Short answers, pulled from the story.
Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people involving blunders or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. He distinguished the genre from tragedy by its happy endings and use of comically exaggerated character archetypes.
Aristophanes was born in 446 BC and wrote works featuring pungent political satire with abundant sexual and scatological innuendo. His plays lampooned important personalities through buffoonish portrayals such as Socrates in The Clouds and included racy anti-war farces like Lysistrata.
No complete Middle Comic plays have been preserved which makes real assessment impossible for scholars studying this period. Ancient scholars viewed this era simply as later than Aristophanes but earlier than Menander while noting that the role of the chorus diminished until it had no influence on the plot.
Menander was born around 342 BC and became the most highly esteemed playwright of New Comedy despite Philemon regularly beating him in contests. His comedies centered on fears and foibles of ordinary men rather than politics and public life while presenting Athenian society in attractive colors without attempting criticism.
Plautus translated and adapted comedies by Diphilus demonstrating skill in construction of plots with Asinaria and Rudens standing as examples of these Roman adaptations. Horace claimed Menander as a model for his own gentle brand of Roman satire while the five-act structure first appeared in Menander's comedies where choral interludes were replaced by dialogue with song.