College students in this study rated the funniness of magazine cartoons. Cartoons with sexual, aggressive, and death content were funnier than those without; those with children, animals, other races, or subhumans were funnier than those with only Anglo-Saxons as main characters. Finally, cartoons with short punch lines were funnier than those with long. The results are felt to be consistent with Freud's theory that jokes express unacceptable impulses in disguised form and should be short.