This Derision Theory includes also the jests at the ignorance or stupidity of another. The enormous vogue of the Noodle jokes, some centuries ago, hinged on the delight felt in the superiority of the hearer over the subject of the jest. All laughable blunders, every social _faux pas_, all funny stories of children’s sayings and doings are based on the consciousness of superiority. Practical jokes represent the simplest form of this theory, as in them the discomfiture of the other person is the prime element, with no subtle byplay to relieve it. A mild example is the polite rejoinder of the street car conductor when a lady asked at which end of the car she should get off. “Either end, madame,” he responded, “both ends stop.” An extreme specimen is the man who told the story of a burning house--“I saw a fellow up on the roof,” he related, “and I called to him, ‘Jump, and I’ll catch you in a blanket!’ Well, I had to laugh,--he jumped,--and I didn’t have no blanket!” Implied discomfiture is in the story of the agnostic, who was buried in his evening clothes. “Poor Jim,” said a funeral guest; “he didn’t believe in Heaven and he didn’t believe in Hell; and there he lies, all dressed up and no place to go!” Almost a practical joke is the man who, reading a newspaper, suddenly exclaimed, “Why, here’s a list of people who won’t eat onions any more!” And when his hearer asked to see the list, he handed over the obituary column. The Disappointment Theory, though overlapping the Derision Theory at times, is based on the idea that the essence of the laughable is the incongruous. Hazlitt says: