Note 30 to Chapter 1 of the author's Dickens and the Rhetoric of Laughter which Clarendon Press published in 1972. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author and of the Clarendon Press, which retains copyright.
Freud also postulates "harmless wit", wit without tendency; but though he devotes considerable space to this subject, his demonstrations are usually considered quite unpersuasive; see Grotjahn (pp. 10-11), who argues that there simply is no such thing as harmless wit.
Last modified: 1 May 2001