Comic Violence in Aristophanes

Abstract

Everybody knows that violence is funny -that is, if it happens to someone else, if it does not really hurt, and if it is part of a show.Violence has been a characteristic of comic acting throughout the ages, especially in the type of comic show nowadays called farce. 1 Farcical scenes containing violence such as hitting, beating, kicking, pushing and pulling were apparently common in the Athenian Old Comedy, too, although Aristophanes himself sometimes takes a critical attitude towards such vulgar slapstick 2 and although-perhaps partly following his lead, partly because