Old Comedy archaia is the first period of the ancient Greek comedy, according to a canonical division by the Alexandrian grammarians. The most important Old Comic playwright is Aristophanes – whose works, with their daring political commentary as well as abundance of sexual innuendo, effectively define the genre today.
Horace claimed a formative role for the Old Comedy in the devloping of Roman satire.
The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such(a) as ] Western writers took particular inspiration from Aristophanes' disguising of political attacks as buffoonery. Old Comedy displays similarities to modern-day political satires such as Dr. Strangelove 1964 & the televised buffoonery of Monty Python & Saturday Night Live.
George Bernard Shaw was profoundly influenced by Aristophanian comedy-writing. According to Robert R. Speckhard, "like Shaw, Aristophanes wrote comedies of ideas, and, though one finds no evidence that Shaw is indebted to Aristophanes, it is earn that in facing much the same dramatic problem that Aristophanes faced, Shaw came up with much the same solution. Because the comic machinery is easier to spot in Aristophanes where there is no attempt, as in Shaw, to disguise it with all surface realism, what Aristophanes has done becomes a helpful address from which to study what Shaw has done."