The Fight of the Comedian: Comedy as the Arena of Philosophical Thought in Society

Aristophanes describes The Clouds as “the wisest” of his comedies. The choice of wisdom as an attribute of comedy seems strange because the common perception of comedy understands it to be concerned with the absurd and the ridiculous. Wisdom is associated more with philosophy. This paper argues that comedy is an arena for philosophical ideas in society. This paper traces the ancient Greek philosophical fight of Aristophanes and Socrates and its manifestation in the arena of comedy within the two comedies The Clouds and The Cynics’ way of life. In this paper, there are also examples from the Egyptian comedian theatre like The Married, Imprison Your Daughters and It Is Truly a Very Respectful Family and the Egyptian comedian media like Al Hudood mock news website. The analysis of these examples supports the claim that comedy is the arena of philosophical thought in different societies and times (not only in ancient Greece). The larger aim of this paper is to examine the philosophical potential of comedy and its effect within the realm of ideas in society.


Introduction
"Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipp'd out…" said the Fool of King Lear.
In Sam Hall's book Shakespeare's Folly: Philosophy, Humanism, Critical Theory, (Hall, 2016)  Socrates is considered the founder of Western philosopher therefore; the first section of this paper will examine Socrates as both a comedian and a philosopher who challenged the established conceptual institutions of the Ancient Greek society.

Socrates (Critique of Established Conceptual Institutions) vs.
Aristophanes (Protection of Conventionality)

Socrates (The Critique of Established Conceptual Institutions)
In Another example of The Socratic Method and its strong critique of social and religious foundations is The Symposium. In The Symposium, Socrates makes a very strong statement by denying the divinity of Eros and defending the point of view that Eros is neither human nor God. Socrates also makes another strong claim in The Symposium. Socrates claims that Eros is a lover of wisdom (a philosopher). These claims help us in understanding how Socrates was not afraid even to deprive a God of its divinity because he places the love of wisdom (philosophy) above the divinity of Eros.

Aristophanes' Clouds (Protection of Conventionality)
Aristophanes said: "This comedy is the most intelligent of all my plays…This comedy has come hoping she can find somewhere in here, spectators as intelligence". In another translation the word "intelligent" can be replaced by "wise." What Aristophanes meant is extremely important because he connects his comedy to wisdom. Wisdom is the end of philosophy and therefore, Aristophanes envisions a relationship between comedy and the formation of ideas. Aristophanes wants his audience to engage with his comedy and to be able to reflect on it and form deeper ideas from it.
The main target of the Clouds is to attack Socrates. Aristophanes wants to fight The Socratic Method that attacks conventional morality, religion and established common sense. Aristophanes views Socrates as a threat and wants to Y. M. Hamouda Open Journal of Philosophy warn The Athenians of him and his ideas. In Strepsiades, Socrates and the Abuses of Intellectualism, Peter Greenreads Aristophanes as attacking Socrates on descending from heaven and abandoning his "airier pretensions" (Green, 1979 is that most people who will become the students of Socrates will not really believe in his ideas but rather will abuse his ideas to destroy all institutions like religion, morality and law. In The Enemies of Socrates: Piety and Sophism in the Socratic Drama; Kenneth C. Blanchard argues that Aristophanes draws in The Clouds the image of an immature Socrates who does not understand that philosophy can be dangerous if it is widespread among the masses (Blanchard, 2000). Blanchard claims: "In Aristophanes' Clouds, Socrates is presented as dangerously naïve… philosophy must be disguised or at least artfully represented, in order to mitigate tension between the philosopher and the city; that philosophy in its undisguised essence is corrosive of piety and morality". Here, Blanchard shows how Aristophanes views Socrates and his Socratic Method that makes philosophy accessible to the masses as dangerous and destructive.
In the Thinkery, students do not care about any material goods and prefers thought to food, cleanliness and luxurious life. Aristophanes does not accuse Socrates of desires; he even mocks Socrates' minimalism. Aristophanes rather argues that the people who have desires that control them will abuse The Socratic Method to destroy all the foundations of morality and law and to gain unfair privileges without even believing in the ideas of Socrates. Strepsiades still swears by Poseidon despite being taught not to believe in religion and claiming to do so.
Aristophanes' critique of thought and speech has two reasons; the first of them is that thought and speech can defend anything whether just or unjust; "They become anything they want".
The second reason for Aristophanes' rejection of thought and speech is its inferiority and uselessness compared to violence. One of Nietzsche's main ideas in Twilight of the Idols is to contrast Socrates' speech and thought to Athenian's violence and to consider Socrates a turning point towards the rejection of violence and the triumph of thought. Nietzsche claims: "With Socrates, Greek taste takes a turn in favor of dialectic. What is really happening there? Primarily, a noble taste is thereby defeated; with dialectic, the rabble rises to the top. Before Socrates, dialectical manners were rejected in good society. They were taken to be bad manners, they were a compromising exposure…Dialectic is chosen only as a last resort. It's well known that it creates mistrust that it is not very convincing. Nothing can be wiped away more easily than a dialectician's effect: this is proven by the experience of every gathering where people speak. It can only be self-defense in the hands of those who don't have any other weapons. One needs Aristophanes understands this about Socrates and he attacks it strongly. He claims that speech is not for strong people who want to really work and fight: "they're heavenly Clouds, great goddesses for lazy men-from them we get our thoughts." Here, Aristophanes draws a connection between using speech and being lazy. For Aristophanes, the strong and active individuals do not resort to speech.
Aristophanes connects institutions together; he thinks that religion, tradition, morality, law, military power and patriarchy are related. For him, Socrates is not only a threat to religion and tradition but also to morality, law and patriarchy because they are all connected and they are all forms of power that get chal-  Socrates was stabbed to death by The Clouds on the arena of Athenian comedy.

