Taking the piss

A parody (also called spoof, send-up or lampoon), it’s created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work. Its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Actors use deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Some genre theorists see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western movies, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.