At the outset of Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Freud writes that the field of psychology scarcely explores the significance of humour, wit, or comedy in relation to affective or aesthetic experience. “Jokes,” he writes, “have not received nearly as much philosophical consideration as they deserve in view of the part they play in our mental life” (Freud, 1905, p. 9). Throughout the joke book, Freud explores some of the diverse psychological functions of humour. He suggests that jokes help to ease the barriers of repression, allowing the subject to suspend the Oedipal superego and temporarily experience some iddriven