Simplify the following text for a Grade 5 native English-speaking person.
Original: Plays and comic puppet theater loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century , often reducing Faust and Mephistopheles to figures of vulgar fun .
Simplified: Some of the plays and comic puppet theater from around the 16th century make up their own versions of the story . They often show Faust as a figure of vulgar fun .