Crossword Genius

Aunt Sally's happy family? (8,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

laughing stock

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'aunt sally's' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'happy family?' is the wordplay.
'happy' becomes 'laughing' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'family?' becomes 'stock' (family is a kind of stock).
'laughing'+'stock'='LAUGHING-STOCK'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for laughing stock that I've seen before include "Butt of ridicule" , "Object to joke" , "Target of ridicule" , "inhabitants of funny farm?" , "Object of ridicule" .)

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