burlesque vs joke

burlesque

noun
  • A ludicrous imitation; a caricature; a travesty; a gross perversion. 

  • A derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody. 

  • A variety adult entertainment show, usually including titillation such as striptease, most common from the 1880s to the 1930s. 

verb
  • To make a burlesque parody of. 

  • To ridicule, or to make ludicrous by grotesque representation in action or in language. 

joke

noun
  • A laughably worthless thing or person; a sham. 

  • An amusing story. 

  • The root cause or main issue, especially an unexpected one 

  • Something that is far easier or far less challenging than expected. 

  • Something said or done for amusement, not in seriousness. 

verb
  • To do or say something for amusement rather than seriously. 

  • To dupe in a friendly manner for amusement; to mess with, play with. 

How often have the words burlesque and joke occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )