Hanswurst

Hanswurst, on the other hand, gained a specific profile in the early eighteenth century. As he is largely known today, in his brightly colored peasant clothing consisting of the trademark baggy yellow trousers, red suspenders, red jacket, […]

2015, Dorothy Chansky, Ann Folino White, editors, Food and Theatre on the World Stage, Routledge, →ISBN, page 87:

(theater) A clownlike character popular in German and Austrian plays during the 18th century.


Aunt Flo

Pun on flow and Flo (nickname for Florence, Flora, etc).

Aunt Flo came to visit last night: that's why I was so ratty.

(euphemistic slang) A personification of the menstrual period or menstruation.

大姨媽

slang, personification of the menstrual period


rickroll

en-verb

rickroll (third-person singular simple present rickrolls, present participle rickrolling, simple past and past participle rickrolled)

rickrolls (present singular third-person)
rickrolling (participle present)
rickrolled (participle past)
rickrolled (past)

4chan
Grand Theft Auto IV
Never Gonna Give You Up
Rick Astley
YouTube

The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.

coinage

I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.

YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone [title] […] Let the Internet pranking begin! YouTube, capitalizing on the resurgence of a popular meme, has booby-trapped each of the “featured videos” on its homepage. Click on any of the showcased clips and you’ll be taken instead to a cheesy video of pop singer Rick Astley singing his late-’80s hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

2008 April 1, Jenna Wortham, “YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-07:

Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.

2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-22:

Despite its name, there is one thing the Vote Leave campaign should not have left for so long: registering a domain name. The delay by the anti-EU organisation meant that up to 100,000 people who tried to access voteleave.com, co.uk or .net were rickrolled – redirected to a YouTube clip of Rick Astley's 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. So far, so internet.

2016 April 20, Homa Khaleeli, “How Vote Leave got rickrolled”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-17:

You send a Web link to someone, promising something exciting or compelling ("Is this you!?")—but the link actually takes your victim to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's it. That's the joke. Ha! You've been Rickrolled!

2020, David Pogue, “The Internet Celebrity Culture [Internet Memes 101: A Guide to Online Wackiness]”, in Social Media Influencers: Apps, Algorithms and Celebrities (In the Headlines), New York, N.Y.: New York Times Educational Publishing in association with The Rosen Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 14:

(originally Internet slang) To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".

瑞克搖

to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up”; to surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song; to cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method


deuteragonist

From Ancient Greek δευτεραγωνιστής (deuteragōnistḗs, literally “second actor”), originally in Greek drama, from ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”).
By surface analysis, deuter- (“second”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

der

δευτεραγωνιστής

surf

The issue is no longer about the artistic representation of woman going on within the story: rather, the art object, now unrelated to the actual woman (at a literal level, at any rate), becomes her deuteragonist and antagonist, and the opposition thus settled becomes further complicated by reversal, exchanges, shifts in their respective positions.

2001, Donatella Izzo, Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James, University of Nebraska Press, page 58:

(narratology) A secondary character; specifically, the second most important character (after the protagonist).

The first disposition accords with the attested reality of Nero acting in masks resembling his own features or those of women with whom he was in love (Suet. Nero 21.3), especially Poppaea (Dio 63.9.5), and generates a set of roles for the deuteragonist all of which focus on failed counsel; it also underlines the parallelism between the Seneca-Nero and Nero-Prefect scenes, and reinforces the view that the First and Second Prefect are not identical.

2008, A. J. Boyle, editor, Octavia: Attributed to Seneca, Oxford University Press, page 93:

In the distribution of the other roles between the deuteragonist and the tritagonist, the same criteria must have applied. When two characters had an important part in a tragedy and could not be played by a single protagonist, the second was played by the deuteragonist.[…]The tritagonist, even more than the deuteragonist, had to play several secondary roles.

2018, Jacques Jouanna, translated by Steven Rendall, Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context, Princeton University Press, page 201:

(historical, ancient Greek drama) An actor playing a role (potentially all roles) requiring a second actor to be present on the stage, opposite the protagonist.


staple character

en-noun

staple character (plural staple characters)

The mad scientist was a staple character in many horror films.

(writing, theater, film) A stock character, especially one that is overused.


freak show

It only takes a little tweaking for the Simpsons’ home to become a full-on freak show, with Homer as its perpetually apoplectic main attraction.

2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:

An intentionally shocking exhibition of people with unusual characteristics, and which may include people who are gigantic, dwarfish, intersex, physically deformed or who have other extraordinary diseases, conditions and talents.


tragic hero

(drama) A hero who suffers from a tragic flaw that eventually causes his downfall.


Johnny Canuck

1869, Johnny + Canuck, a character in political cartoons.

(chiefly World War I, World War II) A Canadian soldier.


shazaam

and before you can say "Shazaam!" he is translated into Sgt. Moffatt of the Laguna Hills security force.

1968, Michael T. Malloy, The Art of Retirement, page 74:

Suddenly, you find yourself worrying about the strength of the dollar versus the euro and — shazaam — you switch from parasympathetic to sympathetic far faster than you wanted.

2004, Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, page 125:


Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (canonical)

en-au-Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.ogg

"This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country. The heroes of my field have slain one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While the heroes of your field gathered in the desert to create a new one."

2015 May 4, Randall Munroe, xkcd (webcomic), Degree-Off:

(biblical) Four beings in Revelation 6:1–8 that bring about the Apocalypse, each embodied as a horseman riding a different-colored horse that represents a different aspect of the Apocalypse.

אַרְבַּעַת פָּרָשֵׁי הָאָפּוֹקָלִיפְּסָה

náhodeesdzáago dįltʼéego łį́į́ʼ bił níjééʼ


Pepe

The character's creator, Matt Furie, chose the name Pepe because it reminded him of the term pee-pee, a resemblance he found funny.

One thread filled up with hundreds of Pepes to help meme Florida over to Trump, as if their energy could help Florida stay red.

2016 November 9, Abby Ohlheiser, “’We actually elected a meme as president’: How 4chan celebrated Trump’s victory”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-16:

Alternate iterations of Pepe, including sad, smug and angry Pepes, followed. Pepe memes are ubiquitous across 4chan, Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr, and other social media and image-sharing sites.

2016 October 11, Jessica Roy, “How ’Pepe the Frog’ went from harmless to hate symbol”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-03:

(Internet slang, 4chan) An image or depiction of the Pepe the Frog character.


alakazam

Unknown, with various theories ranging from spontaneous usage as a nonsense chant, to less likely sources from Arabic, Latin, and Hindi.
Some etymologists suggest an origin from Arabic القَسَم (al-qasam, “the oath”).

A magic word used in conjuring; presto, shazaam.


Mary Sue

From the name of an intentionally over-the-top character in the 1973 Star Trek parody fan fiction A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

Bella may be a Mary Sue, but if we don't identify with her, and even if we do, there's no other interpretive place for us in the universe.

2010 August 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “A Whole New World”, in The Atlantic:

She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her.

2015 January 20, Sian Cain, “Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing”, in The Guardian:

So here's a radical suggestion: instead of being concerned about whether her Mary Sue flawlessness is a problem, why not, just this once, enjoy it for what it is?

2015 December 19, Tasha Robinson, “With Star Wars' Rey, we've reached Peak Strong Female Character”, in The Verge:

There is one, and only one, previously unheard of flaw that keeps Nanase from being the merriest of Mary Sues. That flaw is...

2022 August 18, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Thursday, Aug 18, 2022:

(fandom slang, usually derogatory) A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.


plot device

An element introduced into a story, film, etc. to advance its plot.


Ah Puch

(Maya mythology) The personification of death in Maya mythology.


Ankou

Borrowed from French Ankou, from Breton Ankoù.

(Celtic mythology) The personification of death in Celtic mythology.


flea circus

A circus sideshow attraction in which fleas are attached (or appear to be attached) to miniature carts and other items, and encouraged to perform circus acts within a small housing.

vlooisirkus

circus sideshow attraction starring fleas


Scaramouche

From French Scaramouche, a character popularized in France by Tiberio Fiorilli. From Italian scaramuccia (“skirmish”). Doublet of escarmouche and skirmish.

A roguish clown character from the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte.


tight five

(comedy) A five-minute set of jokes performed by a stand-up comedian, usually made up of only their best material.


Mother Nature

But when you’re in a struggle with one of Mother Nature’s challenges — like a virus or a climate change — the goal is not to defeat her. No one can. She’s just chemistry, biology and physics. The goal is to adapt.

2020 April 28, Thomas L. Friedman, “Is Sweden Doing It Right?”, in New York Times:

A personification of nature as woman, emphasizing fertility and fecundity.

Mare Naturalesa

the personification of Nature and the Earth's biosphere as a woman


stand in

en-verb

stand in (third-person singular simple present stands in, present participle standing in, simple past and past participle stood in)

stands in (present singular third-person)
standing in (participle present)
stood in (participle past)
stood in (past)

To substitute for; to replace; (theater) to serve as an understudy.


info-dump

(literature) A long section in a work of fiction that reveals often tedious expository information through the voice of the narrator.


stage screw

(theater) A forged, or sometimes cast low thread count cut thread screw with a handle (sometimes made up of three holes) used to hold scenery in place in theaters (mostly prior to the 1990s).


variety show

(radio, television, theater) A type of entertainment featuring a succession of short, unrelated performances by various artistes such as (depending on the medium) acrobats, comedians, dancers, magicians, singers, etc.


lazzo

(theater) A stock comedic routine or physical action, traditionally associated with commedia dell'arte.


story arc

This story arc about "hunting the buffalo" is part of a larger story arc about "developing relationships with the Indians".

1992, Linda Seger, The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film:

A story arc can be developed continuously until it is completed, but it is more usual for a drama series to treat a story arc discontinuously...

