Classical Comedy:
Comedy:
In ancient Greece, comedy seems to have originated in songs or recitations apropos of fertility
festivals or gatherings, or also in making fun at other people or stereotypes. In
the Poetics, Aristotle states that comedy originated in phallic rituals and festivals of mirth. It
is basically an imitation of 'the ridiculous, which is a species of the ugly.' However, Aristotle
taught that comedy is a good thing. It brings forth happiness, which for Aristotle is the ideal
state, the final goal in any activity. He does believe that we humans feel pleasure oftentimes by
doing the wrong thing, but he does not necessarily believe that comedy and humour is the wrong
thing. It is also not true for Aristotle that a comedy must involve sexual humour to qualify as a
comedy. A comedy is about the fortunate rise of a sympathetic character. A happy ending is all
that is required in his opinion.
On the contrary, the Greek Philosopher Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He
believed it produces an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In The Republic
(Plato), he says that the Guardians of the state should avoid laughter, "for ordinarily when one
abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes a violent reaction." Plato says
comedy should be tightly controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state.
Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of
classical Greece (the others being tragedy and the satyr play). Athenian comedy is
conventionally divided into three periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy.
Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes,
while Middle Comedy is largely lost, i.e. preserved only in relatively short fragments by authors
such as Athenaeus of Naucratis. New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus
fragments of Menander.
Influence of New Comedy:
(i) Horace claimed Menander as a model for his own gentle brand of Roman satire.
(ii) The New Comedy influenced much of Western European literature, primarily
through Plautus and Terence: in particular the comic drama of Shakespeare and Ben
Jonson, Congreve, and Wycherley, and, in France, Molière.
(iii) The 5-act structure later to be found in modern plays can first be seen in Menander's
comedies. Where in comedies of previous generations there were choral interludes,
there was dialogue with song. The action of his plays had breaks, the situations in
them were conventional and coincidences were convenient, thus showing the smooth
and effective development of his plays.
(iv) Much of contemporary romantic and situational comedy descends from the New
Comedy sensibility, in particular generational comedies such as All in the
Family and Meet the Parents.
