Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Parody |
ParodyNoun1. A composition that imitates somebody's style in a humorous way. 2. Humorous or satirical mimicry. Verb1. Make a spoof of; make fun of. 2. Make a parody of; "The students spoofed the teachers". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "parody" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Parody Father of Parody. Hippomax of Ephesus, The word parody means an ode which perverts the meaning of another ode. (Greek, para ode.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In contemporary usage, Parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. Parodies exists in all art media, including literature, music and cinema.
In Greek literature, parody is a type of poem that imitates another poem's style. Roman writers explain parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French Neo-classical literature, "parody" is also a type of poem where one work's style is imitated by another for humorous effects.
The first usage in English of the word "parody" is in Ben Jonson, in "Every Man in His Humour." Jonson uses the term without any explanation -- suggesting that the word was already understood by some part of the audience. Eighty years later, John Dryden is the next author to use "parody" in literature (i.e. not in a dictionary). In the "Preface to the Satires," Dryden explains that parody is an imitation of one poet's style for the purposes of making light of a fault in it. Dryden's definition is therefore a departure from previous usage (as he implies satire), and Dryden adapts what was still a foreign term (parody) to apply to a recent literary subgenre that had no name: the mock-heroic.
It is vital to realize that "parody," prior to the 18th century, was an effect or ornament roughly the equivalent of a musical "quotation." (Think, for example, of Mozart imitating bird songs, on the one hand, or of Felix Mendelssohn imitating Mozart, on the other.) In "MacFlecknoe," Dryden created an entire poem designed to ridicule by parody. Dryden imitates Virgil's Aeneid, but the poem is about Thomas Shadwell, a minor dramatist. The implicit contrast between the heroic style from Virgil and the poor quality of the hero, Shadwell, makes Shadwell seem even worse. When dressed in Aeneas's clothes, Shadwell looks all the more ridiculous. Other parodies of the Restoration and early 18th century were similar to Dryden's: they employed an imitaiton of something serious and revered to ridicule a low or foolish person or habit. This is generally referred to as mock heroic, a genre generally credited to Samuel Butler and his poem Hudibras. The contrast of very serious or exalted with very frivolous or worthless was later known as bathos, from Alexander Pope's "Peri Bathos."
Jonathan Swift is the first English author to apply the word "parody" to narrative prose, and it is perhaps because of a misunderstanding of Swift's own definition of "parody" that the term has since come to refer to any stylistic imitation that is intended to belittle. In "The Apology for the &c.," which is one of the prefaces to his A Tale of a Tub, Swift says that a parody is the imitation of an author one wishes to expose. In essence, this makes parody very little different from mockery and burlesque, and, given Swift's attention to language, it is likely that he knew this. In fact, Swift's definition of parody might well be a parody of Dryden's presumed habit of explaining the obvious or using loan words.
After Jonathan Swift, the term "parody" was used almost exclusively to refer to mockery, particularly in narrative.
In the late 20th century, literary theorists attempted to redefine "parody" as a generic compulsion and to make it into a condition of referentiality and intertextuality, rather than as the conscious act of a satirist. Therefore, all genres would begin in novelty, thrive in dialog with generic expectations, and end in parody.
Some genre film theorists see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre, especially in film. Westerns, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were lampooned. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.
Sometimes the reputation of a parody outlasts the reputation of what is being parodied. A notable case is the novel Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding (1742), which was a parody of the gloomy epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) by Samuel Richardson. Many of Lewis Carroll's parodies, such as "You Are Old, Father William", are much better known than the originals.
A subset of parody is self-parody in which an artist or genre repeats elements of earlier works to the point that originality is lost.
Although a parody can be considered a derivative work under United States Copyright Law it can be protected under the fair use of 17 USC § 107. In 2001, the federal Court of Appeals, 11th District in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin upheld the right of Alice Randall to publish a parody of Gone With the Wind called The Wind Done Gone, which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her. See also the Supreme Court of the United States case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music regarding the song Pretty Woman.
See literary technique.
