Comedy Analysis: Humour in Ancient Greece

A person went to a doctor and said “Doctor, whenever I get up from sleeping, I'm groggy for a half an hour afterwards and only after that am I all right” To which the doctor replied: “Get up half an hour later.” - Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)

Philip of Macedon

This is one of the jokes that survived the ages. It was a joke told by the ancient Greeks and is remarkably similar to the jokes we would tell today. In fact, a major part of Greek humour, often over 2000 years old is very similar to our own comedy and humour today. The Greeks invented the parody, the comic drama, they ridiculed their politicians, made fun of their gods and wrote manuscripts and books containing jokes, which were even bought by king Philip of Macedon, who was Alexander the Great's 17th great-grandfather.

Besides the written joke-books, comedy was often portrayed through plays. This is possibly the best-known form of Greek comedy. This form of Ancient Greek humour is generally divided in 3 categories: Old, Middle and New humour. Although these terms are not necessarily chronological and most scholars agree old humour was common and evolving all throughout ancient Greece, they do roughly correspond with the order of ‘invention’ of types of humour.

Old humour encompassed sharp political satire and an abundance of innuendo. The innuendo was not only sexual, but also often scatological in nature. Also political attacks were sometimes disguised as humour. Not much material has survived the passing of time, but there are still enough works left to get an image of what Old humour would have been like. Some of the most famous writers of Old humour include Aristophanes, Hermippus and Eupolis.

Middle humour is the least clearly defined chronologically, scholars differ in opinion on when exactly it started, but the general consensus is it was later than Aristophanes, but before Menande. Middle humour is different from Old humour in the sense that the ridicule started to become more general, as opposed to the more direct ridicule in Old humour. Also there was little to no impersonation of public figures and recurring characters became more developed. Plays based on Middle humour were performed as far as Sicily, indicating they had significant influence on literature and culture in the ancient world.

Plautus

New humour was mainly popular during the Macedonian rule, mainly after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. New humour lasted till approximately 260 BC. In this era the humour became highly sophisticated and the sexual innuendo from Old humour became frowned upon. Love became an important subject in comedy and there came a greater focus on the ordinary person’s life. Most comedians started painting an image of family life which was as ordinary and realistic as possible, but with a humorous twist. This is similar to the Roman comedy of the same era. Also love became a real theme for the first time in comedy and this inspired artists for centuries to come. Shakespeare for instance was inspired by Plautus’ work.

Greek humour is surprisingly similar to today's humour as is known around the world. Even the joke about the 3 nationalities (Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman and all the variations to this) was common in Greece. Also the 'smart servant' jokes which were used by Shakespeare and by many comedians throughout history were already in use among the Greeks. It's interesting to see how many similarities there are in humour even through 2000 years of history. This also gives hope that humour can indeed promote understanding between peoples and cultures. If 2000 years of history and development can be bridged by humour, then certainly a few miles between two countries can be overcome.