Exactly which lounger should be the planet’s most iconic item of furniture? You might look in the Freud Museum. Famously, this was where Sigmund Freud made his home (where patients visited his famous consulting rooms and recliner), after he fled the Nazis annexed Austria. Granted prominence is his office, exactly as it was in his day, and sitting in the study is the UK’s best known chaise longue, cradle of many complexes, featured in a great number of cartoons and skits. Like the father of psychiatry, London’s best known lounger originates outside London. It found itself heading toward immortality in its first setting at Vienna’s Berggasse 19. As you may know, this is the address of Freud’s dwelling place while he began researching and devising his pioneering psychotherapeutic concepts. The sofa itself — inviting, comfortable and casual — is unsurprisingly well known, from its major part during the development of psychoanalysis. Maybe not such common knowledge is the preservation of Freud’s own chair. The seat, noted for its green tub look, was where he sat, out of sight of the patients on the settee, during their free association. Ultimately, psychotherapy, easy chairs and all the other concepts often associated with teachings have become an abundant source of gags for writers, comics etc. from the start, and possibly the best of them in this regard is Woody Allen, a man highly familiar with psychoanalysts (aka shrinks) for just about half his life.

“I was in analysis for years and nothing happened. My poor analyst got so frustrated, the guy finally put in a salad bar. Maybe the poets are right. Maybe love is the only answer.”

“I have an interesting case. I’m treating two sets of Siamese twins with split personalities. I’m getting paid by eight people.”

“I worked with Freud in Vienna. We broke over the concept of penis envy. Freud felt that it should be limited to women.”

There are many comics who notice humor in the stereotypical therapist’s lounger. Marshall McLuhan remarked “If the nineteenth century was the age of the editorial chair, ours is the century of the psychiatrist’s couch.”

Sitcom character Niles Crane offers “A funny thing happened the other day. One of my patients had a rather amusing Freudian slip. He was having dinner with his wife and he meant to say “Pass the salt,” but instead he said “You’ve ruined my life, you blood-sucking shrew.”

Michelle Pfeiffer remarks “Like all parents, my husband and I just do the best we can, hold our breath and hope we’ve set aside enough money for our kid’s therapy.”

We should really give the final word to John Wayne, who didn’t care for the analyst’s couch: “I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst’s couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.”