Comic Panorama

This is a historical-aesthetic sketch of comedy. Like tragedy, comedy is of Greek origin. Aristotle links it to the burlesque processions in honor of the god of wine. Aristotle's Poetics only touches on comedy incidentally. It is defined there as an imitation of men at their worst, "without great virtue [...] not that it deals with vice in its totality, since the comic is only a part of the ugly. The comic is in fact a defect and an ugliness which do not involve pain or damage; thus for example a comic mask can be ugly and deformed without expressing pain". Contrary to tragedy, comedy stages an ordinary humanity, whose weaknesses and ridiculousness it caricatures with the avowed intention of provoking laughter and, if necessary, moral reflection.