[1][2][3] La Palice's epitaph reads:[2][1] 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 "... que deux jours avant sa mort / il était encore en vie" ("... that two days before his death / he was still quite alive") and "... et quand il était tout nu, / il n'avait point de chemise" ("... and when he was stark naked / he didn't wear a shirt").
The French phrase "La Palice en aurait dit autant!"
In Spanish culture, an analog is a folkloric character Pedro Grullo [es] (Perogrullo) with his perogrulladas:[4] "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.