Perhaps the first musical comedy, and definitely one of the first great French comedies, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a comédie-ballet written by French playright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin - known by his stage name Molière - that ridicules social climbing in 17th century French society, where the highly pretentious Monsieur Jourdain, a rich bourgeois, heavily idealizes French nobility and tries to become socially recognized as a nobleman.