2005, David Schmid, Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture:

An extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television or comic books.


nuntius

Borrowed from Latin nūntius (“messenger”).


homodiegetic

The second part of the novella, including chapters 13-15, is more personal and reflective. Here, our apparently heterodiegetic narrator reveals himself to be homodiegetic: to be Tanner's sidekick BB Trane, previously referred to in the third person.

2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 185:

(literature, film) Of or relating to the narrator of a dramatic work who is also the protagonist or other character in the work.


premake

From pre- + make. The narratological sense is patterned after remake using pre- (“before”).


buffoon

From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone (“jester”), from buffare (“to puff out the cheeks”), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Middle High German buffen ("to puff"; > German büffen), Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). More at English puff.

gloss

"to puff"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">büffen</i>

noncog

To divert the audience with buffoon postures and antic dances.

1810, W. Melmoth, transl., Letters of Pliny:

One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.

مُهَرِّج

one who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion


restage

en-verb

restage (third-person singular simple present restages, present participle restaging, simple past and past participle restaged)

restages (present singular third-person)
restaging (participle present)
restaged (participle past)
restaged (past)

In 2006 the Wrong Gallery restaged this work at the Frieze Art Fair to much less outcry but with its disturbing questions intact.

2009 January 2, Roberta Smith, “Widely Known for Obscurity”, in New York Times:

(theater, transitive) To stage (a production) again; to bring (a production) to the stage again.


restaging

(theater) A subsequent performance on the stage.

A staging again; thus:
A subsequent performance on the stage.


archvillain

From arch- (“chief, most extreme”) + villain.

Madoff is the season's archvillain, accused of having run a Ponzi scheme so vast that future generations may well describe similar swindles as Madoff schemes.

2009 January 6, Clyde Haberman, “We Know About the Mess. Please, Clean Up Carefully.”, in New York Times:

(chiefly narratology) A supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain.

arkkivihollinen

a supreme villain; the most evil or powerful villain


circuslike

en-adj

circuslike (comparative more circuslike, superlative most circuslike)

more circuslike (comparative)
most circuslike (superlative)

Resembling or characteristic of a circus.


monodrama

The Dicapo Opera Theater presents the world premiere of “Lily,” a monodrama composed and performed by the mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock[…]

2009 January 16, “Classical and Opera Listings”, in New York Times:

(theater) A play in the form of a monologue


trunk-maker

This somewhat may be indeed resembled to the famous trunk-maker in the playhouse; for, whenever the person who is possessed of it doth what is right, no ravished or friendly spectator is so eager or so loud in his applause: on the contrary, when he doth wrong, no critic is so apt to hiss and explode him.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:

(theater, obsolete) A critic who pounds upon the benches in a show of approval.


circusy

circusy (comparative more circusy, superlative most circusy)

more circusy (comparative)
most circusy (superlative)

(informal) Resembling or characteristic of a circus.


minimusical

Both shows lean heavily on their Jewish orientation, but where Fiddler is a folk musical of size and substance, Kaplan is a minimusical of sweetness.

1968 April 12, “New Plays: The Education of Hyman Kaplan”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-10-29:

The video consists of a minimusical whose soundtrack sounds as if it were generated by an inexpensive electronic keyboard.

2009 January 25, Randall Stross, “Microsoft Songsmith Is Easy (if Painful to Hear)”, in New York Times:


Lady Justice

In a mythological personification, justice symbolized as a blindfolded young lady, similar to Lady Luck.


everywoman

From every + woman, modelled on earlier everyman.

In fiction, drama, or allegory, the archetypical ordinary woman.


unstaged

That this incomplete work was presented unstaged, without orchestra, and with little attention to dynamics, and that it was sung by singers difficult to understand, generally in poor French (with no libretto or plot synopsis in the program--either in French or English), prevented this from being the revelatory experience it might have been under better circumstances.

1988 April 1, Dennis Polkow, “Hard Stuff”, in Chicago Reader:

(theater) Not formally staged; not presented to an audience on a stage.


overplotted

overplotted (comparative more overplotted, superlative most overplotted)

more overplotted (comparative)
most overplotted (superlative)

Pursuing its preposterous, overplotted premise, Time merrily confuses myth with fact--Romeo and Juliet and Arthur never lived, or they did so under other names.

1988 July 1, Lawrence Bommer, “Channel This, or Die, Yuppie Scum!; Time in a Battle”, in Chicago Reader:

(drama) Having an excessively elaborate plot.


semistaged

The director, Kate Bushmann, made resourceful use of the church in a semistaged production that relied on minimal props[…].

2007 December 17, Steve Smith, “A Young Shepherds Ageless Trek”, in New York Times:

(theater) Partially but not entirely staged; thus, partially improvised


midquel

(narratology) A work that is set during the timeframe of a previous work, rather than before or after it.


stagebound

But the playwright is stagebound: the best he or she can provide (in cinematic terms) is a series of medium-long shots.

1989 December 22, Jack Helbig, “Sleuth”, in Chicago Reader:


dizzard

Uncertain; perhaps from dizzy + -ard. Compare dotard.


balancing act

(entertainment) A performance that involves balancing things precariously and suspensefully.


canned laughter

Prerecorded laughter that is edited into the soundtrack of a TV program.

罐頭笑聲

pre-recorded laughter that is edited into the soundtrack of a TV programme


laugh track

You know where you never see a camcorder? At a funeral. Wouldn't that be fun? Especially if you didn't know any of the people there. Why not go to a stranger's funeral, and bring your camcorder? Have a little fun! Zoom in on the corpse's nose hairs. Then pull back, and pan over to the widow's tears. Get a tight shot of that. Do a montage of people wracked with grief. Then go home and put a laugh track on it! Smoke a joint and show it to your friends. That would be a lot of fun.

1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 173:

Possibly a show with no laugh track would improve with a well-done laugh track.

2004, Robert Kubey, Creating Television, →ISBN:

He felt it weird to have this discussion with a laugh track running faintly in the background.

2012, Ridley Pearson, No Witnesses, →ISBN:

There were shows where they let us not use a laugh track ... and portions of shows. Whenever they were in the O.R. or serious surgery, there was no laugh track.

2013, Allan Neuwirth, They'll Never Put That on the Air: The New Age of TV Comedy, →ISBN:

The soundtrack of laughter sounds that accompanies a television comedy show.


singspiel

en-noun

singspiel (countable and uncountable, plural singspiels)

(music, uncountable) An early German form of opera consisting of spoken dialogue interspersed with song.


balance board

A device used for recreation, athletic training, circus acts, etc. consisting of a rectangular or circular board on a fulcrum on which board the user attempts to balance.


slow burn

Another familiar trope, the slow burn, teases the reader as characters secretly pine for one another . . . for a long time.

2018, Francesca DiPiazza, Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers, page 30:

Slow burns are torture. Why wait? I want my characters getting down and dirty ASAP, and there's nothing wrong with that.

2019, Robinwritesallthethings, “porn with plot”, in Lemon, page 62:

On some nights, I want a good long, juicy 70k word slowburn, mutual pining, angst (with a happy ending, of course, I'm not a monster).

2021, Aditi Dubey, “Considering Fanfic”, in Rabbit Hole, number 1, Australian National University, page 33:

(idiomatic) Something that emerges or unfolds slowly or gradually.

(fiction) A work of fiction with a slow-paced plot; also, such a storyline.

(fiction, fandom slang) A romantic story (especially a work of fan fiction) in which the central relationship develops slowly.


unity of time

(theater, literature) The classical unity stating that the action of a play should take place over no more than twenty-four hours.


iron curtain

/ˌaɪən ˈkɜːtn̩/

(theater) A barrier made of iron in a theatre, lowered between the stage and the auditorium for safety or to prevent communication.


catch flies

en-verb

catch flies (third-person singular simple present catches flies, present participle catching flies, simple past and past participle caught flies)

catches flies (present singular third-person)
catching flies (participle present)
caught flies (participle past)
caught flies (past)

(theater, informal) Of an actor: to distract the audience by moving or gesturing when the focus should be elsewhere.


antiheroic

en-adj

antiheroic (comparative more antiheroic, superlative most antiheroic)

more antiheroic (comparative)
most antiheroic (superlative)

“Monsieur Verdoux” may once again be timely, but the audacity of its statement derives less from Chaplin’s antiwar polemic than from his antiheroic pose.

2008 June 8, J. Hoberman, “When Chaplin Became the Enemy”, in New York Times:

(narratology) Of, pertaining to or typical of an antihero.


comedy of manners

en-noun

comedy of manners (plural comedies of manners)

“The great millennial novelist”—the mantle has been thrust, by Boomers and Gen Xers alike, upon the Irish writer Sally Rooney, whose two carefully observed and gentle comedies of manners both appeared before her twenty-eighth birthday.

2019 April 18, Madeleine Schwartz, “How Should a Millennial Be?”, in The New York Review, →ISSN:

A comic work that satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters.


megamusical

Save the C-notes for eye-filling megamusicals or, maybe, a good-for-you drama of intellectual aspirations, preferably with a script from England and a star from Hollywood.

2007 August 2, Ben Brantley, “Titters, Snickers and Guffaws, With a British Accent”, in New York Times:

Jukeboxes have frequently been compared to the megamusicals and are considered a direct offshoot.

2022, Kevin Byrne, Emily Fuchs, The Jukebox Musical: An Interpretive History, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

(informal, theater) A particularly elaborate or successful musical.


merryandrew

Alternative spelling of Merry Andrew; clown; buffoon.


eucatastrophe

From eu- + catastrophe, coined by English author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien in 1944 as part of a letter: see quotation.

coinage

But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped-for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. […] For it I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce).

[1944 November 7, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “88. From a Letter to Christopher Tolkien[,] 28 October 1944 (FS 58)”, in Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, editors, Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1981, →ISBN; The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin paperback edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, →ISBN, page 100:

Let us hymn the small but journal wonders
of Nature and of households, and then finish
on a serio-comic note with legends
of ultimate eucatastrophe,
regeneration beyond the waters.

