Building on the crucial insight that jokes use many of the same mechanisms he had already discovered in dreams Freud developed one of the richest & most comprehensive theories of humor that has ever been produced. Jokes he argues provide immense pleasure by allowing us to express many of our deepest sexual aggressive & cynical thoughts & feelings which would otherwise remain repressed. In elaborating this central thesis he brings together a dazzling set of puns anecdotes snappy one-liners spoonerisms & beloved stories of Jewish beggars & marriage-brokers. Many remain highly amusing while others throw a vivid light on the lost world of early twentieth-century Vienna.