ABSTRACT
Laughing at the same jokes is evidence of far-reaching psychical conformity Sigmund Freud, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. There is being laughed at, and the wondering what else might be going on if one is not, in fact, being ridiculed. The thing about being laughed at – the true horror of it – is that it makes perfect sense. Comedy uncovers the absurd truth, which is why people are so afraid of being laughed at in real life. Laughing at someone is – like all real pleasures – a stolen pleasure. And yet to describe laughing at someone as stealing is also to say that it takes from them their protection from being stolen from. When Freud wrote in his joke book that 'laughing at the same joke is evidence of far-reaching psychical conformity', he implied that those who share a sense of humour share far more than a sense of humour.