1969 June 5, W. H. Auden, “Epistle to a Godson”, in The New York Review, issue:

The "problem" of T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot comes partly from our post-Christian sense of a world where Tolkien's eucatastrophes never happen, and partly from the way we write biography.

1988, Alzina Stone Dale, “Prologue: J. Alfred Prufrock among the Prophets”, in T. S. Eliot: The Philosopher Poet (The Wheaton Literary Series), Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, →ISBN; T. S. Eliot: The Philsopher-Poet, Authors Guild Backprint.com edition, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, 2004, →ISBN, page 5:

Literary unity demands that once a eucatastrophe happens it must be accepted as part of the story rather than as an arbitrary whim of the author.

2015, John J. Davenport, quoting Eleanor Helms, “The Virtues of Ambivalence: Wholeheartedness as Existential Telos and the Unwillable Completion of Narravives”, in John Lippitt, Patrick Stokes, editors, Narrative, Identity and the Kierkegaardian Self, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 159:

(narratology) A catastrophe (dramatic event leading to plot resolution) that results in the protagonist's well-being.

eucatastrophe

catastrophe that results in the protagonist's well-being


antiopera

(opera) An opera (dramatical production) that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the opera.

antiópera

an opera that deliberately avoids typical conventions


analepsis

en-noun

analepsis (countable and uncountable, plural analepses)

From Ancient Greek ἀνάληψις (análēpsis).

A form of flashback in which earlier parts of a narrative are related to others that have already been narrated


stageplay

A play written to be performed on the stage.

舞臺劇

play written to be a performed on the stage


Tommy Atkins

Said to be a fictitious name inserted in document templates given to soldiers to guide them in filling out account blanks, etc. Found in the publication Soldier's Account Book (1815) and later in King's Regulations (1837).

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play

A voice I don't want to listen to tells me that this is England's last land triumph; that our military history ends here[…]. Tommy Atkins will serve with pluck and valor wherever he fights hereafter, as always; but the conduct of the war is passing out of our hands.

1978, Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance, Back Bay Books, published 2002, page 507:


Helvetia

Helvetia
Helvetia (disambiguation)
Helvetii

A ghost town in Pima County, Arizona, United States.

Washington County
Washington County#English

An unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.

A town in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, United States.


readthrough

(film, television, theater) An organized reading of the screenplay or script by all of the actors, prior to the actual performance.


Johnny Foreigner

UK late-20th century. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang says "first recorded in 1990 but in use earlier". From John or Johnny as a personified idea. Compare Johnny Canuck (“Canadian”), Johnny Crapaud (“Frenchman”), Johnny Reb (“Confederate American”).

No wonder Johnny Foreigner lays in supplies of the stale bread rolls whenever he appears over the horizon.

1983, Richard Ingrams, John Wells, Private Eye - Issues 550-575, page 70:

Mr. King's message was that Johnny Foreigner does it better than us. In Germany, in Japan and in the United States, these bottlenecks just do not happen.

1984 December 3, John Torode, “Why must training for tomorrow be a dead turn-off?”, in The Guardian, page 18:

A time when Johnny Foreigner knew his place. A time when beautiful women from other countries existed primarily to be seduced...

1999, James Chapman, Licence to thrill: a cultural history of the James Bond films:

...the constant threat of spontaneous outbreaks of singing on Centre Court by pop has-beens and the occasional ungentlemanly antics of Johnny Foreigner...

2004, Charles Godfrey-Faussett, Footprint England:

(UK, informal, derogatory) Foreigners collectively; people who are not British.


object manipulation

Juggling is a form of object manipulation.

The performing art of manipulating one or more objects, principally using one's body.


plot hole

Invited to collaborate with Hitch, Shaffer watched several of the director's previous films and noticed in North by Northwest a glaring plot hole; Cary Grant hides aboard a train that he has selected randomly yet, somehow, his pursuers lie in wait aboard the same train.

2012, Allan Brown, Inside the Wicker Man, Birlinn, →ISBN:

(authorship) A gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.


tentpole

His [James Rolfe's] reasoning dances around the simple fact that has set this innocuous-seeming movie apart from its fellow blockbusters this summer—that it’s a tentpole genre film starring women.

2016 May 18, David Sims, “The Outcry Against the All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Remake Gets Louder”, in The Atlantic:

(US, attributive, figurative, film, television, theater) A large-scale entertainment production that is a major source of revenue for its studio, television network, or investors.


black comedy

black comedy (countable and uncountable, plural black comedies)


focalization

focalization (countable and uncountable, plural focalizations)

From focal + -ization or focalize + -ation.

(narratology) The perspective through which a narrative is presented.


noncomedy

noncomedy (usually uncountable, plural noncomedies)

(countable) A work that is not a comedy.


ASM

ASM (countable and uncountable, plural ASMs)

assistant stage manager
assistant stage manager#English

(theater) Initialism of assistant stage manager.


stagewear

The only viable alternative, one that my daughter favored, was an item called boyshorts, a low-riding pair of short shorts loosely, or should I say tightly, based on Britney's stagewear.

2003 October 6, Claudia Wallis, “The thing about thongs”, in Time:

(theater) Clothing designed to be worn while performing on stage.

(theater) Clothing worn by backstage crew.


to be continued

(writing, television) Used at the end of an episode of a serial publication or program to indicate that the story continues in the next episode.

EMH: Computer, freeze programme.
PARIS: Doc, this is the final chapter. Satan's Robot Conquers the World. We can't stop now.
EMH: Does the phrase to be continued mean anything to you?
PARIS: Your opera can wait.

1998, Star Trek: Voyager (TV series), "Night" (episode)

EMH: This programme is a waste of photonic energy.

(colloquial) Used to indicate that a story under discussion has not concluded, either in narration or in reality.


morality play

a type of allegorical drama towards the end of the Middle Ages that demonstrates a moral theme such as a character's inner struggle to attain moral enlightenment or salvation


bit player

(theater, film) An actor who has a minor role in a production.


focalize

en-verb

focalize (third-person singular simple present focalizes, present participle focalizing, simple past and past participle focalized)

focalizes (present singular third-person)
focalizing (participle present)
focalized (participle past)
focalized (past)

(narratology) To switch to a particular perspective (focalization)


double act

It appears clear from Stan's Joe Rock films, where he is very much in control of his material, that he had no intention of becoming part of a double act.

2002, Simon Louvish, Stan and Ollie, the Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy, page 173:

Messrs Barker and Corbett were now seen as a pair. They were never a double act, never totally reliant on one another in the traditional sense of a double act, the kind that television loved so much.

2005, Bob McCabe, The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker, page 110:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a double act engaged to spy on Hamlet, with the result that he has "at each ear a hearer."

2008, “Introduction”, in Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen, editors, Hamlet, Modern Library Edition, page vii:

A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or straight man.


sex comedy

Just as the screwball comedy had well-defined elements which the films in the group share, the sex comedy shares conventions of narrative and visual patterning, not only across the originating mid-1950s phase, but observable in later examples, up to the present day.

2007, Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre, Wallflower Press, →ISBN, page 44:

(film) A genre of comedy film with sexual content or themes.


falling action

(literature, drama) The events of a drama after the climax (or crisis) but before the denouement (or resolution).


direct speech

(grammar, narratology) the writing of speech, using the exact words of the speaker, usually between quotation marks


Sturm und Drang

/ˈʃtəɹm ʊnt ˈdɹaŋ/

Borrowed from German Sturm und Drang with the same figurative meaning, from Sturm (“storm”) + und (“and”) + Drang (“pressure, stress; urge, impulse, longing”). The phrase is the title of the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831).
The fact that the phrase is often italicized suggests it has not been fully assimilated into English.

The best of the Stürmer und Dränger grew out of their Sturm und Drang, and it was necessary to indicate in what ways [Johann Gottfried] Herder and [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe changed as they grew older. It should be stressed, however, that the very principles which forced them to burst the husk of the Sturm und Drang are in themselves a vital element within the Sturm und Drang.

1953, Roy Pascal, “Introduction”, in The German Sturm und Drang, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →OCLC, page xvi:

[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel's further observation shows the route taken by those who survived their Sturm und Drang and went on to produce more: "Because the sickness is in the essence itself, its isolated manifestations can be repressed [zurückdrängen] and the superficial symptoms suppressed [dämpfen]."

1985, Larry Vaughan, The Historical Constellation of the Sturm und Drang (American University Studies, Series I (Germanic Languages and Literatures); 38), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 61:

[page 1100, column 1] The Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) was a literary movement that flourished in Germany in the 1770s and 1780s and represented the protest of a group of young university-educated men against the norms of polite society. […] [page 1101, columns 1 and 2] [T]he Sturm und Drang reflected the growth of modern individualism and the challenge that middle-class ideas of selfhood presented to so-called enlightened absolutism, that is to say, to political and cultural structures that sought legitimacy by assimilating elements of bureaucratic rationalism. […] The Sturm und Drang was nevertheless an important forerunner of Romanticism in its formal experimentalism, its enthusiasm for popular culture and the primitive, its acceptance of the power of unconscious, irrational forces, and above all its concern with individual experience.

2004, David Hill, “Sturm und Drang”, in Christopher John Murray, editor, Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850, volumes 2 (L–Z, Index), New York, N.Y., London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, →ISBN, pages 1100–1101:

It was precisely this reason, science and the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to account for genius in rational terms that allowed the non-rational thinkers who fueled the fires of the Sturm und Drang movement to vivify, and elaborate upon, the ancient Greek notion of genius as a numinous power associated with the Muses and the gods.