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Examples
Parody film
This is a stub.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Parody."
Synonyms: ParodySynonyms: charade (n), lampoon (n), mockery (n), pasquinade (n), put-on (n), sendup (n), takeoff (n), travesty (n), burlesque (v), spoof (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Copy | Parody, caricature, burlesque, travesty, travestie, paraphrase. |
Imitation | Paraphrase, parody, take-off, lampoon, caricature. |
Mock, take off, mimic, ape, simulate, impersonate, personate; act; (drama); represent; counterfeit, parody, travesty, caricature, lampoon, burlesque. | |
Misinterpretation | Misrepresentation, perversion, exaggeration; false coloring, false construction; abuse of terms; parody, travesty; falsification; (lying). |
Misrepresentation | Verb: misrepresent, distort, overdraw, exaggerate, caricature, daub; burlesque, parody, travesty. |
Noun: misrepresentation, distortion, caricatura, exaggeration; daubing; Verb: bad likeness, daub, sign painting; scratch, caricature; anamorphosis; burlesque, falsification, misstatement; parody, lampoon, take-off, travesty. | |
Ridicule | Satirize, parody, caricature, burlesque, travesty. |
Parody, burlesque, travesty, travestie; farce; (drama); caricature. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Parody |
| English words defined with "parody": Batrachomyomachy, burlesque ♦ Parodical, Parodied, Parodies, Parodying ♦ spoof ♦ teasing, travesty. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "parody": Bad Thing ♦ Career Limiting Move, CLM ♦ filk ♦ Jeff K. ♦ Kvikkalkul ♦ P.O.D., Peterloo, plug-and-pray, point-and-drool interface ♦ snail-mail. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Babe Watch: Forbidden Parody (1996) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Parody. 605,000 sour grapes.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Everything may be parodied, even parody. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Bangladesh | In November 2000, a new sedition charge was filed against an editor, previously charged, Bahauddin, for publishing a parody of the national anthem mocking the Prime Minister. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Parody" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 93.87% of the time. "Parody" is used about 261 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 93.87% | 245 | 19,065 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 4.6% | 12 | 101,599 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.53% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Total | 100.00% | 261 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "parody" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Parody | Last name | 300 | 28,525 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "parody": mere parody of ♦ parody of a restaurant. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "parody": parody-hymn, parody-mass, parody-young. | |
Ending with "parody": self-parody. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
parody | 229 |
parody song | 119 |
matrix parody | 47 |
star war parody | 30 |
matrix mtv parody | 30 |
news parody | 29 |
master card parody | 24 |
priceless parody | 24 |
parody t shirt | 22 |
parody video | 18 |
lyrics parody | 18 |
parody poem | 15 |
music parody | 13 |
mp3 parody | 13 |
parody wavs | 12 |
satire and parody | 11 |
ignition parody | 11 |
50 cent parody | 10 |
movie parody | 10 |
parody tv | 9 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "parody"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | parodi (burlesque, skit, travesty), paradizoj, imitim i keq (caricature). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | محاكاة تهكمية ساخرة (spoof), حاكى على سبيل السخرية, ألف باروديا, أثر أدبي أو موسيقي ساخر, باروديا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | пародирам (burlesque, mimic), пародия (burlesque, mimicry, mock, put on, rib, send up, skit, take off, travesty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 事 (Parodies). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | parodovat, parodie (burlesque, skit, take off, takeoff, travesty), karikovat (caricature, mimic), karikatura (caricature, cartoon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نوشته ،شعرکه تقلیدازسبک دیگری باشد, تقلیدمسخره امیزکردن (Travesty), استقبال شعری . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | parodioida, parodia, ivamukailu. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | parodie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | parodie (burlesque, spoof, take off, takeoff). