PARODY (from the Greek rapaafa, and that from 913, an ode). A parody Is a pleasantry, which consists in turning what is intended as a serious composition into ridicule, by adapting It to some new purpose, or by the affected imitation of its peculiarities. It had its origin among the Greeks, from whose language the name is derived. It seems to be synonymous with the French trarestie. Its most common form is that in which a performance, while its principal features are retained, is, by a slight change, diverted from its proper design, and made to bear a ludicrous signification. Sometimes the alteration of a single word, or even a single letter, is sufficient for the accomplishment of this. Another form of parody is that in which, without any change in the original, it receives a ludicrous character by its application to some object quite foreign to the original intention of the author. A third
kind consists in choosing a mean and ridiculous subject, and treating it in the style and manner of approved writers ; and a fourth, in exemplifying, in the illustration of any subject, the defects and absurdities of writers held in little esteem. Of the last two sorts of parody, more successful specimens will scarcely be found anywhere than those which occur in the work entitled ' Rejected Addresses.' The rules of parody have respect to the choice of the subject and the mode of handling it. It is necessary that the subject should be celebrated, or at least well known, and that in treating it there should be no departure from the requirements of good humour.
The term parody is also employed in music, and is given by the French writers to those pieces in which the words have been composed for the music and not the niusic for the words.