Editor’s Note: Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles a reader’s existential worry. He wants to hear about what’s ailing, torturing, or nagging you. Submit your lifelong or in-the-moment problems to ...

A costume sketch for the character Moore from “The Dragon of Wantley” by Seth Bodie, costume designer. Poking fun at the lofty conventions of opera is a practice that’s almost as old as opera itself.

Jimmy Fallon had some fun on Thursday night with a segment in which he showed notes from an audience suggestion box for The Tonight Show, and someone apparently wrote in and said NFL players and ...