Lyric discussion by dodgethebullet 

Cover art for I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover) lyrics by Wallflowers, The

I think the song could be about a person who made a rude joke that upset a lot of people. Pretty much everyone turned against this person causing them to be upset/be miserable/cry. That made people laugh to see things turn around after that person said such a hurtful thing.

I also read on the Bee Gees page for this song that it could be about Hitler which makes a lot of sense.