2006, Angus [James] Nicholls, Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients, Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House Publishing, →ISBN, page 81:

The complex figure of Clavigo is therefore a variant on the Sturm and Drang theme of the enemy brothers, which forms the framework for a far older theme: that of Shakespeare's Hamlet who kills Ophelia's brother Valentin. Goethe's play is in fact modeled after Shakespeare's tragedy, and the last act is riddled with references to the cemetery scene from Hamlet. A theme dear to Sturm and Drang is also revisited: fratricide. The period during which Goethe wrote Clavigo was that in which the young Sturm and Drang poets all flocked around the figure of Goethe.

2014, Katalin Nun, Jon Stewart, editors, Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs: Tome I: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir (Kirkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources; 16), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 105:

(literature, music, theater) A proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music which occurred from the late 1760s to the early 1780s, emphasizing individual subjectivity and the free expression of emotions.

狂飆突進運動

a proto-Romantic movement from the late 1760s to the early 1780s in German literature and music


worldbuilding

The purpose of worldbuilding isn't just to do a cool exercise, but to give a sense of place — and all of your thought experiments absolutely have to result in something vivid and alive.

2013 February 8, Charlie Jane Anders, “7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding”, in io9, archived from the original on 2016-11-25:

High fantasy of the George RR Martin kind hinges on world-building. When there really is a whole world to build, and not just a historical period or a particular country, world-building does not take a few paragraphs in a short story; it takes chapters.

2015 May 20, Natasha Pulley, “Fantasy cannot build its imaginary worlds in short fiction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(fiction) The conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.

աշխարհկառուցում

act or process of building of a fictional world


Sydney Opera House

A multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.


reblock

reblock (third-person singular simple present reblocks, present participle reblocking, simple past and past participle reblocked)

reblocks (present singular third-person)
reblocking (participle present)
reblocked (participle past)
reblocked (past)

In less than five hours the actors will perform the ballroom scene, rewritten and reblocked.

2013, Susan Letzler Cole, Playwrights in Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company, page 81:

(transitive, theater) To block, or specify the position of, (actors on the stage) again.


sequelitis

For an exhilarating period, until spectacle and sequelitis restored formula to the throne, experimentation became big box-office.

1996, Peter Travers, The Rolling stone film reader:

Suffering a bad case of sequelitis, this Sister Act follow-up is too formulaic and frequently pauses to sermonize at the expense of entertaining.

2000, Derek Elley, Variety Portable Movie Guide:

(informal, derogatory) The tendency of a well-received work to spawn many inferior sequels.


throughline

From through (“passing from one side of something to the other”, adjective) + line. Compare Middle English thurghline (“a brail or buntline”).

cog

Produced by none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys again most closely resembles a kind of junior-varsity tryout for that duo's Superbad, down to its modestly affecting emotional through-line: an acceptance of the fact that childhood friendships, forged out of proximity and convenience, aren't always destined to last.

2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-03-04:

The Russian rockets fell on Babyn Yar, 80 years after the Nazi atrocities it commemorates; Zelenskiy’s face was enough to hammer home the gravity of the thematic throughline.

2022 March 8, Zoe Williams, “Zelenskiy brings down the house with his speech to the Commons”, in The Guardian:

(narratology) In full through line of action: a theme that runs through the plot of a book, film, or other narrative work, or a series of such related works.

fil conducteur

theme that runs through the plot of a narrative work, or a series of such related works


scenography

en-noun

scenography (countable and uncountable, plural scenographies)

Latin scenographia, equivalent to scene + -ography.

perspektiivipiirustus

art or act of representation in perspective

The Walls or Partitions are represented by the Letters C. C. C. but these are all more exactly seen in the Scenography, in which D. and E. shows two Caves with their Walls turn’d over with Arches.

1705, Thomas Greenhill, Νεκροκηδεία or The Art of Embalming:

A representation or description of a body, in all its dimensions, as it appears to the eye.


Ma Bell

Like Ma Bell, I've Got The Ill Communications

1994, “Get it together”, in Ill Communication, performed by Beastie Boys:

(US, telecommunications, informal, historical) Collectively, the family of companies associated with American Telephone & Telegraph, providing telephone service in the United States for many years through 1983.


lolspeak

The standards are still being fract^H^H^H^H^Hwritten for the language, but the availability of Suitable Wordings from lolspeak verges on the frightening at times.

2007, David DeLaney, “Re: As Others See Us, in this case the DHS”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet):

Study the lolcat version of the book of Genesis, accessible as nltk.corpus.genesis.words('lolcat.txt'), and the rules for converting text into lolspeak at http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=How_to_speak_lolcat. Define regular expressions to convert English words into corresponding lolspeak words.

2009, Steven Bird, Ewan Klein, Edward Loper, chapter 3, in Natural Language Processing with Python, →ISBN, page 127:

Now, in this first ever feline gospel, they retell 50 popular Bible stories in LOLspeak.

2010, Martin Grondin, LOLcat Bible: In Teh Beginnin Ceiling Cat Maded Teh Skiez An Da Urfs N Stuffs, →ISBN:

Of course, for every feature of LOLspeak we discuss, it is likely that you will find numerous counter examples, as such is the nature of language play. LOLspeak is nothing if not creative.

2011, Lauren Gawne, Jill Vaughan, “I can haz language play: The construction of language and identity in LOLspeak”, in M. Ponsonnet, L. Dao, M. Bowler, editors, Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference, →ISBN:

(Internet slang, neologism) The speech of lolcats, consisting of spelling variations of English, imitating the speech of children and some regional accents.


tritagonist

Ancient Greek, originally in Greek drama, from ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”). By surface analysis, trit- (“third”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

surf

In Greek drama, the actor who played the third role (after the protagonist and deuteragonist)


stage-whisper

en-verb

stage-whisper (third-person singular simple present stage-whispers, present participle stage-whispering, simple past and past participle stage-whispered)

stage-whispers (present singular third-person)
stage-whispering (participle present)
stage-whispered (participle past)
stage-whispered (past)


produceorial

en-adj

produceorial (comparative more produceorial, superlative most produceorial)

more produceorial (comparative)
most produceorial (superlative)

I'm always just trying to get direct access to an audience, without having to go through the media hoops, or even theproduceorial hoops

2003, Kathleen Gallagher, “A dialogue with Ann-Marie MacDonald”, in How theatre educates: convergences and counterpoints with artists, scholars and advocates, University of Toronto Press, page 251:

(film, theater) Of or pertaining to a producer; concerned with production


J-drama

en-noun

J-drama (countable and uncountable, plural J-dramas)


whoops, there go my trousers

/ˈʍʊps ðɛː ˈɡəʊ maɪ ˈtɹaʊzəz/

/ˈwʊps ðɛɚ ˈɡoʊ maɪ ˈtɹaʊzɚz/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whoops, there go my trousers.wav

A reference to a gag in slapstick comedy theatre plays where a character’s trousers fall to the ground, exposing his underwear, to elicit laughs from the audience.

Four Rooms is the latest attempt to combine multiple directors' skits into one film. It is also an attempt to mix "whoops!-there-go-my-trousers" farce with the slick kitsch pop-art comedy.

1995 December 29, Chris Wright, “Four Rooms [TV review]”, in The Boston Phoenix, Boston, Mass.: Boston Phoenix, →OCLC, section 3, page 19:

But what's this? A play about a Carry On film by Terry "Whoops, There Go My Trousers" Johnson, the man responsible for the National's revival of The London Cuckolds, an 18th-century version of Run For Your Wife?

1998 June 13, “Carry on up the National”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, weekend edition, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1:

The bolts have to be opened and closed in the right combination to avoid scenes worthy of a French farce. But I feel less a character in ‘Whoops! There go my trousers’, and more like something miserable by [Samuel] Beckett or [Franz] Kafka about the meaningless of life, and the fatuity of communication.

2002, Simon Calder, No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low-cost Revolution in the Skies, London: Virgin Books, →ISBN, page 45:

Instead this relies on the supposedly comical misunderstandings that have been a feature of sitcoms since the 1950s. [...] The children are smart arses, the laughter is canned, the parents befuddled and every line delivered as if they're on stage starring in "Whoops, There Go My Trousers".

2009 January 9, Andrea Mullaney, “TV Review: The Life of Riley, The Green Green Grass, Dexter”, in The Scotsman, Edinburgh: Scotsman Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2009-02-16:

(comedy, theater) Used to describe a genre of farcical theatre plays.


Chekhov's gun

Calque of Russian Чеховское ружьё (Čexovskoje ružʹjó). The principle was articulated by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and reported in various forms.

cal

Чеховское ружьё

The episode of the sun-god's island is the Odyssey's equivalent of Chekhov's gun, announced in the poem's earliest lines as the occasion of the companions' downfall and anticipated ever since.

2005, John Miles Foley, A companion to ancient epic, →ISBN, page 324:

He is Chekhov's gun on the wall, destined to go off at the crucial moment.

2007, John Updike, Due considerations: essays and criticism, →ISBN, page 336:

An element that is introduced early in the story whose significance to the plot does not become clear until later.


mytharc

Blend of mythology + story arc, used originally and most commonly in reference to The X-Files.

This [Neon Genesis Evangelion] is one show that -really- has me sucked in. And yes, their mytharc has to be the most perfectly constructed thing I've ever seen. :)

1999, Heath Smith, “TAN: Neon Genesis and how to do the mytharc properly”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet):

I think this is what you seek to avoid in mytharcs - a plot that drowns out the character-based drama and morality plays that are still Gene's finest legacy.

2000, Allronix, “An open letter to Ms. Roddenberry”, in alt.tv.earth-final-conflict (Usenet):

The mytharc is a continuous story line about the government's involvement in a plot to cover up the presence of extraterrestrials on Earth.

2008, J. P. Telotte, The essential science fiction television reader, page 234:

(fandom slang) The ongoing story arc that underpins all episodes of a television series.


