What is the function of the play within a play in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The
Mechanicals performance of Pyramus and Thisbe in s comedy A Midsummer Nights
Dream serves two primary functions.

The first function of the play
within a play is comedic. Bottom is one of the most loved characters in the play for good
reason! Watching the bumbling artisans, who believe themselves to be talented actors, trying to
string together a coherent performance for the royal wedding is riotously funny. The hyperbolic
power struggle between Bottom and Peter Quince leads to increasingly ridiculous suggestions from
the amateur cast members. For example, look at this exchange from Act I, as Bottom attempts to
persuade his friends that he can play all the characters of Pyramus and Thisbe simultaneously,
including a lion.

BOTTOM
Let me play the lion
too: I will roar, that I will
do any man's heart good to hear me; I will
roar,
that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,
let him roar
again.

QUINCE
An you should do it too terribly, you would
fright
the duchess...