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.
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.
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?
{{quote-journal|1988|February 5|Billie Lawless|Laying Down the Lawless|Chicago Reader|url=https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/Archive/abridged2.bat?path=1988/880205/LETTERS/LAWLESS
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.