ABSTRACT
Clowning or slapstick always involves someone having an unpleasant experience, and Aristophanes is a master of comic suffering. But the nature and cause of the suffering vary. It may be inflicted on him by another character, who hits him or squashes him down (jack-in-the-box clowning) or throws something at him (custard-pie slapstick). Alternatively he may bring the experience on himself by his own clumsiness or stupidity, by putting on inappropriate clothes or by mishandling some physical object or by getting into a precarious location. The spectator laughs out of a sense of relief and superiority, because he is not in the uncomfortable situation himself. When the unpleasant experience is inflicted by another character, the spectator may feel a sense of identity with the aggressor, and so feel a release from the inhibitions which generally repress his own aggressiveness.