Pantagruelism

Eponym from French character in the novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, + -ism.

burlesque comedy that has an underlying serious purpose; a form of satire


reset button

But after a year of sagging ratings, Dallas hit the reset button, by having Pam wake up to see Bobby, very much alive, lathering up in their shower. The entire 1985–86 season, including Bobby's death, had been a bad dream of Pam's, and now that she was awake, Dallas could go on the way it should have, with the previous year's events effectively wiped away.

2016, David Bianculli, The Platinum Age of Television […] , Anchor, →ISBN, page 140:

Voyager the show ambles and meanders just like Voyager the ship, hypothetically exploring new territory but actually doomed to retreads and consequence-free episodic storytelling (heavy on what fans came to call “the Reset Button” that restores the status quo), exacerbated by overuse of technobabble.

2020, Murray Leeder, “Confessions of an Anti-Fan”, in Robert L. Lively, editor, Exploring Star Trek: Voyager: Critical Essays, McFarland, →ISBN, page 250:

(fiction) A plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction, by returning characters and situations to the status quo they held before certain changes were introduced.


miles gloriosus

en-noun

miles gloriosus (plural milites gloriosi)

Borrowed from Latin mīles (“soldier”) + glōriōsus (“glorious”).

[I]t of course ought not to be said that the General who assumes the responsibility behaved "generously" on one occasion and "magnanimously" upon another. About such expressions there is a reminiscence of the classical "Miles gloriosus" of the British Nelson, or of the American Winfield Scott.

1898 September 8, “The Army against the War Department”, in New York Times, retrieved 2010-12-04:

He placed Falstaff in the tradition of the miles gloriosus, the type of rascally braggart soldier borrowed from Roman comedy.

1932, John W. Draper, “Sir John Falstaff”, in The Review of English Studies, volume 8, number 32, page 414:

It is possible, then, to read the text of 1 Henry IV as exploiting Hotspur's contradictions for maximum effect, producing a figure who is neither tragic hero, comic miles gloriosus, nor historical reenactment but exuberantly all three at once.

2003, Roberta Barker, “Tragical-Comical-Historical Hotspur”, in Shakespeare Quarterly, volume 54, number 3, page 303:

(literary, performing arts) A standard character in ancient comedy and in modern comedy depicting ancient military figures: the bravado-filled, self-important, swaggering soldier.


laughathon

Oh, I had a jolly time in South Dakota, all right, a regular laughathon of nonstop fun and entertainment

They were already into that raucous rhythm that made their show a TV landmark. Nonstop jokes, topping each other, full speed ahead, no holds barred laughathon.

2000, Mike Douglas, Thomas Kelly, Michael Heaton, I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show:

No, not what you'd call your standard laugh-a-thons. But not too grim, I hope.

2002, Paul Auster, The Book of Illusion (page 208, ff)

It was a laughathon at Headquarters.

2002, Terrence D. Haynes, Desert Norm: A Journal/Novel About the Gulf War, page 169:

What if they were having a big laughathon over Heaven and her stupid crush?

2004, Carrie Asai, The Book of the Shadow, page 36:

(informal) Something very funny; a comedy session or period of great amusement.


shoulder angel

An angel representing a person's conscience in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder devil occupies the other.


shoulder devil

Coordinate term: shoulder angel

A devil representing a person's temptations in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder angel occupies the other.


title character

title character (plural title characters)

A fictional character whose name or a short description is present in the title of the work where the character appears.


antinarrative

(narratology) A narrative, as of a play or novel, that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative, such as a coherent plot and resolution.

antinarrativa

a narrative that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of the narrative


offcast

en-verb

offcast (third-person singular simple present offcasts, present participle offcasting, simple past and past participle offcast)

offcasts (present singular third-person)
offcasting (participle present)
offcast (participle past)
offcast (past)

From Middle English ofcasten, equivalent to off- + cast. Cognate with Danish afkaste (“to shed”), Swedish avkasta (“to crop, throw off, yield”).
The noun is possibly derived from Middle English ofcast (“the refuse of plants”).

inh

The experiment to offcast Davis began in 1937 with That Certain Woman; "She's a lady," we are told.

1985, Tino Balio, The American film industry:

[...] and Paramount was not inclined to offcast its stars, the story was dropped.

White actresses were able to maintain a more multidimensional star persona than actresses of color, thanks in large part to their ability to off-cast themselves in challenging roles and control their off-screen image through publicity.

2015, Emily Carman, Independent Stardom:

(transitive, theater, television) to remove from the cast of a production.


nondiegetic

(film music) That does not occur as part of the action, and cannot be heard by the film's characters; background.


handwavium

From hand waving + -ium (“the chemical element suffix”).

af

My handwavium was an invented mineral, but - reading up - what about platinum? Could I substitute platinum for handwavium?

2008 February 3, Jacey Bedford <jacey@artisan-harmony.com>, “Handwavium”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):

It made no sense to him that their very impossibility was their pleasure. He puzzled over the spacecraft and their handwavium drives. "The thousand and one nights of Scheherazade, told by an engineering student who failed his graduation exams," was his literary judgment.

2008 March, Alexander Jablokov, “The Boarder”, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 114, number 3, Concord, N.H.: Fantasy House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:

She writes romantic fantasy and science fiction, and makes liberal use of the substance known as handwavium.

2012, Imogen Howson, Blood of the Volcano, Cincinnati, Oh.: Samhain Publishing, →ISBN, page 167:

(informal, fiction) Any hypothetical but unobtainable material with desirable engineering properties.


big red button

A real, fictional, or figurative button that controls a function of critical importance and that is usually large and red, ensuring quick identification.


image macro

What were the various image macros? ... [img-foo]: See Image Macro. A list of official [img-foo]s are above, but any common image that's used often can replace foo. [img-motorcycle.jpg] for instance.

2001 August 25, anotherone, “Something Awful forums FAQ By anotherone”, in http://anotherone0.tripod.com/, archived from the original on 2001-08-25:

That would make such a good image macro, could i use it sometime?

2001 September 25, Guest, “Meddling kids!”, in 3D Realms Forums, archived from the original on 2007-02-07:

2001 October 22, <deleted user>, “Ill advised image macros never intended for use”, in Something Awful Forums, retrieved 2013-09-11:

Now, the term Image Macro refers to any frequently used image, usually with text proclaiming "YOU SUCK AT THE INTERNET!" or something.

2002 February 22, anotherone, “Something Awful forums FAQ By anotherone”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 2001-08-25:

(Internet) An image with superimposed text, often humorous.


clown car

From a comedy routine first invented by the Cole Brothers Circus during the 1950s.

Kids of all ages have been applauding the clown car trick for more than 60 years, ever since it was first introduced in 1950 by master clown Otto Griebling at the Cole Brothers Circus.

2012, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Vroom!:

It looked as if around fifty people got out and it reminded me of a clown car at a circus.

2014, Allen Laycock, Hereditary Decision, page 9:

Sometimes clowns do a trick called “clown car,” where a bunch of clowns squeeze into a car and come out, one by one. ... If you go to a circus with a clown car, you'll see they have suitcases, beach balls, and other items to make it funnier.

2016, Stephanie Faris, Piper Morgan Joins the Circus:

(comedy) A circus clown routine in which an implausibly large number of clowns climb into or out of a small car.


I see what you did there

Book a tabla now (te-he) www.electromancer.com/artists/squishmusic [Yes, very good, I see what you did there - Ed].

Leonard Hofstadter: Of course, we're in different departments. He's an engineer and I'm an experimental physicist. You know, one of guys who examines the building blocks of creation and says: "Hello, maker of the universe. I see what you did there. Good one."

2010 November 4, Bill Prady, Steven Molaro & Steve Holland, "The Apology Insufficiency", episode 4-7 of The Big Bang Theory, 00:05:03-00:05:19

"Wait. I see what you did there. You turned my comment around on me so that it would be an insult. You are one clever gal, Dr. Rodgers."

2011, Grant R. Jeffrey, Alton L. Gansky, The Scroll, WaterBrook Press, →ISBN, page 103:

Oh, I see what you did there! You made a little "bacon" joke at moi's expense. You got a death wish or something, buster?!

2011 November 19, “Fast chat: Miss Piggy of 'The Muppets'”, in Newsday:

(informal, humorous) An expression used to point out that another person's joke or cleverness has been recognized or understood, either to acknowledge its cleverness or alternatively to communicate a lack of amusement.


dad joke

Indicative of the type of bad jokes that might be told by one's father. Possible calque of Japanese おやじギャグ (oyaji gyagu, literally “dad joke”), although it is not clear which came first.

cal

Here is an oldie but a goodie: When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. Wocka wocka.

2021, Shannon Carpenter, The Ultimate Stay-at-Home Dad […] , Penguin, →ISBN, page 32:

(colloquial) A (usually deliberate) unfunny or corny joke, typically containing a pun and often in question/answer format.


spiritual sequel

en-noun

spiritual sequel (plural spiritual sequels)

A successor to a work of fiction which does not directly build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, but nevertheless features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material.


anticomedy

In the usual comedic parlance, “anticomedy” is a self-aware performance that mines laughs from its utter lack of conventional punch lines.

2019, Ken Jennings, chapter 8, in Planet Funny: How Comedy Ruined Everything, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 186:

A form of comedy that deliberately avoids the typical conventions of comedy.


Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu

the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu (canonical)

law (“rule”) + of + conservation (“preservation”) + of + ninjutsu (“a martial art used by ninjas”)
The law implies that each team of ninjas has the same finite amount of "power" of martial arts, therefore a team with fewer ninjas has more powerful ninjas.

> The more creativity and ingenuity you give your aliens, the less is
> available for your humans, generally the protagonists, which means
> things will end poorly for Our Heroes. [...]
Sort of like a SCIENCE application of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu?

