Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word burlesque first appeared in a title in Francesco Berni's Opere burlesche of the early 16th century. This literary genre was born from a desire to take a serious subject and treat it with an absurdly low style. It also involved treating a trivial subject with the gravity of an epic poem.
Burlesque is a literary genre that relies on a deliberate act of making the dignified look ridiculous. The term became widespread in 17th century Italy and France to refer to a grotesque imitation. This form of humor depended entirely on the reader recognizing the source material being mocked.
Francesco Berni created the first work titled burlesque with his Opere burlesche of the early 16th century. This work established the genre as a tool for the intellectual elite to poke fun at the pretensions of the powerful. The genre used imitations of certain authors to create a sense of playful chaos.
Burlesque required a high degree of literacy because the joke would be lost without it. The humor depended entirely on the reader recognizing the source material being mocked. This dynamic created a unique relationship between the performer and the audience.
Burlesque challenged the rigid social hierarchies of the time by combining imitations of certain authors with absurd descriptions. It was a tool for the intellectual elite to poke fun at the pretensions of the powerful. The genre used the very tools of the establishment to dismantle them from within.