tendentious joke

is a joke that rebels against propriety by giving vent to libidinal impulses of violent aggression and sexual desire while an innocent joke rebels against reason with word play and nonsense.

He draws a distinction between 'innocent' jokes, which rebel against reason with word play and nonsense, and 'tendentious' jokes, which rebel against propriety by giving vent to libidinal impulses of violent aggression and sexual desire.

is a mechanism for expelling tension through laughter that avoids the censorship of the super-ego, which can be equated with social censorship.

Freud distinguished between tendentious jokes and innocent jokes. Tendentious jokes are a mechanism for expelling tension through laughter that avoids the censorship of the super-ego, which can be equated with social censorship.

is either hostile (used to attack) or obscene.

jokes are either 'hostile,' using humor to attack or defend, or 'obscene.' A hostile joke 'will allow us to exploit something ridiculous in our enemy which we could not . . . bring forward openly or consciously... once again, then, the joke will evade restrictions and open sources of pleasure that have become inaccessible' (original italics, 8: 103).

tendentious joke, n.Definitions

tendentious joke