are a kind of face.

本 = roots or stems of plants; origin; source; this; the current; root; foundation; basis; (a measure word)
ben3

 

The cause of laughter is generally foolishness (note that the 本 ben3 character at the root of 笨 ben4). From years of doing theater, I have discovered that the underpinnings of comedy are people falling down and men in women’s clothing: both of these describe young children. Children were the world’s first clowns. This can be seen in Chinese:

丑 = clown
chou3

妞 = little girl
niu1

母 = mother
mu3

Structurally, these three characters resemble each other. They seem to represent breasts (this is acknowledged by the “experts” in the case of 母 mu3 “mother,” and one can perceive dots of “fluid” inside the shapes representing breasts for the word “mother”). Just like a man in woman’s clothing is funny, a man with breasts and no milk in them is a clown, and this is clear by comparing the three similar characters:

丑	妞	母
(no milk)	(no milk)	(milk)

  
女 +丑= 妞

Note that “female” + “clown” = “little girl”—this is because only a little girl would have breasts and no fluid. Anyone else with breasts and no fluid is a clown. At least according to written Chinese.

Chinese characters and definitions from:

http://ctext.org/dictionary

http://www.mandarintools.com/