The bridegroom was most disagreeably surprised when the bride was introduced
to him, and drew the broker on the one side and whispered his remonstrances:“She’s ugly and old, she squints and has bad teeth and bleary eyes. …” “ You
needn ’t lower your voice, ”interrupted the broker, “she’s deaf as well. ”(Freud,
1905/1960, p. 64)
Most of us agree that these jokes are in poor taste. Yet they remain popular
and show up in each new generation in different forms. Why?
Freud ’s Theory of Humor
In his 1905 book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Freud pre-
sented an extensive analysis of humor. Although he recognized “innocent ”
jokes, such as puns and clever insights, Freud was more concerned with ten-
dentious jokes—the ones that provide insight into the unconscious of the
joke teller as well as the person who laughs. Predictably, Freud saw twokinds of tendentious jokes, those dealing with hostility and those dealingwith sex.
At first glance, it is difficult to understand how aggression can be funny.
What is it about insults and biting satire that attracts and amuses us? Why dowe laugh at another person ’s humiliation and embarrassment? According to
Freud, aggressive jokes allow the expression of impulses ordinarily held incheck. Although we may have unconscious urges to attack certain people orgroups of people, our egos and superegos are generally effective in preventing
outward acts of violence. But an insulting joke allows us to express these
same aggressive desires in a socially appropriate manner. And, after all, who
can take offense at an innocent joke? As Freud (1905/1960) wrote, “[b]y
making our enemy small, inferior, despicable or comic, we achieve in a
roundabout way the enjoyment of overcoming him” (p. 103).
Similarly, we can discuss taboo sexual topics through the socially appro-
priate outlet of sexual humor. Open discussions of sex are inappropriate inmany social settings, yet jokes on sex are often not only tolerated but encour-
aged and rewarded. I have seen normally conservative and proper people who
would never bring up the topic of sex in public deal with all kinds of taboo
subject matter simply by repeating a joke “someone told me. ”One team of
researchers found that sexual jokes provided adolescent girls with an easy
way to introduce otherwise embarrassing topics into their lunchtime conver-
sations (Sanford & Eder, 1984).
Freud also noticed that the laughter following a hostile or sexual joke is
rarely justified by the humor content of the joke. If you stop to consider the
next sexually oriented joke you hear, you’ ll probably notice that the joke of-
ten contains very little humor. So why do we laugh? Freud explained our re-
action in terms of tension reduction, or catharsis. Descriptions of aggressive
or sexual behavior create tension. The punch line allows a release of that ten-
sion. We get pleasure from many jokes not because they are clever or witty
but because they reduce tension and anxiety. “Strictly speaking, we do not
know what we are laughing at, ”Freud explained. “The technique of such
jokes is often quite wretched, but they have immense success in provokinglaughter ”(1905/1960, p. 102).“A person who
laughs at [an
obscene joke] …is
laughing as though
he were the spectatorof an act of sexual
aggression. ”
Sigmund FreudHumor 81