Short answers, pulled from the story.
Burlesque derives from Italian, meaning a joke, ridicule, or mockery, and entered English via French. In its literary and theatrical sense it has been used in English since the late 17th century to describe works that cause laughter by caricaturing serious subjects or treating them with deliberate absurdity.
High burlesque applies an elevated literary manner to a commonplace or inappropriate subject, as in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. Low burlesque applies an irreverent, mocking style to a genuinely serious subject, as in Samuel Butler's Hudibras, which describes a Puritan knight's misadventures in satiric doggerel verse.
Star performers in American burlesque included Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, Tempest Storm, Lili St. Cyr, Blaze Starr, Ann Corio, and Margie Hart. Margie Hart was celebrated enough to be mentioned in song lyrics by both Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter.
A large number of later-famous performers appeared in burlesque early in their careers, including Fanny Brice, Mae West, Eddie Cantor, Abbott and Costello, W. C. Fields, Jackie Gleason, Al Jolson, Bert Lahr, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, and Sophie Tucker.
New York Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia cracked down on burlesque, effectively shutting it out of business in New York by the early 1940s. The enforcement of Prohibition had already dealt a serious blow to burlesque establishments, which depended heavily on the sale of alcoholic liquor.
The Neo-Burlesque revival began in the early 1990s. A cult following developed at Billie Madley's "Cinema" venue in New York City, with parallel scenes forming at Dutch Weismann's Follies revues in New York, The Velvet Hammer troupe in Los Angeles, and The Shim-Shamettes in New Orleans.