Clever versus Kind

"Someone recently said to me that it is easier to be clever than it is to be kind, and I think that is very true. So I add to my list of regrets the times I have not been kind, choosing instead to be clever, usually at someone else's expense." 
Anderson Cooper from The Rainbow Comes and Goes, p. 270

This reminds me of someone who wanted to be clever and make a joke directed at me recently. When I said I did not get the joke, the person became even more clever and the others in the room were laughing at me because I still did not get the joke. I still did not get the joke until one of the people who laughed at me came to apologize for laughing at me. She told me what she thought the person meant, but she wasn't even sure if that was what the clever person meant and was just guessing. 

I still don't know what they meant, really. I think it is more important to be kind than clever.