Parodies: some statistics

It seems interesting to provide some statistics regarding year of publication, totals of parodies in books, book sections, magazines and newspapers, as well as to subjects or topics. It should be noted however that the present database is by no means complete. Obviously many parodies in newspapers are still waiting to be (re)discovered and although the number of online searchable newspapers and magazines is still growing, there is no simple method to retrieve them all.

A small number of parodies, or sections, appear in the Books table as well as in the magazines table, such as Herford’s Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten, La Shelle’s Poker Rubaiyat, or Dwiggins’ Rubaiyat of the Egg.

TopicsTop magazinesBooksBook sectionsMagazinesNewspapersTotals per yearGraph: totals per decade

This section show some ‘popular’ or ‘essential’ topics and the number of parodies pertaining thereto, including the number of quatrains for each.

Sports: 55 - 811
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
athletics 1     1   12
baseball 5     5   33
boxing 2       2 15
cricket 12   1 4 7 117
crocket 1   1     9
fishing 1       1 4
football 3 1 1   1 89
golf 7 3 2   2 180
horse-racing 11     2 9 110
ping-pong 1   1     21
rowing 1   1     2
rugby 4     1 3 52
sailing 4 1 1   2 113
skating 1     1   25
tennis 1   1     29
Total 55 5 9 14 27 811
Animals & pets: 12 - 478

Tag

Parodies Books Magazines Internet Quatrains
cats 4 3 1   203
chicken 3 1 1 1 49
dogs 5 5     226
Total 12 9 2 1 478
Politics: 33 - 695
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Miscellanea Quatrains
elections 8       7 1 74
politicians 20 3 1 3 12   576
politics 5       5   45
Total 33 3 1 3 24 1 695
Military: 46 - 247
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Internet Quatrains
military 16 2 2 7 5   167
navy 2       2   19
warfare 28 8 2 6 11 1 61
Total 46 10 4 13 18 1 247
Economy: 38 - 462
Tag Parodies Sections Magazines Newspapers Miscellanea Quatrains
betting 4   1 3   47
farming 15   6 9   158
finance 9 2 3 3 1 172
labour force 1   1     10
money 2     2   15
striking 1     1   7
taxes 3 2 1     23
unemployment 1   1     5
working class 2   1 1   25
Total 38 4 14 19 1 462
Health & disease: 11 - 225
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
ageing 5   3 2   95
dentistry 2     1 1 53
disease 2   1   1 10
medicine 1 1       54
youth 1   1     13
Total 11 1 5 3 2 225
Good life: 48 - 716
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
carpe diem 1       1 1
drinks and drinking 37 5 8 11 13 410
holidays 2     2   21
smoking 6 3   2 1 242
wining and dining 3 1 1 1   42
Total 49 9 9 16 15 716
Entertainment: 25 - 319
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
bridge 6 3     3 81
card-playing 1       1 15
film 4     3 1 31
hunting 3       3 19
poker 5 2 1 2   94
theatre 6   2 3 1 79
tourism            
Total 25 5 3 8 9 319
Magazines with the largest number of parodies.
* Magazine
** Newspaper

  Life * Sun **
Yale record * The Bulletin * Puck * Star ** Herald ** Judge *
  1903-1 1904-1 1902-2 1902-1 1899-1 1906-1 1914-1 1902-3
  1904-2 1910-1 1903-1 1909-1 1904-1 1914-1 1916-1 1903-1
  1905-2 1911-1 1905-1 1910-1 1909-1 1922-2 1917-1 1910-1
  1906-1 1917-1 1907-1 1911-1 1910-1 1923-4 1920-1 1918-1
  1908-1 1918-1 1910-1 1913-2 1911-2   1930-1 1922-1
  1911-1 1920-1 1913-1 1916-1 1912-1   1934-2  
  1912-1 1922-1 1914-1 1937-1 1917-1      
  1918-1 1923-1 1920-1 1943-1        
  1922-2 1928-1 1921-1          
    1932-1            
Total 12 10 10 9 8 8 7 7
Number of books (67) per decade

