From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishparodypar‧o‧dy1 /ˈpærədi/ ●○○ noun (plural parodies) 1 [countable, uncountable]ACOPY a piece of writing, music etc or an action that copies someone or something in an amusing wayparody of a brilliant parody of classical dancein a parody of something He swung the door wide open in a parody of welcome. Her performance contains a strong element of self-parody (=when someone makes fun of their own style).2 [countable]BAD something that is not a correct or acceptable example of somethingparody of Although his comment was a parody of the truth, Diana was upset by it. The trial was a parody of justice (=very unfair).
Examples from the Corpus
parody• U.N. observers described the election as a parody of democratic process.• Ancient parody was free of any nihilistic denial.• Tallis has written a cruel parody of Hartman's prose.• Their faces were like the grotesque masks of street carnivals, their clothes the cruel parodies of stamping clowns.• She writes enjoyable parodies in the style of 19th century romantic novels.• Well-meant though it was, the gesture was terrible, creating a ghastly parody of femininity.• But all three novels also exhibit significant variations on parody as it has been practised in the past.• To tie in with the hubbub comes the most successful parody of the group, the Rutles.• Two or three of us smile, those of us who recognize the parody.• It's a wicked parody of space blasters, in particular Gradius.parody of justice• an outrageous parody of justiceparodyparody2 verb (parodied, parodying, parodies) [transitive] COPYto copy someone or something in a way that makes people laugh His style has often been parodied. —parodist noun [countable]→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
parody• For example, the ability to parody a style can be a useful skill.• He made toys that parodied her innocent amusements and those of her brothers and she trembled when he raised his leonine voice.• Barry now parodies himself even better than Spitting Image.• Thus language begins to parody itself, and so does literature, as Joyce shows in the Ithaca section of Ulysses.• He parodied my groping stumble across the stage to the podium and gathered up the skirt to reveal hairy legs and bloomers.• The movie parodies such classics as "Gone with the Wind" and "Casablanca."• Four of them parody the fire brigade, pecking and pulling a piece of bread.• Some companies deliberately parodied the new trade-names, safe in the knowledge they would never be taken seriously.Origin parody1 (1500-1600) Latin parodia, from Greek, from para- ( → PARA-) + aidein “to sing” 