Is burlesque making a comeback in Las Vegas, or is the name being applied to any number of diverse entertainments, for lack of a better term? Most Americans identify burlesque, in popular usage, with stage productions centering on female stripteasing or erotic dancing or, with less nuance, a show with "naked ladies." But it wasn't always so.
Burlesque has been around in one of its myriad manifestations since Francesco Berni published Opere burlesche in 16th-century Italy. Far from being sexy, the work circulated in manuscript form without so much as a centerfold. The word burlesque derives from the Italian burla, meaning ridicule or mockery, as well as a prank or a joke. Burlesque took on literary significance in France, and later England, in the 17th century, where the meaning evolved to translate as parody, caricature or lampoon of something serious, dignified or pretentious — in other words what the British call "piss taking" (consult a satirist, not a urologist).
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