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | παρωδία (burlesque, caricature, mockery, send up, skit, travesty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לחבר פרו"י", לסלף (distort, falsify, garble, misrepresent, pervert, skew, twist, wrench, wrest), פרו"י" (skit, spoof, travesty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | paródia (send-up, skit, travesty), travesztia, silány utánzat, kifigurázás, gyenge utánzat. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tiruan yang mengejek. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | parodiare (travesty), parodia (burlesque, send up, spoof, travesty). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | パレット車 (bread, pallet car, panning, parotin, power, power amplifier, power elite, power lifting, power policy, power steering, power weight ratio, powerful, powerhouse, power-up), 捩り (imitation), 替歌 , 替え歌 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | パロディー , パロディ , かえうた, もじり (imitation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 모방 (Imitating, Parodies, Patterning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | arrish (imitate, imitation, impersonation, jeer, mockery, take off, take off mimic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | arodypay parodista, parodiar (burlesque), paródia (burlesque, skit, take off, travesty), imitar burlescamente. (various references) parodie (burlesque, caricature, mockery, pastiche, travesty), parodia (burlesque, mimic, mock, travesty), imitaţie neizbutitã, imita (ape, copy, counterfeit, echo, follow, forge, go after, imitate, mimic, pattern after, simulate). (various references) пародия (burlesque, mock, mockery, pastiche, skit, travesty). (various references) parodirati (send up, travesty), parodija (mockery, skit, travesty). (various references) parodia (burlesque, mockery, spoof, takeoff, travesty). (various references) parodi (mockery, send up, skit, spoof, takeoff, travesty). (various references) parodi oynamak, parodi (skit), taklidini yapmak (fudge, imitate, mimic, simulate, take off), komik taklit. (various references) пародіювати (caricature, travesty), пародія (burlesque, spoof, travesty). (various references) văn nhại, thơ nhại sự nhại. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | paroidia. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | parodia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "parody": parodying. (additional references) | |
| |
"Parody" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: arudy, narodo, pao-yu, Paproth, paradg, paradi, paradoy, parady, paraody, pardi, pardom, pardy, paridy, pariody, parod, paroday, parodia, parodu, parodys, parony, paroxy, Parroy, Paruyr, perod, Perrodin, poody, pordy, prady, praod, pridy, proddy, proddys, prodi, Prodip, prody, prudy, Wardoyo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "parody" (pronounced pe"rudē) |
| 3 | -u d ē | anybody, comedy, custody, malady, melody, nobody, perfidy, prosody, raggedy, remedy, rhapsody, subsidy, tragedy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-o-p-r-y" | |
-1 letter: pardy, payor. | |
-2 letters: apod, dopa, dopy, dorp, dory, dray, drop, orad, pard, prao, pray, proa, prod, road, ropy, yard. | |
-3 letters: ado, dap, day, dor, dry, oar, ora, pad, par, pay, pod, pro, pry, pya, rad, rap, ray, rod, rya, yap, yar, yod. | |
-4 letters: ad, ar, ay, do, od, op, or, oy, pa, ya, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-o-p-r-y" | |
+2 letters: copyread, jeopardy, myriapod, podiatry, pyoderma, pyranoid, rhapsody, wordplay. | |
+3 letters: copyreads, dysphoria, myriapods, outprayed, parodying, polyandry, polyhedra, portrayed, predatory, pyodermas, pyridoxal, swordplay, wordplays. | |
+4 letters: copyreader, demography, depilatory, deplorably, depositary, dysphorias, hydropathy, hydrophane, hydroplane, hydrospace, hypodermal, ideography, karyotyped, overplayed, pardonably, playground, polyhedral, preholiday, prodigally, pyranoside, pyridoxals, swordplays. | |
+5 letters: cardiopathy, caryopsides, copyreaders, copyreading, deprecatory, depredatory, discography, handyperson, hydrography, hydropathic, hydrophanes, hydrophobia, hydroplaned, hydroplanes, hydrospaces, parathyroid, paratyphoid, playgrounds, polyandries, polyandrous, predicatory, prodigality, psychodrama, pterodactyl, pyranosides, radiography, swordplayer, tetraploidy, typographed, videography. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 72 6F 64 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- .-. --- -.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110010 01101111 01100100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a r o d y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0072 006F 0064 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)506784817091 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Orthography 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
