burlesque

an artistic composition, especially literary or dramatic, that, for the sake of laughter, vulgarizes lofty material or treats ordinary material with mock dignity. any ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature.

Other Notable Burlesque Works

• The Comedies of Aristophanes.
• "Tale of Sir Thopas" (1387) by Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Morgante (1483) by Luigi Pulci.
• The Virgile Travesty (1648-53) by Paul Scarron.
• The Rehearsal (1671) by George Villier.
• Beggar's Opera (1728) by John Gay.
• Chrononhotonthologos (1734) by Henry Carey.

mockery Burlesque comes from the Italian and means “mockery.” Historically, it was used to refer to an array of entertainment that used caricature, ridicule, and distortion. The word was first used in the 1500s by the Italian Francesco Berni, who called his operas burleschi.

A burlesque show is not like going to a strip club. Unlike a strip club, you should not necessarily expect nudity from a burlesque show. Dancers at a burlesque show plan their routines carefully and do a lot of training, just like strippers do. Burlesque performers incorporate lots of different talents into their acts.

American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity.

Burlesque (pronounced ber-lesk) is a style in literature and drama that mocks or imitates a subject by representing it in an ironic or ludicrous way; resulting in comedy. It is a form of the literary genre, satire.

Blending together blues and country with early rock and roll, rockabilly music plays the perfect background for burlesque, providing smash hits like these.

Blending together blues and country with early rock and roll, rockabilly music plays the perfect background for burlesque, providing smash hits like these.

Where Burlesque Began. Victorian burlesque was popular in London theatres from the 1830s to the 1890s. It took well-known culture like opera or Shakespeare and parodied it. They would often use the original music or popular music of the time and re-write the lyrics for comic effect.

In 1860, the humorous and mocking stage act known as burlesque, which appealed to the masculine gaze, gained enormous popularity all over the United States. Beautiful women, provocative dancing moves, crude comic sketches, and musical performances were common elements of burlesque shows.

Burlesque shows allow for personal exploration and entertainment to collide. Entertainment can bring novelty and vitality to everyday life, including one's sexuality. Many seek out burlesque for the same reasons. It is an outlet for the erotic sensual self.

Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by making fun of (or "burlesquing") the operas, plays and social habits of the upper classes. These shows used comedy and music to challenge the established way of looking at things.