A lapalissade is an obvious truth - i.e. a truism or tautology - which produces a comical effect. It is derived from the name Jacques de la Palice, and the word is used in several languages.[1] [2]
La Palice's epitaph reads:[3] [1]
French: "Ci-gît le Seigneur de La Palice: s'il n'était pas mort, il ferait encore envie."
("Here lies the Seigneur de La Palice: If he weren't dead, he would still be envied.")These words were misread (accidentally or intentionally) as "...il ſerait [serait] encore en vie" ("...he would still be alive"), where the long s aids in the confusion. In the 16th century this misreading was incorporated into a popular satirical song, and in time many other variants developed, including French: "... que deux jours avant sa mort / il était encore en vie" ("... that two days before his death / he was still quite alive") and French: "... et quand il était tout nu, / il n'avait point de chemise"("... and when he was stark naked / he didn't wear a shirt").
In the early 18th century, Bernard de la Monnoye collected over 50 of these humorous "La Palice" quatrains and published them as a burlesque "Song of La Palice". From that song came the French term French: [[wikt:lapalissade|lapalissade]] meaning an utterly obvious truth - i.e. a truism or tautology, and it was borrowed into several other languages. The French phrase French: "La Palice en aurait dit autant!" ("La Palice would have said as much!") is used to express that a statement is obvious.
In Spanish culture, an analog is a folkloric character (Perogrullo) with his perogrulladas:[4] Spanish; Castilian: "Verdad de Pedro Grullo, que a la mano cerrada, la llama puño" (The truth of Pedro Grullo, when his hand is closed, he calls it a fist).[5]
In English, Captain Obvious indicates, somewhat pejoratively, that a speaker has said a self-evident truth. Other kinds of trite expressions are "platitude" and "bromide".