Generally, all plays written by Aristophanes and Plautus comprise of comedy that is both timeless and of its own time - where the comedy tends to be more suitable and applicable to its time period rather than universally speaking.
When thinking of comedy of its own time – it is evident how the comedic descriptions of women and more specifically married women and the way they are presented is common across all plays by both Aristophanes and Plautus. Married women are particularly criticised whose only job is to waste the money and resources of men whilst they sit and do nothing shown with Strepsiades in The Clouds where his wife robbed him of all his money – Strepsiades states how she is “wearing my resources”. This is corroborated by Plautus’s, The Swaggering Soldier with Periplectomenus who complains how wives make you miserable and waste your money endlessly spending money - “all that sort of expense that women cost”. Again, this concept of married women stealing men’s freedom and wealth is shown in The Brothers Menaechmus where Menaechmus explains how he has provided his wife with “servants, food, clothes, jewellery and “everything she could possibly need” yet she still constantly pesters him and is never satisfied. In a humorous light the playwrights display married women as an irritation to men’s life, who do nothing whilst men slave away only for women to spend their wealth – comedy which would be more of its own time rather than timeless. Similarly, women across the plays we see women as manipulative, cunning and artful – especially captured in Lysistrata which shows the extent to which women can artfully gather together and strike against the men being described as “clever villains” and as Myrrhine states “There’s no getting the better of women”. This is substantiated by The Swaggering Soldier where the female characters show us how they are always up to mischief and use manipulative ways to deceive men; as Philocomasium states how “an artful woman doesn’t need to go to a market… she grows her own spice and stuffing” to cook up any “dish of mischief” depicting typical traits of women in society at the time the plays were written. Hence, the comedy here is of its time as it reflects stereotypes of women in the societies of Aristophanes and Plautus.
Furthermore, it could be argued that the comedic condemnations of society at the time found in plays by both playwrights are clearly examples of its own time. An example of this is shown through the characters of Menaechmus and Peniculus in The Brothers Menaechmus where Peniculus amusingly explains his hatred of public meetings and how they always get in the way of his social events denying him of his “lunch”. Meanwhile, Menaechmus mirrors this, where he explains his anger towards the patron-client relationship describing it as an “idiotic and supremely boring custom” as it tends to waste perfectly good days, especially when clients fail to turn up or are clearly guilty. Here, we see how elements of society are comically disapproved by certain characters and this is can also be found with Aristophanes in The Clouds. In this play we see the criticism and mocking of philosophy as well as those who endorsed philosophical ideas such as Socrates who plays the parody of a sophisticated sophist – people who used to charge for their philosophical teachings and advice. Throughout the play we see how Aristophanes attacks their nonsense principles and teachings which the majority of society agreed with at the time. We see an example of this when the students of Socrates are described as “thin, pale sickly looking” – somewhat showing the effect of philosophy and showing how they aren’t “real men” fighting in wars or doing hands on labour in respected jobs.
Similar to this argument, are the plots of the plays by where Aristophanes plays tend to be associated around real life events and what was actually happening in society at the time from a laughable and comic perspective. This is clear from Lysistrata, which is based around the Peloponnesian War and the effect it was having on the women at Athens as Aristophanes is able to use female characters as a mouthpiece to indirectly put across a message of peace indirectly through humour. In The Clouds, we see how characters such as Socrates and Chaerephon – real life individuals are made a mockery of along with their ideologies through the Thinkery and so the comedy with these plays is more of its time rather than timeless. Plautus’s plays have simpler plots with more attention to stereotypical characters. In the Brothers Menaechmus we have the running gag of Sosicles being repeatedly mistaken for Menaechmus with both twins unware of each other’s presence playing a comedic role throughout the whole play. This is also found in The Swaggering Soldier where we have the common plot of boy rescuing the girl. Here we have Pleusicles who has to rescue his girl, Philocomasium with the aid of Palaestrio, and the common theme of one character pretending to play two characters with Philocomasium. Subsequently, it could be argued that these plots are more universal and the comedy can be appreciated by a wider audience as they are reasonably simple to follow, so it can be described as “timeless”.
Due to this, we see how Aristophanes plays which cover a more complex plot; have more comedic references in his plays to that of the time they were written in. This is exhibited through The Clouds, which has several comical references to Athenian obsession with the court and the play is littered with litigious jokes. For example, on examining Athens on the map, Strepsiades states “I can’t see any jurymen on their benches” a cultural joke to show how Athenians were known for going to court as jurymen were paid. This is also reflected in Lysistrata with the men on making their appearance immediately become worried that the Spartans are uniting with women to steal their “jury fees” again a joke on how deeply Athenian men valued their jury fees. In addition to this, Aristophanes further explores comedy of its time through other social and political issues that were current at the time of the plays. We witness this when we see how the parabasis throws comical insults at the politician Cleon through typical political satire where they explain that Cleon should “shove his head into the stocks” and the mocking of the character of Socrates creates a larger sense comedy as it is based on a real life character. Aristophanes is able to create humour through the naming of both individuals making it more relatable to the audience of its time and so it is harder for us to acknowledge the comedy to the full extent it was aimed to create.
