laughing-stock (n.)

also laughingstock; 1510s, formed by analogy with whipping-stock "whipping post," later also "object of frequent whipping" (but that word is not attested in writing in this sense until 1670s). See laughing + stock (n.1). Also in the same sense was jesting-stock (1530s), and compare gaping-stock "person or thing regarded as an object of wonder;" loathing-stock "person who is an object of general contempt" (1620s). A Latin word for it was irridiculum.