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

Sports: 62 - 925
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
athletics 1     1   12
baseball 8     2 6 42
boxing 2       2 15
cricket 13   2 4 7 192
crocket 1   1     9
fishing 2       2 10
football 3 1 1   1 89
golf 9 3 2 1 3 204
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 62 5 10 12 35 925
Animals & pets: 12 - 513

Tag

 Parodies Books Magazines Internet Quatrains
cats 4 3 1   238
chicken 3 1 1 1 49
dogs 5 5     226
Total 12 9 2 1 513
Politics: 44 - 827
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Miscellanea Quatrains
elections 8       7 1 76
politicians 22 3 1 3 14   578
politics 14     2 12   153
Total 44 3 1 5 33 1 827
Military: 58 - 964
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Internet Quatrains
military 20 2 2 9

7

   219
navy 4     1 3   29
warfare 34 8 2 8 15 1 716
Total 58 10 4 18 25 1 964
Economy: 40 - 613
Tag Parodies Sections Magazines Newspapers Miscellanea Quatrains
betting 4   1 3   47
farming 18 1 6 11   188
finance 15 3 4 7 1 248
labour force 3   2     85
money 2     2   15
striking 1     1   7
taxes 3 2 1     23
unemployment 1   1     5
working class 2   1 1   25
Total 40 7 16 25 1 613
Health & disease: 12 - 228
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
ageing 5   3 2   95
dentistry 2     1 1 53
disease 3   1   2 13
medicine 1 1       54
youth 1   1     13
Total 12 1 5 3 3 228
Good life: 68 - 1333
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
carpe diem 12     8 4 16
drinks and drinking 42 6 8 12 16 999
holidays 3     2 1 28
smoking 7 3   1 3 243
wining and dining 4 1 1 1 1 47
Total 68 10 9 24 25 1333
Entertainment: 33 - 513
Tag Parodies Books Sections Magazines Newspapers Quatrains
bridge 7 3     4 96
film 5     4 1 37
hunting 4     1 3 25
poker 5 2 1 2   94
theatre 10   2 5 3 141
tourism 2 1 1     120
Total 33 6 4 12 11 513
Magazines with the largest number of parodies.
* Magazine
** Newspaper

  The Bulletin * Life * St. Louis Post **
 Sun ** +
 Yale record * Puck * Star ** Judge *
  1902-1 1903-1 1904-1 1910-1 1902-2 1899-1 1906-1 1902-3
  1909-1 1904-2 1908-1 1917-1 1903-1 1901-1 1914-1 1903-1
  1907-12 1905-2 1913-2 1918-1 1905-1 1904-1 1922-2 1910-1
  1910-3 1906-1 1914-1 1920-1 1907-1 1909-1 1923-4 1918-1
  1911-1 1908-1 1915-1 1922-2 1910-1 1910-1   1922-1
  1913-1 1911-1 1918-1 1920-1 1913-1 1911-1    
  1916-1 1912-1 1921-1 1923-2 1914-1 1912-1    
  1937-1 1918-1 1924-1 1928-1 1920-1 1917-1    
  1943-1 1922-2 1927-1 1932-1 1921-1      
    1930-1            
                 
Total 24 13 10 10 10 9 8 7

+ Sun (Sydney)

Number of books (68) per decade

Year
1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950
 1960 1990 2000 2010 2020 Nd
0     1   1             1  
1   1 3 1     1            
2   1 2 2       1          
3   1 5     1         1 2  
4   3 3                    
5   2 5     1       1      
6   2 1 1   1              
7   3 1 1                  
8   3 2   2       1        
9 1 1 4 1   1     1        
                          1
Total 1 17 27 6 3 4 1 1 2 1 1 3 1
Number of book sections (76) per decade

Year  1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1960 1950
 1980
0     2 6 3   1      
1       3 1 5        
2     3 3   1        
3   2   5       1   2
4     5 3         1  
5     3 2            
6 1   2 1     1      
7       2     2     1
8   1 4       3      
9   2   3            
      1              
Total 1 5 20 28 4 6 7 1 1 3
Number of magazines (164) per decade

 Year 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
 1960 1990 2020

0

   2 7 2 1 1      
1   6 7 1 1       1
2   10 4 4 1     1  
3   10 6 2   1      
4   8 8 1 1        
5 1 9 4 2   1      
6 1 5 4 1          
7 1 15 7 2 2        
8 1 6 5       1    
9 1 3 6            
                   
Total 5 74 58 15 6 3 1 1 1
Number of newspapers (260)

Year 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1980 1990
 Nd
0   3 8 8 3 3     1    
1   2 8 6 6   1        
2   7 7 11 5   1        
3   3 6 11 5 2          
4   9 8 6 6 2       1  
5   9 7 2 3            
6   15 10 4 1     1      
7   2 13 2   1 2 1      
8   7 8 9 2 1          
9 2 7 8 1 1 1          
                      1
Total 2 64 83 60 32 10 5 2 1 1 1
Total of parodies (578) per decade

Year 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 Nd
0     7 22 15 5 5       1   1   1  
1     9 21 9 12   2       1     1  
2     21 16 17 7     1     1 1 1    
3   2 14 22 13 5 4 1   1 2     1 2  
4     25 22 5 7 3 1 1     1        
5   1 23 18 4 4 2           1      
6 1 1 24 14 6 1 2                  
7   1 21 23 5 2 3 2 1   1     1    
8   2 20 15 9 4 4   1     1        
9   6 12 21 2 1 2 1       1        
                                2
Total 1 13 176 196 85 48 25 7 5 1 4 5 3 3 4 1