burlesque

1. To make a thing seem mean by comparing it to something low and degrading (Hart)

2. Burlesque is humorous degradation of a dignified subject. It is sometimes merely a combination of the great and the little. Things may be burlesqued not only by words, but by pictures, by gestures, by attitudes-by ludicrous imitations of all kinds. (Waddy)

3. A burlesque is a species of witty discourse or of caricature used to take off, by ludicrous imitation, what may be dignified and proper. Things may be burlesque not by words alone but by pictures, by gestures, by attitudes-by ludicrous imitations of all kinds. (Kellog, 163)

1. "...T'is known he could speak Greek as naturally as pigs squeak; [and] Latin was no more difficile than to a blackbird 't is to whistle." (Hart)

1. "The sun had long since, in the lap of Thetis, taken out his nap; And, like a lobster boiled, the morn from black to red began to turn." (Hart)