Greek and Roman comedy

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Greek and Roman Comedy
“Family Guy” is an adult American sitcom that was produced by a young animator, Seth MacFarlane when he was just 24 years for Fox broadcasting company. The sitcom had an excellent start and gained an enormous loyal fan base for the animated TV show. The series was a conception of two previous MacFarlane’s animations; Life of Larry and Larry and Steve, where Seth modified the characters to come up with the popular sitcom, Family guy. The series talks about the family of Peter Griffin and their dog Brian in a satirical American family. The show is set in Rhode Island in a fabricated city called Quahog. The series was aired for the first three seasons then canceled by FOX, but due to the high sale of DVDs and high public demand for the show, it was reinstated in 2004 and aired the 4th season in 2005.
The most significant civilizations in ancient times portrayed by the Greeks, they made many contributions to the life and culture of the American people in the modern day. For instance, Greek comedy by the famous comic artist Aristophanes that are still being referred to in the modern day American film industry. The plays that Aristophanes wrote during the Greek civilization have inspired the show, Family guy in many aspects of humor it exhibits. The two artists despite the period difference of producing their works, they show similarities in how they articulate and demonstrate their humor. Aristophanes’ dirty jokes, political satire, and toilet jokes have been adopted by the modern TV shows like Family Guy and Comic Central’s South Park, therefore, indicating the striking connection between Aristophanes’’ plays and current comedy shows.

The center of the film, Family Guy, is the Griffin family that includes two teenage kids, a genius baby, Peter Griffin and his wife Lois and their talking dog, Brian. The story takes different plots that highlight the several aspects of a less than ordinary American family and use this element to illustrate humor through catch phrases that each character has and cutaway gags. The humor in the film is portrayed from the spontaneous happenings in the movie that keep the audience glued and laughing. The film is set in Rhode Island in a city called Quahog. The characters in the film are the members of the Griffin household and occasional guest artists that star in various episodes.
The characters all have some uniqueness in their characters, for example, Peter the man of the house who is befuddled and obnoxious, His wife Lois who a stay at home mom and from a wealthy background (The Pewterschmidts). Brian, the dog, is intelligent and likes martini and talking too much, their teenage daughter Meg is too wise for her own good while their teenage son is overweight and unintelligent who is symbolic of his father, Peter. The last member of the family is Stewie, the kid who is diabolical and want to destroy anything he doesn’t like including her mother. The Film has some recurring cast that interact with the Griffin family once in a while they include; Quagmire who is sex razed and a pilot, Cleveland and Loretta who own deli owners and African American, Joe’s Family (Police officer) and Mort’s Jewish family who is a pharmacist. This demonstration the cultural and racial diversity in the film.

