Archaisches Lachen

The comic is crucial to every culture: mocking established values, transcending the boundaries of morals and proprieties, dodging the laws of accepted logic. Being based mainly on performance, it takes its natural place in festival, dance and play(-acting). This nature of the comic is expressed far more directly in images than in language. Already in the Corinthian black-figure vase-painting of the 7th century, comic images hold an important position. Detlev Wannagat analyses their typology and