Oedipal Allen
Week 1
Reading – Sigmund Freud's Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, “The Purpose of Jokes” pg. 106 – 139.
In this chapter of Freud's book, “The purpose of jokes is discussed. Innocent or abstract jokes (both are nontendentious) do not have the same meaning as jokes that are trivial or lacking in substance; they merely connote the opposite of the tendentious jokes. An innocent joke may be of great substance, it may assert something of value. We receive from joking remarks a total impression in which we are unable to separate the share taken by the thought content from the share taken by the joke work. Where a joke is not an aim in itself (where it is not innocent), it is either a hostile joke (serving the purpose of aggressiveness, satire, or defense) or an obscene joke (serving the purpose of exposure). The technical species of the joke, whether it is a verbal or a conceptual joke, bears no relation to these 2 purposes. A tendentious joke calls for 3 people: in addition to the one who makes the joke, there must be a second who is taken as the object of the hostile or sexual aggressiveness, and a third in whom the joke's aim of producing pleasure is fulfilled. When the first person finds his libidinal impulse inhibited by a woman, he develops a hostile trend against that second person and calls on the originally interfering third person as his ally. Through the first person's smutty speech the woman is exposed before the third, who, as a listener, has now been bribed by the effortless satisfaction of his own libido. Thus jokes make possible the satisfaction of instinct (whether lustful or hostile) in the face of an obstacle which stands in the way. The obstacle in the way is woman's incapacity to tolerate undisguised sexuality. This power which makes it difficult or impossible for women, and to a lesser degree for men as well, to enjoy undisguised obscenity is termed repression. Tendentious jokes have sources of pleasure at their disposal besides those open to innocent jokes, in which all the pleasure is in some way linked to their technique.” - Carrie Lee Rothgeb, Editor, “Abstracts of the Standard Edition of the Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. The New York Freudian Society.
We discussed the first half of Philip Roth's novel Portnoy's Complaint, which starts off as a man talking, or maybe even bragging, to his psychiatrist about the abstract and strange things that he did as a young person. The book is rife with dramatic and graphic images, many curse words, and an abundance of talk regarding masturbation. This book figures into Woody Allen's work through it's heavy sense of Jewish identity. Portnoy's Complaint goes hand in hand with Woody Allen because it really shows what it's like to grow up as a Jewish male. Granted, the book is taken with a grain of salt and isn't considered stereotypical of a Jewish upbringing, it has the ability to shed light on much of what Woody Allen is referring to when he makes jokes regarding Jews, their lifestyles, and how they raise their children.
