LAUGHING STOCK

The phrase is used to describe a figure or object of ridicule and laughter or a person subjected to general mockery or ridicule. It is something that is exceedingly funny to a point of becoming embarrassing.

For example: The host made a mistake in saying out the name of the winner and instantly became a laughing stock for everyone.

Two citations of the phrase can be found in 1533. First was in John Frith’s An other boke against Rastel:

“Albeit ... I be reputed a laughing stock in this world.”

And Sir Philip Sidney’s, An apologie for poetrie, 1533:

“Poetry ... is fallen to be the laughing stocke of children.”

The origin of the phrase comes from a punishment that was meted out to people in the 15th century whose crimes were not severe. They would be trapped in ‘stocks’ (the trunk or main stem of a tree) and ridiculed and that was the punishment. The victims’ ankles, and occasionally the wrists, were trapped in holes between two sliding boards.

The punishment, although not harsh, was severe and certainly not intended to be humorous.

More recently, stock has become commonplace at fairs too where volunteers are put into stocks and wet sponges are thrown at them. This is for humorous effect, of course, and adds to the idea that ‘laughing stock’ originated this way.