  Nd
1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950
1960 1990 2000
  1 1899-1 1901-1 1910-1 1921-1 1930-1 1943-1

1951-1

1962-1 1998-1 2005-1
      1902-1 1911-3 1922-2 1938-2 1945-1     1999-1 2013-1
      1903-1 1912-2 1926-1   1946-1       2020-1
      1904-3 1913-5 1927-1   1949-1        
      1905-2 1914-3 1929-1            
      1906-2 1915-5              
      1907-3 1916-1              
      1908-3 1917-1              
      1909-1 1918-2              
        1919-4              
Total 1 1 17 27 6 3 5 1 1 2 3
Number of book sections (64) per decade

   Nd 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1980
  1 1886-1 1893-2 1900-2 1910-6 1920-2 1931-4 1940-1 1983-2
      1899-2 1902-3 1911-3 1921-1 1932-1 1946-1 1987-1
        1904-4 1912-3     1947-2  
        1905-3 1913-5     1948-2  
        1906-2 1914-2        
        1908-3 1915-1        
        1909-1 1916-1        
          1917-1        
          1919-2        
Total 1 1 4 18 24 3 5 6 3
Number of magazines (119) per decade

  1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
1960 1990 2020
 

1895-1

1900-2 1910-5 1920-1 1931-1 1940-1 1968-1 1992-1 2021-1
  1896-1 1901-4 1911-5 1921-1 1934-1 1943-1      
  1898-1 1902-10 1912-3 1922-4 1937-2 1945-1      
  1899-2 1903-9 1913-6 1925-2          
    1904-7 1914-4 1926-1          
    1905-8 1915-2 1927-2          
    1906-4 1916-4            
    1907-3 1917-5            
    1908-5 1918-2            
    1909-3              
Total 5 55 36 13 4 3 1 1 1
Number of newspapers (185)

  Nd.
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1980
1990
  1 1900-2 1910-7 1920-6 1930-2 1940-2 1951-1 1967-1 1980-1 1994-1
    1901-1 1911-6 1921-4 1931-6 1943-2 1953-1      
    1902-5 1912-5 1922-6 1932-5 1944-2        
    1903-3 1913-3 1923-10 1933-3 1947-1        
    1904-7 1914-5 1924-4 1934-5 1948-1        
    1905-4 1915-4 1925-1 1935-3 1949-1        
    1906-6 1916-6 1926-4 1936-1          
    1907-2 1917-11 1927-1 1938-2          
    1908-5 1918-6 1928-8 1939-1          
    1909-4 1919-2 1929-1            
Total 1 39 58 45 28 9 2 1 1 1
Total of parodies (445) per decade

  Nd 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
  1 1886-1 1893-2 1900-6 1910-19 1920-11 1930-3 1940-4 1951-2 1962-1 1973-1 1980-1 1992-1 2000-1
      1895-1 1901-6 1911-17 1921-7 1931-12 1943-4 1953-1 1967-1   1983-2 1994-1 2002-1
      1896-1 1902-19 1912-13 1922-12 1932-6 1944-3 1959-1 1968-1   1987-1 1998-1 2005-1
      1898-1 1903-13 1913-19 1923-12 1933-3 1945-2         1999-1 2012-1
      1899-5 1904-21 1914-14 1924-5 1934-6 1946-2           2013-1
        1905-17 1915-12 1925-3 1935-4 1947-3           2017-1
        1906-14 1916-12 1926-6 1936-1 1948-3           2020-1
        1907-9 1917-18 1927-4 1937-2 1949-2           2021-1
        1908-16 1918-10 1928-8 1938-4              
        1909-9 1919-11 1929-2 1939-1              
Total 1 1 10 129 145 70 42 23 43 4 1 4 4 8