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Definition: burlesque 1 from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(1667) 1 : a literary or dramatic work that seeks to ridicule by means of grotesque exaggeration or comic imitation 2 : mockery usu. by caricature 3 : theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and sometimes striptease acts syn see CARICATURE

burlesque adj

bur•lesque•ly adv


burlesque

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(bûrlĕsk') [Ital.,=mockery], form of entertainment differing from comedy or farce in that it achieves its effects through caricature, ridicule, and distortion. It differs from satire in that it is devoid of any ethical element. The word first came into use in the 16th cent. in an opera of the Italian Francesco Berni, who called his works burleschi. Early English burlesque often ridiculed celebrated literary works, especially sentimental drama. Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle (1613), Buckingham's The Rehearsal (1671), Gay's Beggar's Opera (1728), Fielding's Tom Thumb (1730), and Sheridan's Critic (1779) may be classed as dramatic burlesque. In the 19th cent. English burlesque depended less on parody of literary styles and models. H. J. Bryon was a major writer of the new, pun-filled burlesque. The extravaganza and burletta were forms of amusement similar to burlesque, the latter being primarily a musical production. They were performed in small theaters in an effort…
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Full text Article burlesque.

From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting
Theatrical burlesque flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generating appropriately heightened styles of acting to ensure it was effective. Burlesques parodied heroic tragedy, Shakespeare, opera, and, in the nineteenth century, melodrama , through either the deployment of…
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Full text Article burlesque

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(bûrlĕsk') [Ital.,=mockery], form of entertainment differing from comedy or farce in that it achieves its effects through caricature, ridicule, and distortion. It differs from satire in that it is devoid of any ethical element. The word first came into use in the 16th cent. in an opera of the…
| 302 words
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Full text Article burlesque

From The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance
In the Restoration and eighteenth-century English theatre the word ‘burlesque’ was applied to plays like *Fielding 's Tragedy of Tragedies and *Sheridan 's The Critic, which were *parodies of contemporary theatrical conventions of writing and staging. This tradition continued into the nineteenth…
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Full text Article BURLESQUE

From 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style
When, as a joke, French designer Jean Paul Gaultier devised a conical bra bustier for Nana, his teddy bear, he did not expect a version to be worn as stagewear by Madonna for her ‘Blond Ambition’ tour of 1990. But with her doing so, the idea of underwear as outerwear was at once cemented in the…
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Full text Article Burlesque [Fr.]

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
1. Burlesca . 2. In England beginning in the late 17th century, a satirical parody of a stage work, often of an opera or ballad opera. Examples include The Opera of Operas, or Tom Thumb the Great (1733, after Fielding's The Tragedy of Tragedies ), with music for two versions by C. John Frederick…
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Full text Article burlesque

From The Macquarie Dictionary
an artistic composition, especially literary or dramatic, which, for the sake of laughter, vulgarises lofty material or treats ordinary material with mock dignity. Plural: burlesques any ludicrous take-off or debasing caricature. Plural: burlesques a theatrical or cabaret entertainment featuring…
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Full text Article burlesque

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
In literature, comic imitation of a serious literary or artistic form that relies on an extravagant incongruity between a subject and its treatment. It is closely related to parody , though burlesque is generally broader and coarser. Early examples include the comedies of Aristophanes . English…
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Full text Article burlesque

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
A literary or dramatic work that makes fun of something, often by means of outlandish exaggeration. A ludicrous or mocking imitation; a travesty: The antics of the defense attorneys turned the trial into a burlesque of justice. A variety show characterized by broad ribald comedy, dancing, and…
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Full text Article burlesque

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In the 17th and 18th centuries, a form of satirical comedy parodying a particular play or dramatic genre. For example, John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera (1728) is a burlesque of 18th-century opera, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's The Critic (1777) satirizes the sentimentality in contemporary drama. In…
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Full text Article burlesque

From Collins English Dictionary
n 1 an artistic work, esp literary or dramatic, satirizing a subject by caricaturing it 2 a ludicrous imitation or caricature 3 a play of the 17th–19th centuries that parodied some contemporary dramatic fashion or event 4 Also: burlesk US and Canadian theatre a bawdy comedy show of the late 19th and…
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