parody

=**Parody**=

A parody is a work that closely imitates the style of content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and or ridicule. It exploits peculiarities of an author’s expression (prosperity to use too many parentheses, certain favorite worlds, etc.) Well-written parody offers enlightenment about the original, but poorly written parody offers only ineffectual imitation. Usually an audience must grasp literary allusion and understand the work being parodied in order to fully appreciate the nuances of the newer work. Occasionally, however, parodies take on a life of their own and don’t require knowledge of the original.

A literary example of a parody is Michael Gerber’s Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody.



Barry Trotter is a parody of Harry Potter, who is a wizard at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his books; in turn, Barry Trotter, is a wizard at the Hogwash School of Wizardry. The parody, in this case, takes the storyline, alters names, and creates its own plot. The purpose of this parody, is of course, comedy; to simply poke fun at Harry Potter and his mythical world.

Parody, is pronounced [par-//uh//-dee] Click on the following link for an audio example: http://webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?parody01.wav=parody

Attributions:

"Barry Trotter ." 25 September 2007 .

"Parody." 25 September .

=**By: DSchlutz**=