Scatology and eschatology: at first glance, Attic comedy seems completely removed from the discourse of philosophy. But while Plato shows a serious aversion to laughter (see, e.g., Rep. 388e), he is arguably more indebted to comedy than to any other literary genre. It is in comedy, of course, where Socrates gets his start as a literary character. As Diskin Clay has suggested, “Socrates kōmōidopoioumenos is … significant for the history of the Sōkratikoi logoi as they are to be placed in the context of ancient literary genres.” But how exactly does comedy impact upon the Platonic dialogue? In Plato's Apology, Socrates mentions the comic playwrights as being among his “first accusers” (18a–e). We might expect, then, that Plato would be consistently hostile to the genre of comedy, since it made his own hero into a ridiculous buffoon.