Man and Superman: a comedy of ideas Shaw's Man and Superman is a comedy of ideas. He presents a good number of ideas in Man and Superman, but the way he deals with these ideas is comedic rather than serious. Serious ideas were presented with wit and humor. Because of this comic treatment of serious ideas, the play is considered a comedy of ideas. Shaw's aim was to make certain ideas, which were distasteful to early 20th century society, receive attention among the thinking public. With the wit and brilliance of a comedy he thought people would be interested, and once interest was created, the ideas presented alongside the comedy would be less objectionable. He succeeded to a large extent in his aim by presenting his unconventional ideas through comedy. The purpose of comedy is to entertain people. Along with this goal Shaw has the second goal that is more important than the first, to make people listen to something important. In comedy we see Show as a comedian with a serious purpose. Most of his ideas are original and unconventional. He chose drama as a medium to communicate his ideas. The substance of man and superman is of the utmost seriousness. But the representation is of the utmost lightness. Shaw calls the play a philosophy because he brought in all the topics under the blue sky for serious discussion. Sex, marriage, social reform or education, religion or superstition, evolution or physical science were discussed in the show. Shaw also expressed his views on happiness, love, women, art, socialism, democracy, industrialization, morality, virtue, sin, death, peace, war , about slavery and a host of other topics. His observations on all these countless topics are original and mind-blowing. But here the dialogue is written with so much wit and humor that the audience does not have a dull moment during the entire performance. There are many comic moments in the play. For example, when Shaw wants to express the idea that the idle rich are no better than thieves, he expresses it like this. Mendoza: I'm a brigand: I live by robbing the rich Tanner: I'm a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor. keeps us entertained as Shaw puts his ideas into our heads. He successfully dramatized philosophical ideas in a comedic manner. In a drama of ideas the characters talk about serious ideas. A drama of ideas often becomes boring, but in Man and Superman serious ideas are presented with wit and humor. The playwright does not treat serious ideas seriously, rather comically. So Man and Superman is a good example of a comedy of ideas.