Comedy has evolved in many ways over the past two thousand years or so since the writings of Plautus and Aristophanes, and yet, there are many things that remain the same. When you look at modern comedy, such as the film "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the connections between old Greek Comedy and the humor that exists today are very apparent. More specifically, when comparing the film to Plautus' Mostellaria one can see that the two contain many comedic and structural similarities. They both have similar plot ideas and the character structures are very alike as well, but what gives both stories the ability to contain so many similarities and still appeal to their intended audiences during vastly different time periods are how they alter the content of each joke to match the knowledge, values, and norms of the society in which they were written to entertain. The first signs of similarity between "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and Mostellaria is the plot structure and the character personalities. All of the basic stock characters are easily identifiable in both stories. Both father characters are easily relatable to the "senex" stock character due to their overly lax character traits and how they both are fooled by a "servi" due to their son's ("adolescens'") mischievous actions. In addition to the similarities between the "senex" and "servi," the son in both stories confuses lust for love in the way they few a certain "meretrix" in the two stories. In a lot of ways, the two are mirror images of the same story, with the only differences being the scenario in which the problem has risen and the language and physical actions used to display humor. Besides the similarities between the characters, the plot's are very similar as well. The problem in both stories are a direct result of the "adolescens" and its up to the "servi" to fix the issue, and just when the issue is beginning to be solved, the "senex" comes home unexpectedly and then, unknowingly, complicates the issue even more. As both stories continue, the plots become more and more similar. Besides basic story structure similarities, humor is used in a similar way throughout both stories. The opening scenes for both show a comedic interaction between two servants (slaves) of the main family. One servant seems to be extremely quick-witted and has a history for trouble-making, while the other slave is a bit more dull and does things in an ethical way that agrees with his morals. An example of the this humorous exchange is at the end of Act 1, Scene 1; Tranio pretty handedly wins the battle of wits and then precedes to exit the conversation, then upon his exit, Grumio expresses "Is he really gone? Not to care one straw for what I've said!," (Corrigan) as if he won the exchange, when, as the audience, we have a clear understanding that he did not. Through interactions such as this, one can see that although there are many cultural differences between the times of the Greek Empire and the times of modern comedy, humor caused by a different level of knowledge between character and audience is still considered humorous. Also, comedy involving a playful battle of wits through the use of insults and play on words is still found funny by most modern cultures. While a lot of the humor and plot structure in Mostellaria has transferred to modern reflections, such as the movie "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Not all humor is able to translate over exactly. Going back to Act 1, Scene 1 in Mostellaria, the original text, pre-translation, would not have been able to appeal to modern cultures to the extent of the English version. This is because the norms and values have changed over time. Robert Corrigan (translator for Mostellaria) does a good job of explaining the character differences between Tranio and Grumio in terms that people of modern times would understand. One of the first things Tranio says to Grumion is "Do you fancy yourself to be in the country? Get out of the house; be off into the country." (Corrigan) This allows the audience to know that Grumio is supposed to be unrefined/uneducated because of the stereotypes we, as a society, associate with people from the country. Translations like this are necessary because only someone who completely understands Ancient Greek culture would be able to fully understand some of the comedy used in the original writing; and even then, there is a likely possibility that some of the humor still wouldn't be understood completely. Although not all humor from the times of Ancient Greece and able to be understood in modern times because of the differences in knowledge, values, and norms, they are still important to study. It is important to understand the evolution of comedy, not just to better understand comedy, but to better understand the evolution of culture and civilization. Comedy is a great way of understanding a society's values and way of thinking through what they considered to be normal or acceptable in society, and what was considered to be unacceptable and inappropriate. All in all, comedy has evolved in order to stay appealing to modern societies, however, the core foundation of what is considered comedy has not been lost. Many structural similarities exist between old comedy and new comedy. The types of scenarios in which people find things funny have changed only slightly, if at all. Paul Lewis said that "Humorous experiences originate in the perception of an incongruity." (Lewis) This can pretty accurately explain how the same scenario explained one way two thousand years ago can still be considered comedy today so long as it is explained in a way that the audience can perceive the incongruity that is trying to be explained. This is why it is important that society continues to study older comedy because it will allow people to broaden their understanding of comedy so that old works like Mostellaria can continue to be appreciate as comedy.

Works Cited:
1. Corrigan, Robert W. Classical Comedy - Greek and Roman: Six Plays. Print. Mostellaria.
2. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Dir. Richard Lester. Perf. Zero Mostel, Phil Sivers, Buster Keaton. 1966.