What are the origins of comedy?
In today’s modern context, comedy refers to a variety of genre of non-fiction which refers to any narrative or work usually intended to be funny or humorous, either by intentionally inducing laughter, usually in stand-up comedy, television, theater, film, or any other media of entertainment. The earliest sources of the word are generally found in Ancient Greece. According to the oldest sources, comedians had been seen in the Athenian Theater during the period when Socrates was alive.
If you see the origins of comedy then comedy has been present as far back as the 5th century BC, in the form of different kinds of plays. In the ancient Egyptian culture, comedy was a very important part of the cultural life of their people. According to Herodotus, there were people who performed stand-up comedy for money in the court of King Ptolemy. He said the king laughed so hard he nearly died.
During the classical period of the Roman Empire, the comedy was seen as a form of a religious festival, where the poets sang and played comedy. They usually composed songs on such festivals. According to the Greek myth, when the god Zeus refused to grant Aphrodite the ability to laugh without causing a whimper, she resorted to the practice of sending her son Peirithoos to the underworld to prevent him from doing it.
In the ancient times, the Greeks used to make use of several categories of comedy. The best known are the Satyr plays, the comic hymns, the tragic comedies, and the comic dramas. The Satiric plays were mostly used as a form of entertainment for royal people and commoners alike. These are also the most famous and popular type of comedy. The tragedies were meant to entertain the crowds at funerals and were mostly about the dead people
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The comic plays were primarily meant to entertain the masses and were more popular in the classical times. They were usually the same types of plays as in the Satyric plays. The tragic plays were mostly made up of a single tragic tale, but some of them were more complex as in the case of Sophocles and Euripides, who wrote about two separate tales.
The comic plays were used to amuse the people during the ancient times and they were mostly produced for a limited purpose. The drama plays were mainly used as a form of entertainment and the plays were mostly staged as a form of art. They were mostly put on during the celebration of some sort. For example, the Greek celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ on Pentecost day, which was celebrated on this day every year. Some other occasions, such as the Annunciation ceremony, which was a special occasion in the Jewish tradition, the Greek celebration of the Ides of March, the Greek celebration of the birth of Demeter, or the Greek celebration of the victory of the gods, the Romans and the British, the Greek celebration of Christmas day, etc.
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