Aristophanes (Protection of Conventionality) vs. the Cynics' Way of Life (Rebellion against Conventionality)
Did  (Africa, 1959). Africa argues that the Cynics are more focused on their personality rather than their thought. He mentions Cercidas the Cynic and how he accuses religion of protecting the rich centuries before Marx's "opium of the masses." Cercidas calls Zeus "a real father to some but only a step-father to others." Africa even concludes that the Cynics are the philosophical inspiration of the Spartan Revolution. Cercidas' statement shows that the Cynics view laws, conventional morality and religion as only forms of protection to the rich and the stronger. For the Cynics, these institution are not natural but rather ways of protecting the stronger in the society.

The Lives of Eminent Philosophers for Diogenes Laertius was written in 300
A.D. It is the best source for understanding the Cynics because it is one of the sources that give us an image about different philosophers in their everyday lives and not in their written philosophy. This approach is specifically beneficial to us in understanding the Cynics because most of them view philosophy more as a lived life rather than a written discipline. In this aspect, they follow their master Socrates.
The Cynics reject all institutions even the social ones like marriage; Antis- that women played an important role in ancient philosophy but both the modern and the ancient sources do not give us enough information about them because of sexism (Wider, 1986). Wider mentions in her paper important ancient female philosophers like Aspasia, Diotima, Hypatia, Arete, Pamphile, the women Epicureans and Hipparchia. According to Diogenes Laertius; Hipparchia submits to marriage as a social institution but she fights patriarchy and all the social conceptions of appropriate behavior. She loves Crates who is years older than herself and leaves all his money behind him to pursue the destitute life of a Cynic philosopher. She insists on marrying him despite all the pressure from her parents and the rejection of even Crates himself. A lot of rich and young good looking men propose to her but she rejects them and insists to marry Crates and when her family uses Crates to convince her to leave him, she threatens to commit suicide if she does not marry him. In this age, we may consider Hipparchia's behavior crazy love but in the type of patriarchal society in which she lives, her decision and insistence on marrying the man she loves even if it costs her life is a revolutionary act against society. Hipparchia's rebellion against her patriarchal society does not end by her marriage to Crates; it rather starts. She pursues a Cynic life and abandons all her luxury. She becomes a philosopher and attends the symposiums where philosophical discussions occur. When Theodorus rejects her attendance to a symposium, she uses the Cynics weapon to defend her right; she uses a funny syllogism: The Cynics reject money. Crates is born rich but he donates all his money. It is even said that Crates leaves his money in the hands of a banker and orders the banker to ask his children when they mature whether they want to pursue a philosophical life or not so that they can choose between money and philosophy. Diogenes views money as a barrier to happiness and he calls rich people "the sheep with the golden fleece"and when he is asked about the reason for gold's pale colour, he answers: "it has many thieves plotting against it." One of Dio-

genes' main critiques of Plato is Plato's luxurious way of life and pride. When
Plato invites him to his house for dinner, Diogenes rolls on the carpet and says: "I trample on Plato's vain glory." The real strength that allows the Cynics to defy all laws of society is their disbelief in all forms of power and control and their belief in freedom. They never give weight to the majourity's opinion of them. They mock even the institution of religion: When Athenians ask Diogenes to be "initiated", he answers mockingly: "It would be ludicrous if Agesileus and Epaminondas are to dwell in the mire, while certain folk of no account will live in the Isle of the Blest because they have been initiated." He even mocks the people who perform purification: "Unhappy man, don't you know that you can no more get rid of errors of conduct sprinklings than you can of mistakes of grammar?" Diogenes devaluates the importance and impact of religious rituals like initiation and purification. He states that they cannot be a way to a better position in front of the Gods without moral personality and actions.
The Cynics attack philosophical doctrines raising doubt in them. When Diogenes hears someone talking about the Celestial world he asks him: "Were you in coming from the sky?" Plato receives tremendous attacks from Antisthenes and Diogenes. When Plato calls the human being "an animal, biped and featherless", he is well-regarded. Diogenes answers Plato's statement by comedy. Diogenes brings a plucked fowl into Plato's lecture and says: "Here is Plato's man."Diogenes' extensive attack on Plato makes Plato call him a dog. Diogenes answers Plato's offence by this statement: "Quite true for I come back again and again to those who have sold me."The Cynics are known as dogs. This name may refer to their deprived and ugly way of life but it may also refer to their character as emotional, authentic and loyal. The Cynics try to be independent even from their natural needs. They want to be stronger than their natural human weaknesses. Diogenes walks on snow and tries to eat meat without cooking. In winter, he hugs statues covered in snow and in summer, he tortures himself by rolling in his metallic pipe. He tries to defeat his bodily weaknesses. although I am a slave for if a physician or a steer man were in slavery, he would be obeyed". He is not afraid of being beaten or tortured by his master. He courageously confronts his master and states that he is the one who must be obeyed.
He reverses the power structure between a master and a slave. In slavery; he never seizes to be free from fear and submission.

The Modern Egyptian Comedy
This section of the paper tries to establish that the relationship between comedy and the philosophical ideas in society is not exclusive for the ancient Greek so- The most interesting section of Al Hudood is the section titled "We Wish It Was Al Hudood." In this section, Al Hudood presents real news pieces. This section tells the reader the subversive message of Al Hudood that reality is more ri- The first headline was published in Al Hudood as a mock news piece in July 2018 while the second news piece was published in November 2018 as a real news piece in different Egyptian news websites. Here, we find ourselves in front of a case in which comedy predicts reality. It is more than a coincidence. Comedy has a mysterious mesmerizing relationship to both reality and thought. This paper examined the relationship between comedy and philosophical thought but it remains for other scholars to examine the relationship between comedy and reality.

Conclusion
This

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.