Moral lessons in the past and present are presented in humorous ways most of the time in order to lessen the seriousness of the event but still make it memorable to the people who witnessed it for years to come. My guess is that this is how idioms were born. One of the most popular idioms around is “The person who laughs last, laughs best”. Indeed, this sounds very cliche-ish but often proves as a puzzlement to those who hear it. After all, why should the person who laughs last, laugh the best right? It sounds like the last person to understand a joke or a funny incident must have slow comprehension skills. Actually, this belief cannot be farther from the true explanation for this idiom.
Having Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, and other language counterparts, it is believed that this idiom originally appeared sometime in the 1500s and was originally used to describe how one can always manage to successfully reverse the results of past mistakes regardless of the situation or circumstances surrounding it.
In modern times, however, it is mostly used when discussing sports events and competitions. Oftentimes, sports commentators can be heard using the phrase to describe events stemming from a negative event during a past competition that has driven the losing team to push itself to produce a positive or winning outcome for their team this time around. Once it happens, the now winning team tends to leave the losing team to wonder as to what they did wrong this time around. In effect, it has the now winning team laughing at the former who usually is constantly ribbing the other regarding how one team will win a competition only to have a taste of defeat in the end.
This cliche is actually about never giving up. Never let other people influence you with their worries or ridicule as you strive to reach your ultimate goal. It is all about a person’s confidence in his own abilities and possibilities even when others do not. Usually, the person who eventually succeeds against all odds will enjoy the satisfaction of watching the non-believers scratch their heads while he reaps the rewards of his hard work.
This is an idiom that most people use as a mantra in their lives. We will all make mistakes for the duration of our lives. But life is always full of changes that will allow us to correct any errors or overcome past shortcomings in order to produce a better present and future for one’s self. Such successes usually leave detractors wondering how it was done because nobody expected the person to ever succeed at what he was doing due to all his failures along the way. In which case the person can then say “He who laughs last, laughs best.”