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At the annual Athenian 
drama festival in 426 BC,

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a comic play called The Babylonians,

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written by a young poet 
named Aristophanes,

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was awarded first prize.

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But the play’s depiction of Athens’ 
conduct during the Peloponnesian War

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was so controversial that afterwards,

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a politician named Kleon 
took Aristophanes to court

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for "slandering the people of Athens 
in the presence of foreigners."

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Aristophanes struck back two years later
with a play called The Knights.

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In it, he openly mocked Kleon,

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ending with Kleon’s character working as 
a lowly sausage seller

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outside the city gates.

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This style of satire was a consequence

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of the unrestricted democracy 
of 5th century Athens

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and is now called "Old Comedy."

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Aristophanes’ plays, the world’s earliest 
surviving comic dramas,

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are stuffed full of parodies, songs, 
sexual jokes, and surreal fantasy.

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They often use wild situations,

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like a hero flying to heaven 
on a dung beetle,

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or a net cast over a house to keep 
the owner’s father trapped inside,

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in order to subvert audience expectations.

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And they’ve shaped how comedy’s
been written and performed ever since.

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The word "comedy" comes from 
the Ancient Greek "komos," – revel,

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and "oide," – singing,

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and it differed from its companion 
art form, "tragedy" in many ways.

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Where ancient Athenian tragedies dealt 
with the downfall of the high and mighty,

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their comedies usually ended happily.

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And where tragedy almost always 
borrowed stories from legend,

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comedy addressed current events.

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Aristophanes’ comedies celebrated ordinary
people and attacked the powerful.

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His targets were arrogant politicians,

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war-mongering generals,

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and self-important intellectuals,

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exactly the people who sat in 
the front row of the theatre,

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where everyone could see their reactions.

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As a result, they were referred to 
as komoidoumenoi:

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"those made fun of in comedy."

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Aristophanes’ vicious 
and often obscene mockery

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held these leaders to account,
testing their commitment to the city.

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One issue, in particular, 
inspired much of Aristophanes’ work:

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the Peloponnesian War 
between Athens and Sparta.

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In Peace, written in 421 BC,

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a middle-aged Athenian frees 
the embodiment of peace from a cave,

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where she’d been exiled 
by profiteering politicians.

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Then, in the aftermath of a crushing 
naval defeat for Athens in 411 BC,

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Aristophanes wrote "Lysistrata."

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In this play, the women 
of Athens grow sick of war

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and go on a sex strike 
until their husbands make peace.

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Other plays use similarly fantastic 
scenarios to skewer topical situations,

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such as in "Clouds,"

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where Aristophanes mocked 
fashionable philosophical thinking.

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The hero Strepsiades enrolls in
Socrates’s new philosophical school,

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where he learns 
how to prove that wrong is right

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and that a debt is not a debt.

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No matter how outlandish these plays get,
the heroes always prevail in the end.

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Aristophanes also became
the master of the parabasis,

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a comic technique where actors 
address the audience directly,

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often praising the playwright 
or making topical comments and jokes.

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For example, in "Birds,"

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the Chorus takes 
the role of different birds

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and threatens the Athenian judges that
if their play doesn’t win first prize,

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they’ll defecate on them 
as they walk around the city.

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Perhaps the judges 
didn’t appreciate the joke,

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as the play came in second.

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By exploring new ideas

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and encouraging self-criticism 
in Athenian society,

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Aristophanes not only 
mocked his fellow citizens,

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but he shaped the nature of comedy itself.

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Hailed by some scholars 
as the father of comedy,

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his fingerprints are visible 
upon comic techniques everywhere,

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from slapstick

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to double acts

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to impersonations

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to political satire.

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Through the praise of free speech 
and the celebration of ordinary heroes,

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his plays made his audience think 
while they laughed.

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And his retort to Kleon in 425 BC 
still resonates today:

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“I’m a comedian, 
so I’ll speak about justice,

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no matter how hard 
it sounds to your ears.”