laughingstock

The obnoxious meddling journalist is a stock character in fiction.

The sun was shining when they arrived at Salon, the gayest, the most coquettish, the most laughing little town in Provence.

Suddenly she stopped laughing, and said in a low voice, "You don't happen to have a beefsteak about you, do you?"

Neither privately owned nor government stock is entitled to voting power.

I didn't take much stock in the yarn at the time, but I'm beginning to think he had it straight.

Don't chaff, Shirtings; you're a very good fellow, you know, but I'm not in a laughing humour.