Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, philosopher and scientist.

“if [men meet] for pleasure and recreation of mind, every man is wont to please himself most with those things which stir up laughter, whence he may, according to the nature of that which is ridiculous, by comparison of another man’s defects and infirmities, pass the more current in his own opinion.  And although this be sometimes innocent and without offense, yet it is manifest they are not so much delighted with the society, as their own vain glory”

From “De Cive (On the Citizen)” by Thomas Hobbes, 1642.

Friends talk trash. You know it. I know it. 17th century philosophers know it.