Air Raid Robertson

Author notes

Make Mine Aristophanes Page 5

Air Raid Robertson

on March 6, 2012

A few of you may not be well versed in classical Greek theater, so I will take a moment to point out that the giant dung beetle is a part of Aristophanes' Peace. And, also, that line about Trygaeus "doubling the use of his food budget" is taken from the play's dialogue.


When I was first exposed to Aristophanes I heard a lot about how he's the spiritual father of Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks, and the creators of South Park. At first, I thought my professor was being pretentious. However, upon reading the man's work, I found that Aristophanes liked to blend social and political satire with a barrage of poop, fart, sex, and scatalogical jokes.


So, yeah, he's definitely the spiritual father of Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone.


For a little while I thought about having Air Raid Robertson interact with The Birds, but I went with Peace since I thought the image of a man riding a giant dung beetle is just too visually striking to ignore.