Everyone is freaking out about the Dalai Lama’s recent interview with the BBC’s Clive Myrie, specifically when it comes to how his Holiness feels about female successors and their faces. His message was mostly that they should have attractive ones, or otherwise what’s the point?

People have been quick throw him under the male-feminist bus for a quote that isn’t great out of context, without giving much consideration to the tone or language barrier. Though he agreed to do the interview in English, the Dalai Lama’s first language is a Chinese dialect. According to Google Translate, the word attractive can have up to seven different definitions in Chinese, meaning anything from clever to winning.

The monk is also known for having a sense of humor and if you watch the BBC video instead of reading about it, it seems like that may be a factor. To make matters worse, Myrie cuts him off before the Dalai Lama is able to complete the joke. The Dalai Lama then gestured to his face, suggesting that the punchline could have been, “attractive like me.”

But the biggest bombshell about this non-scandal is that the Dalai Lama has TOTALLY talked about this before. In an October 2013 interview with CBS News he was asked about having a female successor and said, “yes, of course.” He also talked about his weakness for beautiful women (just looking) and joked about married women spending their husbands’ money. All this considered, the controversial BBC quote is nothing but a two-year-old bit that kind of bombed.

Don’t worry, your Holiness. Old news is no news, and no news is good news. This is nothing more than a dad joke and no one ever gets those either. Keep on doing your thing.

[BBC]

Original by Lauren Vinopal @LaurenVino