Comedy, satire and society: SQA Advanced Higher Classical Studies quiz quiz

A strictly realistic premise

A fantastical or absurd premise

A ban on the chorus

Silence from the actors

They generate the comic effect and licence serious comment

They slow the play down

They hide the plot

They replace the actors

Writing a letter

A messenger speech

Breaking the dramatic frame to speak to the audience

A silent scene

Only the weather

Only private family life

Only the gods

Named leaders, live policy and the institutions of the day

Because it comes wrapped in a fantastical premise and jokes

Because it is always pro government

Because it avoids politics

Because it is written in prose

Nothing at all

A festival setting, free speech and the licence of the comic frame

The approval of the army

The length of the play

Plot, setting and theme

Rhyme, metre and rhythm

Ridicule, exaggeration and caricature

Speeches, choruses and songs

It always succeeds

It has no targets

It cannot use irony

The risk of reprisal, misfiring, or merely entertaining

Because it is always true

Because a joke only works if the audience shares its assumptions

Because it is written by historians

Because it avoids exaggeration

Because it exaggerates and distorts, a funhouse mirror not a photograph

Because it is always serious

Because it never mentions society

Because it is too short

Nothing about the audience

Only the author's taste

A prejudice shared by the audience

The price of theatre tickets

Retelling the jokes instead of analysing their effect and purpose

Weighing comic effect against serious comment

Using specific evidence

Engaging with scholarship

As a sober political tract

By ignoring the humour

By ignoring the politics

By weighing the seriousness of the comment against the comic frame

Whether it is funny enough

Whether ridicule changes anything or merely entertains

Whether it is long enough

Whether it rhymes