Laughter: More than Inconsequence

     I always thought laughter was some inconsequential byproduct of an arbitrarily humorous event. Never did it occur to me that it is a subconscious construction designed for societal improvement. Even further than that, my understanding of knowledge would have been unlikely to obtain the notion that laughter could be used as a tool to appeal to the conscience of an audience, in order for them to see just how ridiculous or notwithstanding their perception of something might be. 

     In reexamining Lysistrata, it can easily be seen how laughter can be harnessed as the "spoonful of sugar" with which the medicines of social improvement and criticism can more easily go down. Obviously, nobody particularly enjoys being shown that their current understanding of things is wrong, and thus for this reason social criticisms can be difficult to convey to an uneager audience, just as medicine is often difficult to administer to those unwitting to its value. So, like the sugar to the medicine, the laughter that a comedy can invoke can serve as a lubricant to the delivery of a constructive message otherwise not as amicable to the audience. 

     Aristophanes utilizes many invocations of laughter to convey the point more easily to the audience. Take the scene where Kinesias uses the child between himself and Myrrhine as a means of luring into bed with him for example. In this scene, he tries to get her to give up her cause and return to the way of things before Lysistrata's female-led revolution. This scene exists only to serve as an exposition of the strength and resilience of the Athenian women, especially in contrast to the sexual, simple-mindedness of their counterparts. The Greek men watching this play probably wouldn't have recieved well the raw statement "women can be stronger than you men," between gender-roles associated with the society of their time as well as their arete, or sense of pride in manhood. However, when comic elements of the scene are in place, such as Kinesias's ridiculous, under-breath mutterings to his son for him to scream for his mother, the audience will more easily accept the message and all that comes with it- criticism included. The men can laugh at just how ridiculous and desparate Kinesias's methods are in getting his way, and in doing so are more likely to swallow the virtue of Myrrhine here as well. 

     Thinking of laughter as a form of social-improvement-lubricant, it's quite easy to see just how far off it would be to take laughter as merely an inconsequential by-product. Clearly laughter has both practical purpose as well as physical effect, and has been used for centuries to filter concepts into a language that nearly everyone can understand.

** Sorry for the length, but when I read "in-depth" for this assignment, I wasn't sure if that requirement had changed or not, so I played it safe and took my time developing my thoughts. Thanks for reading!**