The tone of the show takes a somewhat dark or sad which makes it edgy as it progresses, the tone is clearly seen by the misfortunes and misunderstanding experienced by Glen Quagmire during the eighth season. The series of event shapes the episode and the decisions made by the actors for example when Glen murders her sister’s boyfriend after he was fed up with him mistreating her. Quagmire is also in a feud with his father when his he decided to come out openly regarding his sexuality, to Glen’s surprise. All this happened after Glen had changed for the better thus clarifying the dark tone of the film. Methods of humor that have been applied in modern films have been formulated and adapted from the prototypes of old Greek and Roman comedy (Brock, 15). Humor can be generated through visual aspects whereby the audience are made to laugh using actions and mostly classified as slapstick humor. Another is through text, which is referred to as verbal humor that is frequently utilized in this film. Irony can also be a source of humor as either rhetorical or situational in nature.
In comparing current TV show to the Aristophanes, we find striking similarities in the scenes and episodes in Modern films and plays by the great Greek comic artist, Aristophanes. Aristophanes used his comic plays among them, Knights, Clouds, Women at the Thesmophoria, Frogs, Assemblywomen, and Lysistrata, to entice his audience with different types of humor that can be related to modern day TV shows. The first type of humor that is seen in both works is satirical humor; satire is a literary work that highlights human faults and mistakes mainly political and ridicules such vices. In modern films, this is achieved by using cutaway gags, where the main filmed action is interrupted, and then the clips are shown. This has been used to air and create awareness and criticize the issues that are currently facing societies. While in old comedy humor was incorporated in places through visual actions that were interlaced precisely within a play.
In Family Guy, satirical humor is used to address all circumstances from politics to religion and even to sensitive matters. In the case of political satire, Seth MacFarlane uses some of the key works used in Barrack Obama’s campaign that is,” Change” and “Hope” to sooth and encourage a homeless man through Peter Griffin. (Ep 6, Sn7). The essence of satire here was to create awareness and sensitize the people on the importance of voting. This therefore categorizes the humor as a funny but positive criticism. In Aristophanes’ Knights, he articulates the aspect of political satire.
Filthy jokes are also an aspect of both Aristophanes and modern show Family Guy that is the use of dirty language or acts in a scene to express an idea. In old comedy, the theater was placed where individuals would go and escape all the appropriateness and decency that is always called for in many societies. Comic artists, therefore, used this opportunity to their advantage to directly make jokes or use toys such as Phalluses to entice their crowds. In his play, Frogs, Aristophanes displays very smutty and scatological jokes, for example when Dionysus and Xanthias are traveling, and Xanthias is in charge of the package thy two are conversing using crude and filthy language. They use words such as, to shift your load, and say that you are pooped? In modern day Family guy several scenes have indicated the aspect of filthiness, the show has had many farting scenes that have been used to break the silence in an awkward situation or to initiate a laugh from the audience. This demonstrates the connection between the old comedy and modern-day drama in alluring their audience.
Slapstick humor in the modern TV show is illustrated in several scenes; slapstick humor is where a straight physical act is enacted to look humorous. For example, in the shopping cart scene, where Peter Griffin made a fool of himself when he tried to copy a stunt from MTV, this act was directly humorous to the audience and requires no need for words (Ep5, Sn7). This failed stunt leads to Brain getting hurt. Another instance of slapstick humor is in “Whistle while your wife works” episode where people fall the stairs which appear to the audience as a funny way to start or introduce an event, this thus is a direct illustration of physical humor (Ep5, Sn5). In Aristophanes’ old comedy slapstick was a common type of humor because his comedy involved plays, he had a very prime opportunity to showcase his prowess in slapstick humor. It was illustrated in plays whereby intruders would be chased out of the stage with abuse and thus making the audience laugh and thus aim is achieved through the slapstick humor. This is seen in Knights 335-81 or Clouds 889-948 thus showing how they compare with the modern day methods of capturing the concentration of the audience.
Humor in modern TV shows as in Aristophanes’ plays are not choosy or categorical on how they target; they can be presidents or religious leaders, people from different races or even sensitive matters such as 9/11. Relief theory explains that some issues are difficult to address publicly, but with comedy and humor they can be addressed and made fun off without hurting people’s feelings. For example, when Family Guy makes fun of Former President George Bush when he is shown in the white house toying with a slinky and also when Addressing sensitive issues of Hurricane Katrina in another episode. In Aristophanes plays, he did not discriminate anyone in acting his plays, he involved and made jokes about his viewers that made them vibrant, and the viewers felt involved in the comedy (MacDowell, 29). For instance, he criticizes the political leaders and any of his viewers without fears.
Parody is making fun of myth, famous character or event to instigate humor to the audience. This type of humor is evident in both scenarios of discussion. In modern films, parody in the family guy has been illustrated in cutaway gags where Mr. Griffin and his infant son Stewie are shown boarding the Titanic. This is a parody because the Titanic is a well-known ship to warrant such status in comedy. This parody by Peter Griffin was intended for mockery of the Titanic. Parody is also seen when in the case of Joe, the policeman who is termed as the movie’s “tough guy” is portrayed in rather mocking circumstances where he is dressed in a woman clothes and overall he his disabled, yet he is the toughest guy. Aristophanes used parody in his plays to the Euripides and thus was able to gain financially from parodying such prominent people in the society. The two are brought out in Women at the Thesmophoria and frogs.
Old Comedy and modern comedy in TV shows can identify themselves with over exaggeration and drama in their contexts. These features in plays serve key roles in emphasizing certain issues that should be of concern to the public. In Family Guy, instances of over exaggeration can be seen in the scene where Stewie burns Olivia this act is exaggerated and dramatic given that Stewie is a kid. The other episode that relates Aristophanes comedy to the modern on is during the epic chicken fight that can be seen in season 10 of the film. This exaggeration carries a meaning that the reader of the viewer has to decode while at the same time imposing a comic effect on the same subjects. The ending scene in Aristophanes play, Clouds, directly relates to these extreme situations in new filming.
The most interesting and the positively reacted to by the audience is sexual humor which can be dubbed bawdy when it is humorously obscene and indecent or ribald if it contains some aspect, of course, indecent humor. In the film, Family Guy, this type of humor is seen when Mr. Griffin goes to Washington with dick army (Ep5. Sn3). In this episode, he uses the term dick to elicit some sexual thought in the viewer’s mind. This can be perceived as ribald and in another episode where bawdy can be seen, is when penis and sexual jokes are made about Peter in the episode, “The Kind is Dead” where he pitches Mr. Zucchini Head which means “dick” in a twisted form (Ep7, Sn2). This rampant jokes about sex and dick can be equally matched with those in Aristophanes’’ play, Lysistrata (Sourvinou, 340). He used various sexual innuendos to express and portray his humor to his viewers or in some other instances he used direct terms to address when it was more appropriate. In the conversation between Cinesias and a Spartan Herald, crude language referring for example Cinesias tells the Herald that he has a hard on! this illustrates the extent of Aristophanes sexual humor.
In conclusion, when we analyze both scenarios, that is the old comedy by Aristophanes and the modern comedy films, represented by Family Guy in our case we notice that they both have an impact on each other. The Aristophanes comic plays were the source of the trends and styles to comedy using humor that inspired generations and advanced and diversified it use. The modern comic film, on the other hand, has acted to preserve and revitalize the impact and the passion they people had cultivated for such comedy. Therefore, the modern day film industry ensures the memories of the legends in comedy remains fresh as were appreciate in our daily lives as we watch the modern films that were inspired by them. The knowledge that was gained from the Greeks and Romans in its original nature has preserved by different aspects of modern comedy. This has been done by the maintenance of the original purpose of such humorous experiences to provide jokes and fun filled experiences for the audience at all times.
Works Cited
Brock, R. W. “The Double Plot in Aristophanes'” Knights.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 27.1 (1986): 15.
MacDowell, Douglas Maurice. Aristophanes and Athens: an introduction to the plays. Oxford University Press, 1995.
Sourvinou, Christiane. “Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 641–647.” The Classical Quarterly (New Series) 21.02 (1971): 339-342.