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How does Plautus use self-reflexive humor in Pseudolus? In other words, how does he get laughs by reminding his audience that they are watching a...

Plautus uses two framing devices at the beginning and the end of his work to remind his viewers that they are watching a play. In the two existing lines of his prologue, Plautus warns his theater-goers that his play is long and that now is the moment when they should get up and walk around:



Tis better for your loins to be stretched, and for you to arise. A long play of Plautus is coming upon the stage



At the end of the play, Simo asks the main character, trickster slave Pseudolus, if they should invite the audience to join them in drinking. Pseudolus says no, but asks viewers to applaud instead and invites them to the next play, showing that the characters in the play know they are performing.


Plautus makes another connection with the audience when he has a slave boy address the viewers directly, worrying about how he will get the money demanded by his owner, Ballio. But most importantly, Pseudolus himself knows he is acting in a play. He addresses the audience directly and draws viewers to his side, for example, by saying



Now will I adroitly batter down this Ballio, the common foe of me and all of you 



This may not be "laugh out loud" funny to modern audiences, but this was an early Roman drama and the addresses to the audience add a light-hearted, comic touch.

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