Strepsiades is in a twister. It's the 25th of the month, and he owes a couple of creditors more money than he cares to pay. To make things more complicated, his lazy, horse-obsessed son Pheidippides (named for his favorite animal, no thanks to Strepsiades' damnable wife, niece of Megacles that she is) is a leech, living at his father's house, even though he's well into adulthood. Then, a lightbulb flashes over Strepsiades' head: He will send his son off to the Thinkery, that wonderful school of rhetoric, and have him learn the fine art of bullshit. Perhaps, once the young man is armed with knowledge on how to win arguments, he will be able to shake the debts off Strepsiades' back. Of course, as both father and son learn, twisters are twisters for a reason and are not easily untwisted.
Aristophanes' Ancient Greek comedy, originally written in 423 BCE and revised some years later, was originally written for Dionysia, a festival honoring
Dionysus, the god of wine and partying. It shows, no thanks to the humor, which is crude and at times
scatological. It treats the
viewers like morons, making a complete fool out of
Socrates (who, although he is a
Magnificent Bastard, was certainly not an idiot) and making fun of his profession. Perhaps that's why it was voted last out of three plays which were performed at the Dionysia that year.
The Clouds provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: The Clouds affectionately ribs Socrates. They were friends in Real Life.
- Debatable: Socrates was accused of worshipping new Gods and being a sophist in his trial, while this play shows him doing exactly that. It's hard for people now adays to say whether the play was meant to be ridiculous or if there was some indirect accusations in it that Aristophanes didn't want to bring to court. At very least, it's Harsher in Hindsight but it might also be a massive Take That that lead to some younger people taking Socrates to court themselves.
- Bigger Is Better In Bed: Inverted. According to the play, if you're a good man, your penis will be nice and small.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When the philosophers fail to teach his son properly, Strepsiades sees fit to burn down the Thinkery
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: the roles of Good and Bad Angel are played by a personified Right and Wrong arguments, who try to persuade the protagonist's son Pheidippides either to avoid or to enter into Socrates's sophistical "Thinkery," making this trope palaioteros apo to chôma.
- Metaphorically True: Socrates' teaching are based on relativity of everything and bending word meanings to suit one's will.
- Philosophy Is Wrong: It's up to debate whether The Clouds is a diatribe against philosophy in general, or only against its excesses, but it certainly contains a very scathing portrayal of philosophical wisdom.
- Socrates: As previously mentioned, Socrates — much like his contemporary Chaerophon would be if, y'know, he actually spoke in the play — is completely out of character (if Plato's dialogues are to be believed). He stays inside the Thinkery all day; flitters about pondering scientific mysteries such as "How far can a flea jump?"; and teaches young Greeks rhetoric, which — in Real Life, at least — was left to the sophists.
- Solar Powered Magnifying Glass: The gods used a set of lens to ignite the Olympic torch.
- Take That, Audience!: In a fourth-wall-breaking moment.
- Toilet Humor: At one point, Strepsiades is speaking to one of the students at the Thinkery, surrounded by kneeling students. When he's told that they are studying the reaches of Hell, he's quick to point out that their "third eyes" are facing the sky.
- Volleying Insults
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