Predicated on the assumption that dramatic parody and burlesque cannot be adequately decoded without the intervention of Marxian theory, this project attempts to reintroduce the problems of history, politics, economics, class, and ideology into the study of these two genres. Theodor Adorno's definition of parody as 'the use of forms in the epoch of their impossibility' forms the basis of a historical overview of the ability of dramatic parody and burlesque to expose the ideological impossibilities so often perpetuated in tragic and heroic genres through obsolete forms, commodified language, myths of individuality, and eradication of otherness. Adorno's theory of negative dialectics provides access to early modern dramas by Mr. WM., Francis Beaumont, Henry Fielding, John Brougham, and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, while Adorno's theories on the culture industry provide insight into the plays of David Rabe and Christopher Durang. Finally, contemporary theories of parody by Linda Hutcheon and Fredric Jameson are examined in conjunction with the theories of Adorno, and plays by Charles Busch, George C. Wolfe, and Tony Kushner are offered as evidence that dramatic parody and burlesque are still vital, ideologically powerful genres