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Vaudeville vs Burlesque - What's the difference?

vaudeville | burlesque |

As nouns the difference between vaudeville and burlesque

is that vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatrical entertainment which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s while burlesque is a derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody.

As an adjective burlesque is

parodical; parodic.

As a verb burlesque is

to make a burlesque parody of.

vaudeville

English

Noun

(wikipedia vaudeville)
  • (historical, uncountable) A style of multi-act theatrical entertainment which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s.
  • (historical, countable) An entertainment in this style.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2008, date=January 28, author=Ben Brantley, title=Ta-ta! Give ’Em the Old Existential Soft-Shoe, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=“Me, Myself and I,” directed by Emily Mann and engagingly acted by a cast that includes the invaluable Albee veteran Brian Murray, is in the tradition of Mr. Albee’s mid- and late-career works like “The Marriage Play” and “The Play About the Baby”: fragmented philosophical vaudevilles that turn the most fundamental questions of identity into verbal soft-shoes. }}

    Synonyms

    * music hall (British)

    Derived terms

    * vaudevillian (noun)

    burlesque

    English

    (wikipedia burlesque)

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Parodical; parodic
  • * Addison
    • It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary, or in doggerel, like that of Hudibras.

    Derived terms

    * burlesquely

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody.
  • * Addison
    • Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people.
  • * Dryden
    • The dull burlesque appeared with impudence, / And pleased by novelty in spite of sense.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what [...] will prove a good burlesque  ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”}}
  • A variety adult entertainment show, usually including titillation such as striptease, most common from the 1880s to the 1930s.
  • A ludicrous imitation; a caricature; a travesty; a gross perversion.
  • * Burke
    • Who is it that admires, and from the heart is attached to, national representative assemblies, but must turn with horror and disgust from such a profane burlesque and abominable perversion of that sacred institute?

    Synonyms

    * (parody) lampoon, travesty

    Verb

    (burlesqu)
  • To make a parody of
  • * {{quote-news, 1988, February 5, Billie Lawless, Laying Down the Lawless, Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=When the venerable New York Times took my quote in which I described the neon elements as "burlesquing the myth of male dominance" and instead printed "he prefers to describe them as . . . symbols of male dominance" it became clear that dealing with journalists was going to be one long, rocky road.}}
  • To ridicule, or to make ludicrous by grotesque representation in action or in language.
  • * Stillingfleet
    • They burlesqued the prophet Jeremiah's words, and turned the expression he used into ridicule.
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