I came across this joke that I don’t follow:
Q: Why did the defendant hang himself?
A: Because he couldn’t stand trial.
What’s it all about? Where’s the supposed punchline?
He couldn’t stand anymore and so he hanged himself (that way he didn’t have to stand).
Well, this is what I could make of it.
Hi,
I agree with Daemon99, but, what’s the point?
Is it a joke?
Hi,
This comes under the heading of a ‘sick’ joke. It’s supposedly a play on the verb ‘stand’, ‘Stand trial’ is a set expression suggesting that someone will appear in a court of law and be tried in front of a judge. ‘Stand’ can also be used to mean tolerate or put up with as in: I can’t stand cats. This means I hate cats and don’t want anything to do with them. In the ‘joke’ the verb ‘stand’ has the double meaning (1) the set expression and (2) ‘couldn’t stand’ suggesting he couldn’t put up with/tolerate a trial.
If that’s a joke, I’ll eat my hat!
Alan
I think it just happens to be a very poor ‘joke’. I suspect its a play on words between ‘to stand’ the verb (both ‘standing up’ as opposed to ‘hanging up’ and ‘to stand trial’) and the meaning that he couldn’t stand - the thought of going to - trial.
Which still makes it a very poor joke.
Thank you guys, now it’s clear as day!
It made me chuckle a tad but that was all.
I guess defence attorneys and assisstant district attorneys and judges would find this joke hillarious, but I am not a litigator.
I guess jokes like this one are all the rage these days. I see them a lot on the Internet. 
By the way, I kinda like them.