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How did Aristophanes use comedy to criticize Athenian public figures and politics?

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Map showing the chief cities of Ancient Greece and surrounding regions, including locations such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Delphi, Thebes, Troy, Olympia, Syracuse, and Ephesus, along with notable islands and mountain ranges in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. — Greek literature A map shows the major regions and cities of ancient Greece.

As the primary representative of Old Comedy, Aristophanes utilized the unique political freedom of 5th-century BCE Athens to launch bold, satirical attacks on public figures and contemporary policies. His plays were characterized by a structure that included the parabasis, a segment where the chorus would step out of the narrative to address the audience directly, often delivering harsh criticism of prominent citizens and political affairs.1234

Aristophanes frequently employed "masterly unfairness" to lampoon his targets. Key examples of his political and social criticism include:3

Political Figures: He famously targeted the demagogue Cleon by name in plays such as Knights.23
Intellectuals: In Clouds, he unfairly portrayed Socrates as a Sophist who taught students how to use rhetoric to evade debts and justify immoral behavior.567
War and Society: He attacked Athenian war policies during the Peloponnesian War and used plays like Frogs and Lysistrata to critique literary figures and social norms.28

Through burlesque, fantasy, and invective, Aristophanes held Athenian democracy and its leaders to account, reflecting a level of public discourse that largely vanished after the fall of Athens.143