2007 December 3, sw <sw@eyrie.org>, “Re: Why so few creative aliens?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <slrnfl8dbu.6gg.sw@haven.eyrie.org>:

In other words, if I can tweak the minion->normal->elite->solo system into a^([sic]) in-game representation of the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu, there will be much win.

2008 May 19, Nockermensch <ralgomes@gmail.com>, “Re: Ampersand: The Scoop on D&D Insider”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet), message-ID <11398510-50ce-4342-a223-ca68b86c8b89@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com>:

The Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu was working in the main characters' favor, but even so, it was hard going.

2011 February 19, Andrew Perron <pwerdna@gmail.com>, “LNH/RACCies: Just Imagine Saxon Brenton vs. Andrew Perron in the Return of the RACCies! #10: Poledancing Phantoms of Limbo”, in rec.arts.comics.creative (Usenet), message-ID <1hmvlegtnnkih$.1p14289mto1ro.dlg@40tude.net>:

(narratology, fiction, informal, humorous) The ability of one or few people to win fights against many opponents.


by-play

by-play (countable and uncountable, plural by-plays)

(theater) Action carried on aside, commonly in dumb show, while the main action proceeds; action not intended to be observed by some of the persons present.


sequel hook

(narratology, informal) A plot device where information or characters are placed into a plot that can provide the basis for subsequent sequel stories.


Father Sky

The personification of the Sky and its biosphere.

Ciel-Père

the personification of the Sky and its biosphere


number three

(theater) A small town where theatrical performances are unlikely to meet with much success.


self-insertion

self-insertion (countable and uncountable, plural self-insertions)

(narratology) A literary device in which the author writes himself or herself into the story as a character.


flyman

(theater) Someone who operates a fly system in a theatre.


clownery

clownery (countable and uncountable, plural clowneries)

Defensive clownery by the Mets at certain points of the game ultimately cost the 22-year-old Niese his first major league win in eight months.

2009 May 9, Joshua Robinson, “Five-Run Inning Gives Mets Room for Errors”, in New York Times:

The behaviour of a clown; clownishness, tomfoolery.

խեղկատակություն

the behaviour of a clown; clownishness, tomfoolery


pochade

In despair, he finally painted a pochade of people leaving the church of Saint-François, in the village of the same name.

2004, David Karel, André Biéler: at the Crossroads of Canadian Painting, page 115:

This painting was very small, not even a study but a pochade — no more than a first idea jotted down in paint.

2008, Martin Gayford, The Yellow House, page 116:


in the round

There is another sense in which we can say that theatre begins in the round. Teachers in schools frequently observe that the dramatic play of children and their early attempts at theatre frequently take a natural in-the-round shape.

1982, Jack Mitchley, Peter Spalding, Five Thousand Years of Theatre, Batsford Academic and Educational:

By staging national identity “in the round,” Arena opens up multifaceted perspectives of who comprises the nation and under what circumstances. Finchandler observed: “Since it has no back, front or sides, the arena becomes a highly democratic form for the audience, […].”

2019, Donatella Galella, America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage, University of Iowa Press, →ISBN, page 15:

Down in the arena, though, it was business as semi-normal with the band members making their traditional promenade through the crowd to a small in-the-round stage with a colourful player piano taking up most of the room.

2022 September 6, Fiona Shepherd, “Music review: Arcade Fire, Hydro, Glasgow”, in The Scotsman:

(theater) Having a stage completely surrounded by an audience.


hold the ring

en-verb

hold the ring (third-person singular simple present holds the ring, present participle holding the ring, simple past and past participle held the ring)

holds the ring (present singular third-person)
holding the ring (participle present)
held the ring (participle past)
held the ring (past)

/ˈhəʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/

/ˈhɔʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/

/ˈhoʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/

Probably from keep the ring. In days past when spectators would encircle participants in a prizefight or a performance, people would be employed to maintain order among them and keep them from coming too near the participants.

(sports, theater, obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants.


queerbait

queerbait (third-person singular simple present queerbaits, present participle queerbaiting, simple past and past participle queerbaited)

queerbaits (present singular third-person)
queerbaiting (participle present)
queerbaited (participle past)
queerbaited (past)

From queer + -bait (manipulation to elicit a particular response).

af

(LGBT, fandom slang) To engage in queerbaiting (creating homoerotic tension, but not developing it, in a narrative work to reel in an LGBT audience).


handcuff artist

en-noun

handcuff artist (plural handcuff artists)

An escape artist who specializes in escaping handcuffs.


Groucho glasses

Joe handed Groucho glasses to each of them and then indicated the guns.

2000, Chloe Green, Going Out in Style, New York: Warner, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, LCC PS3557.R363 G65 2000, page 58:

I felt like I was going down on a pair of Groucho glasses.

2004 May, Gus Mattox, “Fuzz Down Below”, in Out, →ISSN, page 93:

Dan Menaker handed me a pair of Groucho glasses as I entered the room.

2006 October 17, Joe Klein, “Afterword”, in Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, Trade Paperback edition, Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, LCC PS3550.A1 P75 2006, page 378:

And there on the wall with trick sunglasses you can use to look behind you, Groucho glasses, and the glasses with the eyeballs on springs was something very, very creepy.

2011, David Anderegg, Nerds: How Dorks, Dweebs, Techies, and Trekkies Can Save America and Why They Might Be Our Last Hope, New York: Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 21:

A novelty pair of horn-rimmed glasses with attached eyebrows, plastic nose, and bushy mustache, caricaturing Groucho Marx.


beaglepuss

From Franco-American Novelty Company's brand name "Beagle Puss Disguise Kit", apparently from beagle + puss (“face”).

Vonnegut did not write the book, and the photo on the book jacket of Trout looked suspiciously like Farmer, wearing Boss Mule work gloves, beagle puss and mustache, sunglasses, mufflers, etc.

1990, Howard Waldrop, Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories, Kansas City: Ursus Imprints, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, LCC PS3573.A4228 N54 1990, page 60:

The punchline: a bewildered Ung wearing a beaglepuss and trying to type with a rubber chicken […]

2004 September 13, George Jones, Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide, Indianapolis: Que, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 23:

Julian Assange personally reads every document to be published, types it up and formats it on his laptop while wearing a beaglepuss.

2010 August 22, JDog, “The Greatest Rube Goldberg Machine: How WikiLeaks Documents Reach Julian Assange”, in Writing Rendezvous, retrieved 2011-11-15:

(uncommon) A novelty pair of horn-rimmed glasses with attached eyebrows, plastic nose, and bushy mustache, caricaturing Groucho Marx.


parascenium

(Ancient Greece, theater) One of two apartments adjoining the ancient stage, probably used as dressing rooms.


paratheater

From para- + theater, coined by Jerzy Grotowski.

A kind of experimental theater in which the audience directly participates.


Lady Liberty

In a mythological personification, liberty symbolized as a young lady, holding up a torch.


meet cute

Claudette Colbert
Ernst Lubitsch
Gary Cooper

Accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), who had difficulty speaking English, to describe the encounter between the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.

If this is a distortion of reality, it is a knowingly utopian gesture, and the wit of such conceits lies in placing in tension the ideal with the real and so being more than a series of fancy ‘meet cutes’: […]

1989, Bruce Babington, Peter William Evans, Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

The hunt for love saturates Western culture. […] Romantic comedies have characters discover one another serendipitously, called "meet-cutes." The lead clumsily spills a drink on his future love interest, setting off a chain of events to love. Meet-cutes affirm the idea that possibility is all around us: love can happen anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone.

2013, Jaime Woo, “How to Find Love on Grindr (if You Hafta)”, in Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, Canada: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 108, column 1:

In some respects, it might be too faithful to the genre it savages; as in many real rom-coms, the energy flags during the plot’s backstretch, and audiences may share the drifting interest of Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), who come to regret ever asking Joel and Molly to chronicle their meet-cute.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

When Wade first crosses paths with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), the ass-kicking fellow “gunter” (or egg hunter) with whom he becomes infatuated, the pair’s meet cute is predicated on the swapping of favorite pop-culture quotes.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Café Pick Me Up was a cosy little place with a low pressed-metal ceiling, crammed full of tiny tables, with French cafe chairs and mellow lighting. If you were to write a romcom featuring a meet cute, you’d set it there.

2021 December 26, Alys Fowler, “My winter of love: I was homesick in New York. The quiet Danish poet was just what I was longing for”, in The Guardian:

(narratology, informal) A situation in a film, television series, etc., in which a potential romantic couple meet for the first time in a way that is considered adorable, amusing, or cute.


stage-door Johnny

stage-door Johnny (plural stage-door Johnnies or stage-door Johnnys)

stage-door Johnnies (plural)
stage-door Johnnys (plural)

"You went off and married that—whatever that stage-door johnny's name was—and it broke me all up."

1917, P. G. Wodehouse, “Extricating Young Gussie,”, in The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories:

"One woman met her husband because of the show," he said. "She was in the chorus and he was a stage-door Johnny."

1989 July 25, Terry Trucco, “A London Accent for 'Anything Goes'”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-01-13:

There is always some stage-door Johnnie waiting to take out a chorus girl.

2009, Rhys Bowen, Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, →ISBN, page 95:

(idiomatic) A man who is infatuated with one or more theatrical actresses and who routinely lingers in and around theatres in an effort to meet and form relationships with the female(s) of his affection.

The stage was my obsession from age 6. . . . By my early teens, I had become so conspicuous a Stage Door Johnny that the manager of the National Theater, Washington's one Broadway tryout house in the pre-Kennedy Center era, took pity on me and hired me as a ticket taker.

1994 February 13, Frank Rich, “After 13 Years of Drama and Farce. . . Exit the Critic”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-01-13:

(idiomatic) A devoted fan of live theatre and of performing artists, who habitually spends time in and around theatres.


lashline

(theater) A rope for tying pieces of scenery together.


postscenium

(Ancient Rome, theater) The part of a theater behind the stage; the backstage area.


cothurn

From Latin cothurnus, from Ancient Greek κόθορνος (kóthornos). Compare cothurnus.

