“This Isn’t Television, It’s National Therapy”:
Social Control in Aristophanes and Television Sketch Comedy

Anthony McCosham (Bowling Green State University)

In their study of satiric program and poetic identity in the works of Roman poet Juvenal and contemporary rap artist Eminem, Ralph M. Rosen and Victoria Baines acknowledge the pitfalls of comparing such disparate satiric forms.  But ultimately the two authors acknowledge the benefits of such a study, stating that

Systematic comparative analysis—addressing both resemblances and discontinuities—...can deepen our understanding of how each author should be interpreted within his own cultural context.  Although one might say that all comparative literary criticism strives for this goal in some sense, it is particularly useful in the case of satirical works, which tend to be highly localized with respect to time, place, and dramatis personae.  (105)

Adopting an approach similar to that of Rosen and Baines, this paper will focus on how Aristophanic and sketch comedy use comedy as a type of social control.  As Jeffrey Henderson has noted,  Old Comedy and Aristophanes’ use of comedic ridicule serve as a “social control,” allowing “for the release of pent-up tensions” that result from “disruptive but otherwise unpunishable behavior” in the city (295).  Similarly, sketch comedy also fills a social role (at once “democratic” and hegemonic) of keeping particular personalities in check through the outright mockery of celebrities, politicians, and cultural “others.”  Within this analysis, this paper will more broadly show how American sketch comedy programs like Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, Blue Collar TV and Chappelle’s Show have operated within American society in a manner much like Aristophanic comedy, employing a carnivalesque atmosphere allowing bawdy, outlandish humor and the mockery of public figures.  But whereas Aristophanes’ social observations were met with opposition from the likes of Cleon, television sketch comedy must fight against corporate and network censorship.  Ultimately, the goal of this comparison is to show what the work of (and about) Aristophanes can teach us about the under explored genre of sketch comedy and offer a new way of assessing the function and effectiveness of this style of comedy.  

Works Cited

Henderson, Jeffrey. “The Demos and the Comic Competition,” Nothing to Do with Dionysos?: Athenian Drama and Its Social Context, edited by John J. Winkler and Froma I. Zeitlin, 271-313.  Princeton: Princeton University, 1990.

Rosen, Ralph M. and Victoria Baines.  “‘I Am Whatever You Say I Am...’: Satiric Program in Juvenal and Eminem.”  Classical and Modern Literature.  22.2 (2002): 103-127.