The joke loses everything when the joker laughs himself.

Schiller’s remark points to a basic principle of comic effect: timing and distance matter. A joke depends on the audience’s moment of discovery; if the person telling it laughs first, he signals the punchline in advance and collapses the tension that makes the joke land. The joker’s self-laughter also shifts attention from the wit of the remark to the performer’s self-satisfaction, inviting the listener to judge the teller rather than share the amusement. More broadly, the line suggests that artful communication—especially humor—requires restraint and an awareness of how meaning is received, not merely how it is produced.