Our Aristophanes

"I only know general things....I didn't know hemlock was poisonous!"

Begin at 3:08 to see Steve Martin playing the death of Socrates.

When I showed this short film to my Ancient Philosophy class this morning, I thought that it made more understandable how Aristophanes could have written the parody that he did. Steve Martin's character hardly resembles (what I take to be) the historical character--in fact, it is the opposite in many respects--yet it is a parody for all that, and very funny.