Parody: A ludicrous imitation, usually for comic effect but sometimes for ridicule, of the style and content of another work. The humor depends upon the reader's familiarity with the original. NOTE: A parody can also be intended as an affectionate tribute to the original work. NOTE: Sir John Suckling's A Ballad upon a Wedding, is a parody of an epithalamium. (See also antiphrasis, burlesque, hudibrastic verse, irony, lampoon, mock-epic, pasquinade, satire ) (Compare cento, pastiche)