The ease with which jokes and witticisms are

repressed and forgotten is one of the many similarities between dreams and jokes. The loss of the forgotten joke is felt with regret. While listening to a joke, unconscious ego-alien tendencies in the listeners are freed from repression and, owing to their disguised form, may be satisfied in the moment of laughter. Later, the momentarily lifted repression is re-established and the joke forgotten. Listening to a joke is passive, telling it is an act of will, and, as such, may ask for stricter censorship. One example of a forgotten joke and its re-discovery illustrates the mechanism of wit-repression.

Author's Abstract.