OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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By Ehren Pflugfelder, Oregon State University Associate Professor of Rhetoric
11 September 2023
What is a parody? Well, a good definition is that a parody is a creative work that is created in order to imitate, comment on, critique, and / or mock its subject. It’s usually, but not always, meant to be funny – at least a little bit. And the subject of a parody is often another work of art, a book, a writing style, or a real-life person.
[In the video, Dr. Pflugfelder here adopts the persona of a pretentious English professor]
According to Aristotle, in his Poetics, chapter 2, Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of parodies. Though little of this playwright’s works have survived until today, Aristotle claims he changed the wording in well-known poems in order to create a humorous effect, thereby turning the sublime into the ridiculous.
The word “parody” itself comes from the Greek paroidia, which means “a burlesque song or poem.” “Para” of course means “beside” and “oide” means “song” or “ode,” which are elaborate poems that the Greeks ----
[In the video, Dr. Pflugfelder returns to normal]
Oh, sorry there. For a second I think slipped into a parody of an English professor.
Parody itself may be found in most any act of art or culture, including literature, music, video games, movies, theatre, and more. Think of Weird Al: most of his songs are parodies of something or someone in particular. Sometimes he makes fun of an artist, and sometimes he makes fun of a song.
One thing to note is that parody is distinct from both pastiche and satire.
A pastiche is a work of art, and again it can be a form of literature, theatre, film, etc., but what makes pastiche different is that authors of pastiche attempt to imitate the style or character of other artists, sometimes not that successfully. Creators of pastiche try to pay homage to an original work and can reproduce features of that art in a way that signals to their audience that they are trying to imitate, though not directly copy, that earlier work. In architecture, the word “neo” is often used to suggest that a particular style is done in homage, so neo-classical architecture is often a pastiche of Greek and Roman buildings and styles.
[In the video, Dr. Pflugfelder returns here the persona of a pretentious English professor]
Pastiche comes from the vulgar Latin “pasticum,” which means “composed of paste,” and is related to pate and pasta, among other words. Pate, is of course made from -----
[In the video, Dr. Pflugfelder returns to normal]
Whoops. Slipped back again into that English professor. Where was I? Oh yeah, I was just about to mention the difference between parody and satire. The difference is that satire, while also supposed to be funny, often has a larger purpose. Both parody and satire will frequently make fun of something, but satire doesn’t target a specific author or work. Satires will usually make fun of a genre, a cultural belief, or a social movement, and in doing so hope to critique society more generally.
For example, The Daily Show uses loads of satire in its stories, and most often critiques cultural issues more generally.
And there are lots more examples – some of which engage both parody and satire at once. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a satire of middle-class appreciation of gothic novels, and a critique of male-dominated politics and masculine standards of literary taste, but also a parody of Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolfo. Ben H. Winters’ Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, on the other hand, is a parody of Sense and Sensibility.
Often, parody is a good defense against copyright infringement, at least in the US, because while parodies can copy some of the idea of an original work of art, they also, crucially, comment upon that same work, thus transforming it and making something new. Parodies can also be tools that marginalized or oppressed groups can use to selectively appropriate or imitate aspects of other cultures.
A great example of these elements is Alice Randall’s novel The Wind Done Gone, which is a parody of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, but told from the perspective of an enslaved person named Cynara who has been recently freed, instead of Scarlett O’Hara, the Southern white woman and part of the slave-owning family in the novel.
The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued Alice Randall and her publishing company, for copyright violation. The case was settled, but The Wind Done Gone is clearly a clever parody of Gone with the Wind, and not one that pleases too many fans of the original. I should note, though, that in some countries, parodies are not protected by law, and authors can face fines or imprisonment for creating them.
In general, though, parodies are clever ways to imitate, make fun of, and comment upon earlier works. What kinds of parodies can you think of? What specific thing do they make fun of? And, perhaps most importantly, how are they using that original material to comment upon it?
Want to cite this?
MLA Citation: Pflugfelder, Ehren. "What is a Parody?" Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, 11 Sept. 2023, Oregon State University, https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-parody-definition-examples. Accessed [insert date].
