etymology of Laughing Stock

The Bollox

I was pondering where this phrase came from the other day. does anyone know?

I would assume it comes from medieval times when someone would be jeered while sitting in the stocks

Ponster

Here you go !

A "laughingstock" (also sometimes "laughing-stock") is a person (or collective entity, such as a government) or thing that is the object of ridicule, usually by many people over a long period of time.

The "laughing" part of "laughingstock" is obvious, but the "stock" takes a bit of explaining. "Stock" is an extremely old word, first appearing in Old English (adapted from German) in 862 with the basic meaning of "tree trunk." In the centuries since, "stock" has acquired dozens of separate meanings, from the sort of "stock" one buys on the Stock Exchange to the "stock" one uses to make soup. Many of these meanings are not easy to trace from that original "tree trunk" sense, and the logic of "laughingstock," which appeared first around 1533, is a bit fuzzy. It seems to be related to early senses of "stock" meaning "a large, inert block of wood" or "human torso" used to denote someone or something treated as an object, as in the similar archaic terms "pointing-stock" (a person publicly scorned) or "whipping-stock" (a person who is frequently whipped). The general sense of "stock" here is "something or someone treated as the object of an action, more or less habitually."

http://www.word-detective.com/112304.html#laughingstock