Mentioned above, the parabasis was another example of how there would be interludes in the plays and was comedy of its own time. There is a separation from play and the Clouds entertainingly speak to the audience as they are accused of letting The Clouds come third and how this play “retreated by vulgar works of vulgar men” – having a comedic stick at the audience. However, the concept of communicating with the audience is also timeless comedy as shown in Plautus’s plays with repeated “asides” given by characters like Palaestrio in The Swaggering Solidier where they amusingly, secretly talk to the audience to let their real feelings or intentions be known. In the Swaggering Soldier, the particular humorous scene is when Pyrgopolynices notices an “aside” as Palaestrio and Pleusicles are caught off guard – these strategies of comedy are found in today’s day and age and so the comedy is universal and timeless. Moreover, the chorus’s that are presented in Lysistrata and The Clouds demonstrate musical breaks and intervals of singing and narrating over certain events that occur throughout the play in a comedic manner - such as the Clouds who manage to deceive Strepsiades and the humorous conflict between the Chorus of old men and old women in Lysistrata. These comic interludes can be described as timeless and the comedy it portrays is not certain to its time. Furthermore, this can be referenced to the Swaggering Soldier where we observe a scene where Periplectomenus narrates to the audience the thinking of Palaestrio as he carries out different amusing actions and expressions. This is clearly timeless comedy as we experience the narration and the way Palaestrio is “deep in thought” whilst we notice the exciting tone in Periplectomenus’s voice as he narrates.
On the subject of comedy being timeless, it is noticeable how there are many comedic techniques such as slapstick, visual comedy, wordplay and malicious humour all demonstrated throughout all four plays which are just as funny in its own time as well as universal. Slapstick humour is particularly common in the plays written by Aristophanes; in the Clouds we see it with Pheidippides as he “pounds” his father into “mincemeat” after they have their differences over the teachings of the Thinkery. There is slapstick humour in Lysistrata too when the women “water” the men, therefore, certain comedy scenarios here are timeless since they can be realised by all audiences. Scatological humour and crude and coarse language across The Clouds and Lysistrata such as “gnat’s arsehole”, “goddamned scum” and ”thundercrap” as well as the constant sexual humour in Lysistrata are all timeless since they are not based on any issues related to the time of the play, but are simply present to create hilarity. Malicious humour can be found in all plays where Strepsiades tells the creditor he’d make “good wine skin” – essentially calling him fat. Then with Plautus we see malicious humour by Periplectomenus describing Sceledrus as a man with “less brains than a dead pig”. No matter what time period or audience this type of humour is successful in creating comedy for all and so can be described as “timeless”.
This differs to the comedy we see with things that are more relatable to that of the time of the plays including the old versus new generation found in The Clouds and the master-slave relationships found in Plautus. Firstly, it could be argued that the concept of the old versus new generation could be an example of how this comedy is also found today with typical old generations complaining about the current and new ones – explaining how the “olden days were better”. However, it is the specific examples used by the playwrights that make it comedy of its own time; in the Clouds we see a conflict between older generation and younger generation where Strepsiades wants his son to recite “Aeschylus” but he refuses opting to go for the more modern “Euripides” who talks about topics which do not appeal to the older peer groups. This is mirrored by the Right Argument and Wrong Argument who have conflicting views on society where the Right Argument portrayed by an older figure, argues from a more traditional perspective arguing over the way children used to act, more respectful to gods and t as oppose to the Wrong Argument who focuses more on a more lenient, modern approach – pointing out the wrongs in traditional society and the double standards of the gods along with immature, cheeky, comedic jokes. Consequently, this example displays how some comedic ideas are timeless, however it is the examples associated with them which reveal the comedy to its true extent.
Certain plays such as The Clouds and Lysistrata could be argued to have comedy that is more of its own time rather than comedy that is timeless due to the real life events and characters Aristophanes gave more focus to. Contrasting this, Plautus’s plays - The Swaggering Soldier and The Brothers Menaechmus could be argued to contain typical comedic, stereotypical characters with emphasis on simpler plots and consequently the comedy can be described as “timeless”. Despite this, all four plays demonstrate how comedy is both timeless which can be appreciated by all audiences and of its own time where audiences of the time can recognise the humour to a greater extent. Lysistrata is most suitable for the particular statement as it displays comedy of its own time with typical traits of women shown, based on the war but also does not fail to have timeless comedy with its numerous humorous devices which can be cherished by all audiences.