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Comedy vs Burlesque - What's the difference?

comedy | burlesque |

As nouns the difference between comedy and burlesque

is that comedy is archaic Greece. a choric song of celebration or revel 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.

comedy

English

Alternative forms

* comedie * (archaic) * (archaic)

Noun

  • archaic Greece. a choric song of celebration or revel
  • ancient Greece. a light, amusing play with a happy ending
  • medieval Europe.'' a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., ''The Divine Comedy )
  • (drama) A dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone
  • (drama) The genre of such works
  • entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance
  • Why would you be watching comedy when there are kids starving right now?
  • the art of composing comedy
  • a humorous event
  • Antonyms

    * drama * tragedy

    Derived terms

    * comedic * comedically * comedy of errors * situation comedy, sitcom * comic * comedian

    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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