Ugh! Freud!

I need to start this by saying that I am not a fan of Freud. And this week's selection did nothing to warm me to him. For starters his comic examples of a death row inmate making a joke, on his way to the gallows, about a great way to start the week, was tasteless. Needless to say I didn't see the humor in it.

Basically what he's saying in this excerpt is that humor comes from "the ego's victorious assertion of its own invulnerability." He explains this as a "fine" distinction. He seems to be saying that it's a wonderful thing that our minds can trick us into believing that we are better than others and some what bullet-proof. Maybe it's just my own bias (probably) but I think he's insufferable. This idea seems to me to be a rehashing of superiority theory. See also Aristotle, Plato and Hobbes. Trying to think of an example for this I came up with the same ideas from those posts. I'm sure I'm probably wrong here, so feel free to comment and correct me.