The moment had arrived when it was thought that the mask and the cothurn might again be assumed with effect.

1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

A buskin anciently worn by tragic actors on the stage.


sceneman

Holonym: stage crew

(theater) A man who is a sceneshifter; any sceneshifter.


rola bola

A balance board, usually in the context of circus or entertainment.


corypheus

corypheus (plural corypheuses or coryphei)

From Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head”).

uder

In this work Homer and Virgil already appear beside Cicero and Plato as doctrinal authorities. The four corypheuses are infallible; any contradiction between them is wholly out of the question.

1953, Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, page 443:

(drama, historical) The conductor or leader of the dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece.


sceneshifter

Holonym: stage crew

Someone who moves the scenes in a theatre during a performance.


stasimon

From Ancient Greek στάσιμον (stásimon, “stationary”); compare stasis.

the lively measures of the Hyporcheme which holds the place of THIRD STASIMON ( V ) speak for themselves

1883, Richard Claverhouse Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments:

1950, Amy Marjorie Dale, Stasimon and Hyporcheme, Eranos, XLVIII, pages 14-20, reprinted in 1969, Collected Papers of A. M. Dale, Volume 2, page 34,
In the Parados the chorus is 'coming on', and has to move on to and across the orchestra to take its place in the middle; in all the stasima, however active and lively the dance, its evolutions are performed from that middle position (a choro tenente stationes suas, as Hermann said in 1844), and do no involve processional movement.

It is interesting to consider the treatment of the stasima in relation to their context. Especially remarkable is the way in which the first stasimon (224 ff.), a hymn to Apollo praying for the success of Dolon's enterprise, is largely composed of sentiments repeated, with many verbal echoes, from the preceding dialogue[…].

1964, William Ritchie, The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides, page 338:

The first stasimon sings of the wonders of man, which culminates in man's city-building and his ethical community.[…]Episodes can be interpreted in the light of the choral stasima.

2013, Jonathan N. Badger, Sophocles and the Politics of Tragedy: Cities and Transcendence, page 78:

(drama, Ancient Greek drama) A song of the chorus during a tragedy, continued without the interruption of dialogue or anapaestics.


conistra

From Ancient Greek κονίστρα (konístra), from κονίς (konís, “dust”).

(historical) A part of the orchestra of the Ancient Greek theatre.


nuncius

Borrowed from Latin nūncius, medieval form of nūntius (“messenger”).


shark-jumping

From shark + jumping, from jump the shark.

Christian Lander (2008) Stuff White People Like, →ISBN, page 171: “But if you must declare a shark-jumping moment, the best bet is to say that the show jumped between the two “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” episodes.”

To me this dinner, with its tasting notes and the rest, seemed like the dernier cri in shark-jumping foodie bullshit.

2012 April 20, Oliver Thring, “Me and my spoon”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), The Guardian:

Becoming unbelievable or disappointing due to plot developments.


worldbuilder

Many mistake my approach as hostile to the sacrosanct memory of J. R. R. Tolkien, undoubtedly one of the greatest worldbuilders of the 20th century and indirectly the father of both a literary and a gaming genre.

2001, Neal Hallford, Jana Hallford, Swords and circuitry: a designer's guide to computer role playing games, page 207:

We are weary of theoretical worldbuilders who strive to construct logical designs that weave together all components of the social fabric.

1989, Stanford M. Lyman, Marvin B. Scott, A Sociology of the Absurd:

One who constructs a world, especially a convincing fictional world for literature etc.


momic

They should be called "momics," those housewives who climb comedy-club stages and tell jokes about their kids and dirty laundry.

1996 March 2, Dick Kreck, “Everything wacky in 'Momville'”, in Denver Post:

(US, informal) A comedienne whose act focuses on her children and family life.


MSTing

The intent may not have been deliberately malicious; but it was negligent and in bad taste not to ask the author's permission first, which in no way precludes the MSTing from being hurtful.

1995 February 4, Roberta Chi-Woon Kwong, “Re: MSTied fanfic (long)”, in alt.tv.x-files.creative (Usenet):

I love all the discussions and especially enjoy reading MSTings of fan fiction.

2003 April 4, Andrew Mitchell, “Delurking”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

I once did a MSTing of the Power Rangers movie script, and there are MAJOR differences between it and what we see on screen.

2003 August 13, Fish Eye no Miko, “Re: Hermione in COS”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

(fandom slang) A parody fanfic created by inserting satirical commentary into an existing work.


advice animal

Advice Animals are the greatest epic fad of all time [pics]

2009 March 28, Author, Advice Animals are the greatest epic fad of all time, MTG Salvation Forum

— Mixing advice animals i.e. half a courage wolf quote with half an emo dog one. theres a ton of these.

2009 July 17, Richie McNuggets, A list of Memes yet to be submitted., Know Your Meme

Among the Advice Animal memes popularized by 4chan and Meme Generator, Bachelor Frog (aka Foul Bachelor Frog) occupies a unique "it's funny because it's true" space.
Whereas other advice animals (animal heads that give two-line directives), such as Advice Dog and Courage Wolf, emphasize over-the-top humor, Bachelor Frog relies on nuance familiar to anyone (especially dudes) who's ever lived alone. That naturally makes him the perfect internet mascot.

2010, March 25, Cole Stryker, A Guide to Foul Bachelor Frog, 4chan's Funniest Advice Dog Spinoff, urlesque

(Internet, mainly in the plural) A photograph of an animal or human captioned with quotations typical of a stereotype or stock character. The background of the original image is often replaced with a colour wheel.


Fresnel lantern

en-noun

Fresnel lantern (plural Fresnel lanterns)

A lantern used in theatre, which employs a Fresnel lens to wash light over an area of the stage.


German wheel

First is the German Wheel, two metal hoops six feet in circumference, joined at six points. Inside, gymnast Chris Lashua rolls, turns and spins through a series of gravity-defying somersaults and acrobatics.

1997 February, “Big Top For Your Head”, in Orange Coast Magazine, page 36:

(circus arts) An apparatus made up of two large, usually steel rings joined together by a set of parallel steel bars.

roue allemande

An apparatus made of two large rings joined by a set of parallel bars.


requel

Patterned after sequel using re- (“again, anew”).

"We want the character to look different, feel different, sound different. The back story of the character's different, the origin of the story is expanded upon in ways that the first movie didn't hint at, at all. […] It's pretty much a reboot, only with the same actor, which makes it: a requel. Or a seboot."

2011 March 21, “Ghost Rider 2 is 'very different'”, in Belfast Telegraph:

A movie which revisits the subject matter of an earlier film but is not a remake or a linear continuation of its plot (i.e. a sequel or prequel).

新傳

a movie revisits the same subject matter as an earlier one but not a sequel or prequel


framing device

“Treehouse Of Horror III”’s framing device finds the good folks of Springfield telling stories during a Halloween party.

2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(narratology) An introductory or main narrative that provides a framework for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories.


Billy Yank

American Civil War
American Civil War#English

(US, dated) A soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War.


noises off

A separate section is given to this subject because as a rule the importance of noises off is badly underestimated in the amateur theatre.

1934, Alfred Kenneth Boyd, The Technique of Play Production:

(theater) Sound effects produced offstage.


zitcom

Each of these youngsters was given a TV show — the so-called zitcom — followed usually by a recording contract with Disney-owned Hollywood Records, songs in heavy rotation on Radio Disney and on Disney-movie sound tracks, a concert tour with Disney-owned Buena Vista Concerts and tie-in merchandise throughout the Disney stores.

2009 October 22, Belinda Luscombe, “Making New Mileys: Disney's Teen-Star Factory”, in Time:

A sitcom aimed at a teen audience or revolving around teen characters.


-verse

Women's lib in the BSGverse.

2008, Lynnette Porter, David Lavery, Hillary Robson, Finding Battlestar Galactica, page 150:

This is Uhura's – and Uhura's fans' – big moment, the moment in which she blazingly comes alive as a member of the Trekverse.

2009, David Greven, Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek, page 216:

Forming compounds nouns denoting the fictional world of a given character, television series etc.


three-ring circus

three-ring circus (plural three-ring circuses)

A large circus in which three separate performances, each within its own circular enclosure, are staged simultaneously before a single audience.


tragic flaw

When a heroine's tragic flaw takes the form of uncontrollable love for an outlaw, the paths of momentary glory can lead but to defeat.

1948 May 31, Harold V. Cohen, "'Green Grass of Wyoming'" (film review), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 28 (retrieved 5 July 2012)

If the jury, who begin their final deliberations tomorrow, find the black All-American hero guilty of murdering his white wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, they will have concluded that he succumbed to the oldest tragic flaw in the book, the green-eyed monster of jealousy.

1995 October 1, John Carlin, “OJ's guilt is a black and white choice”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-05:

The control-freak instinct runs too deep. . . . This runs the risk of becoming a tragic flaw.

2002 February 25, J. F. O. McAllistair, “Blair the Bungee Jumper”, in Time:

(chiefly literary criticism) A personality trait or other characteristic of a real or fictional individual which is immoral, destructive, or otherwise faulty and which leads to the ruin or profound suffering of that individual.


touring company

touring company (plural touring companies)

Last fall's strike by the New York City Opera orchestra killed the company's regular season, but it did not cast its shadow over the endeavors of its touring troupe. . . . The touring company was established in 1979 by Beverly Sills as a kind of training troupe in which promising young singers could get some performing and touring experience before joining the company's regular roster.

1990 January 23, Allan Kozinn, “City Opera's 'Boheme' Tour Has Early Stop in Brooklyn”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-12:

I never saw the original production of Hair, but I did catch the show a couple of years after its 1968 Broadway debut, when the touring company came to San Francisco.

