Burlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration. In 20th century America, the form became associated with a variety show in which striptease is the chief attraction.
The term burlesque may be traced to folk poetry and theatre and apparently derived from the late Latin burra ('trifle’).
The origin of the term 'burlesque' is contentious with most citing the French burlesque, which is, in turn, ...
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Burlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration. In 20th century America, the form became associated with a variety show in which striptease is the chief attraction.
The term burlesque may be traced to folk poetry and theatre and apparently derived from the late Latin burra ('trifle’).
The origin of the term 'burlesque' is contentious with most citing the French burlesque, which is, in turn, was borrowed from the Italian burlesco, derived from the Spanish burla ('joke') as its root. Its literal meaning is to 'send up'. In Britain 'burlesque' in verse and prose was first popularised in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer's satirical The Canterbury Tales. Later many Irish and British satirical writers came to prominence with political and social burlesques in the 18th and 19th centuries such as William Makepeace Thackeray.
In 16th century Spain, playwright and poet, Miguel de Cervantes, ridiculed medieval romance in his many...
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