Spoudaiogeloion

Spoudaiogeloion (Greek: σπουδαιογέλοιον) denotes the mixture of serious and comical elements stylistically. The word comes from the Greek σπουδαῖον spoudaion, "serious", and γελοῖον geloion, "comical". The combination first appears in Aristophanes's Frogs.

Plato made extensive use of this tone in his Gorgias, Euthydemus, Republic, and Laws, and it is thematic in Xenophon's Symposium and the fourth book of his Memorabilia.

The serio-comic style became a rhetorical mainstay of the Cynics, and the Romans gave it its own genre in the form of satire, contributed to most notably by the poets Horace and Juvenal.