Short answers, pulled from the story.
Aristophanes was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens, known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy." He wrote forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete, and his surviving works are the most valued examples of the genre called Old Comedy.
Aristophanes wrote forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete. They are the only full-length examples of Old Comedy to have survived from antiquity, making them centrally important to modern understanding of the genre.
Aristophanes savaged the populist politician Cleon repeatedly after Cleon denounced his play The Babylonians as a slander against the Athenian polis. The satire had no effect on Cleon's career, who was elected to the board of ten generals a few weeks after The Knights, a play full of anti-Cleon jokes.
Plato singled out Aristophanes's play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and condemning to death of Socrates, who was the most obvious target of the play. Other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher, and it is not clear the plays were truly instrumental in his execution.
Aristophanes's plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, where they competed for prizes against other comic dramatists. The Theatre of Dionysus seated at least 10,000 people.
Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with The Banqueters and first prize there with The Babylonians. He was victorious at least three times at the Lenaia, with The Acharnians in 425, Knights in 424, and Frogs in 405, the last of which earned a repeat performance.
Latin translations of Aristophanes by Andreas Divus, published in Venice in 1528, spread through Renaissance Europe. Racine drew Les Plaideurs from The Wasps in 1668, and Goethe adapted Die Vögel from The Birds for Weimar.