We may be laughing at what the Romans laughed at. Some Roman comedic techniques have survived to present day, one example being the “game” structure — the repeated disruption of mundane situations by weird happenings for comedic effect. Both Plautus’ “Rudens” and Key and Peele’s “Substitute Teacher” sketch use this device; the former makes a character say “licet” (“okay”) repeatedly to annoy another, while the latter makes the titular character mispronounce his students’ names while getting increasingly angry when they correct him. Read full article here