2008 July 31, Richard Zoglin, “A New Dawn for Hair”, in Time:

Jones won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in 1953, and soon joined its touring company.

2011 January 4, Victoria Summerley, “The Royal Ballet's history through an insider's lens”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-12:

(performing arts) A troupe of theatrical, musical, or other performers who constitute an ancillary unit of an established company of performers, and who usually provide entertainment at locations other than the main venue where the established company performs.


two-hander

In May 2011, Chéreau came to the Young Vic theatre in London to direct I Am the Wind, a 70-minute two-hander written by the Norwegian Jon Fosse, which Michael Billington in the Guardian found "hypnotic", admiring the production's "visual bravura".

2013 October 8, Ronald Bergan, “Patrice Chéreau obituary”, in The Guardian:

With a screenplay by Carax and Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks (who also wrote the music and lyrics), the film is largely a two-hander about a famous couple and their talented daughter — the title character.

(theater, film) A play, film, or television programme with only two main characters.


worldmaking

The creation of a world, as for example in writing fiction.


gobo

Uncertain; possibly from go-b(etween) (“intermediary, middleman”) + -o (suffix forming informal terms).

suffix

(theater) A template inserted over a light source to control the shape of the thrown light.


what is this I don't even

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-what is this I don't even.wav

The run-on and fragmentary structure of this phrase is presumably intended to mimic literally being rendered speechless.

My own personal hell came to pass on January 18th, 2012: Reddit and Wikipedia went offline. Yes, the point was to raise awareness about the intrusive, unjust Stop Online Piracy act. And yes, the blackout was politically influential and reached millions over a period of twelve hours…but what was I supposed to do? Play in the snow? Actually talk to humans in real life? What is this I don't even.

2012, Michael Kaemingk, "SOPA bill fails to address actual piracy issues", The Spectator (Seattle University), 25 January 2012

(Internet slang) Used to indicate that something has left one in a state of disbelief or confusion.


what has been seen cannot be unseen

At Dachau he was witness to real rather than abstract suffering; what has been seen cannot be unseen, nor can it be rationalized.

2010, Brad Prager, “Suffering and Sympathy in Volker Schlöndorff's Der neunte Tag and Dennis Gansel's NaPolA”, in Paul Cooke, Marc Silberman, editors, Screening War: Perspectives on German Suffering, Camden House, →ISBN, page 196:

I went into Akira knowing it's considered amongst critics a landmark film for anime and the success of the genre in America, but I was also expecting the type of weirdness that has given anime an infamous reputation in pop culture. Don't know what I'm talking about? Google "hentai." …Actually, no, don't do that. Seriously. Don't fucking do that. What has been seen cannot be unseen.

2011 December, Jay Wallace, “Akira”, in BandWagon Magazine:

Repulsive, disturbing, or horrific sights can never be erased from memory once they have been seen.

that which has been seen cannot be unseen


balonium

From baloney + -ium. See baloney (“nonsense”).

I assumed starship fuel (antimatter or balonium) could be produced from electricity with perfect conversion, so it cost exactly what electricity did — good enough for the one-digit-or-so accuracy needed.

1990, Analog science fact, science fiction: Volume 110:

Suppose that we have a Geiger counter and we are able to make measurements, during a ten hour period, of the balonium sample.

1993, American Statistical Association, Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education:

The data in Table 7.7 were taken for the highly radioactive element balonium-245.

2004, Mark T. Holtzapple, W. Dan Reece, Concepts in Engineering:

List of fictional elements, materials, isotopes and subatomic particles


drama llama

/ˈdɹɑːmə ˈlɑːmə/

Drama is consuming. It destroys relationships. It opens a door for gossip, lying, and jealousy and is a big, fat time-sucker. The Scripture above says it all! You and I both know when the drama llama, has not just paid a visit, but also made herself right at home. It is time to evaluate your life—starting with yourself—and kick that Llama out the door.

2011, Gillian M. Henriques, Toshana N. Sledge, Tina Turner, Marcy Bomhak, Hers to Treasure: 100 Devotional/Journal from Sisters in Christ (Women's Fellowship), Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 173:

"Aw, Mom. Don't be a drama llama." / "Excuse me?" / "You know, don't make a fuss about nothing." / "But why a llama?" / "Because a drama llama throws drama around like a llama spits. Everywhere!"

2012, Mary Griggs, Crash Stop, Tallahassee, Fla.: Bella Books, →ISBN:

It was certainly true that Lewie was no ordinary llama. Other llamas didn't spend their days singing and dancing and acting! Even his parents, Mama and Papa Llama, had to admit that Lewie was a bit of a Drama Llama.

2013, Rose Impey, Llama Drama – In It To Win It! (Awesome Animals), HarperCollins Children's Books, →ISBN:

I try not to pay too much attention to the drama-llamas and gossip.

2015, Dena Celeste, Her Master's Gift (The Edge), Klawock, Ak.: Decadent Publishing, →ISBN, page 19:


sight gag

Dragged suddenly before a formal dinner honoring the women's dean of Toledo University, he wowed his audience with a sight gag—he kissed the guest of honor.

1947 October 31, Gene Handsaker, “Hollywood Sights and Sounds: Bob Hope”, in Prescott Evening Courier, retrieved 2012-10-01, page 2:

In the good old ricky-tick days when movie directors wore riding breeches, a favorite cinematic sight gag was to reverse the film, which suddenly sent the actors waddling backwards through doors that closed behind them, putting their hats on instead of taking them off, and shoveling food out of their mouths instead of in.

1969 June 28, “Cinema: Happy End”, in Time:

In the opening sight gag, a guy in leisure wear shows up at his office only to find everyone in S&M clothes.

2005 March 10, Virginia Heffernan, “TV Review: The Hollow Men—Four Well-Groomed Britons, Trying Hard to Be Naughty Boys”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-01:

As he uttered these words, a PowerPoint image of Dr. Möller's face morphed into that of a smiling Pope Benedict. The sight gag had the psychiatrists roaring.

2008 October, Paul Scott, “Was the Prozac revolution all in our heads?”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 146:

(film, television, stage performance) A visually presented action or device which causes a humorous response without requiring any accompanying commentary or other speech.


romantic comedy

en-noun

romantic comedy (countable and uncountable, plural romantic comedies)

Judging from his new movie, the sublimely silly They Came Together, director and co-writer David Wain is a closet connoisseur of the modern romantic comedy.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

(uncountable) A genre of fiction, especially film, that presents love stories in a humorous and light-hearted way.


Caturday

I had heard of Caturday when I wrote the piece, but I’d understood that it was a proto-lolcats practice that was different from the actual lolcats meme.

2007 July 16, Lev Grossman, “Lolcats Addendum: Where I Got the Story Wrong”, in Time:

Lolcats - images of anthropomorphic felines captioned with mis-spelt web-speak ("im in ur bed zleepin" and so on) - made their first appearance on the site, during its regular "Caturday" slot, but went on to dominate blogs and sites the length and breadth of the internet.

2010 August 31, Jon Kelly, Jude Sheerin, “The strange virtual world of 4chan”, in BBC News:

When he and his wife began to have children, they nicknamed them after Internet memes like the lolcat holiday, Caturday.

2012, Katherine Losse, The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network, Free Press, →ISBN, page 148:

(Internet slang) Saturday, as the day of the week for posting lolcats or other pictures of cats.


feghoot

From a science-fiction series called "Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot" by Reginald Bretnor.


kitchen sink

The noun is derived from kitchen + sink. Sense 2.1 (“miscellaneous item or miscellany”) is probably from everything but the kitchen sink.
The adjective is derived from the noun. Sense 1 (“of or pertaining to a realist style of painting characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors of urban working-class people”) was coined by the British art critic David Sylvester (1924–2001) in a December 1954 article entitled “The Kitchen Sink”: see the quotation.
The verb is a back-formation from kitchen-sinking (noun), which is derived from the noun.

back-formation

(by extension, drama, fiction, film, television, originally derogatory) Of or pertaining to a mid-20th-century (especially 1950s–1960s) genre of drama, fiction, etc., in Britain depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; also, of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre.

työväestön arkielämää käsittelevä

of or pertaining to a genre of drama, fiction, etc., depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre


flag gun

"I'm going all out with the props. A rubber fish with a big smile, a bang flag gun, and a kazoo. . . ."

2008 October 14, Mike, “Wanna know how I got these scars? They were $3.49 . . .”, in The Sockpuppet Asylum:

I was waiting to be offered an exploding cigar and then shot with a bang ﬂag gun!

2011 September 20, Dennis D’Alesandro, “Belknapʼs bizarro world at Rebekah Templeton”, in The Art Blog:

For Goodnight Moon there is a bit where one of the characters uses an old cartoon-y bang-flag gun.

2011 October 15, Jesse Gaffney, “Bang-Flag gun”, in Theatre Projects:

A humorous prop gun which unfurls a small flag when its trigger is pulled.


paracosmos

Day dreaming and fantasies which are flights into the paracosmos, are an antithesis of creativity which is the most intense land of action.

1961, The American Journal of Psychiatry, volume 117, page 96:

More simply stated, the paracosmos reflects a writer's interest in examining a (generally) rather small number of persons, or types of persons, in a variety of circumstances and relationships: he has marked out a portion of the world as his own and works upon it to make it his.

1975, Roger Johnson, Editha S. Neumann, Guy T. Trail, editors, Molière and the Commonwealth of Letters: Patrimony and Posterity, University Press of Mississippi, page 421:

Such artists tend to create an imaginary world, a paracosmos where good and evil are starkly represented, where evil powers always challenge the good ones and need to be vanquished time and again.

2011, Claire Golomb, The Creation of Imaginary Worlds: The Role of Art, Magic and Dreams in Child Development, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 80:

(rare) The realm of imagination; an imaginary world.