Travesty

Travesty (or Travestie as it is sometimes spelled in older texts) is a term which has demonstrated a vast range and shift in meaning over the years. As a literary and artistic term, it ranges from the notion of "a literary or artistic burlesque of a serious work or subject, characterized by grotesque or ludicrous incongruity of style, treatment, or subject matter" to the more negative definition as "a literary or artistic composition so inferior in quality as to be merely a grotesque imitation of its model" (Dictionary.com).

In a more general sense it is often found today in the meaning of "a crude, distorted, or ridiculous representation (of something)", as in the expression "a travesty of justice"(Webster's New World College Dictionary).

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