About: Shaggy Dog Story   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A Shaggy Dog Story is a plot with a high level of build-up and complicating action, only to be resolved with an anti-climax or ironic reversal, usually one that makes the entire story meaningless. The term comes from a type of joke (called "gildersome" in The Meaning of Liff) that worked the same way -- a basic premise, a long amount of buildup, and a deliberately underwhelming punchline. For television, these stories tend to be found in two varieties: serious and comedic. Examples of Shaggy Dog Story include:

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Shaggy Dog Story
rdfs:comment
  • A Shaggy Dog Story is a plot with a high level of build-up and complicating action, only to be resolved with an anti-climax or ironic reversal, usually one that makes the entire story meaningless. The term comes from a type of joke (called "gildersome" in The Meaning of Liff) that worked the same way -- a basic premise, a long amount of buildup, and a deliberately underwhelming punchline. For television, these stories tend to be found in two varieties: serious and comedic. Examples of Shaggy Dog Story include:
sameAs
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:allthetrope...iPageUsesTemplate
abstract
  • A Shaggy Dog Story is a plot with a high level of build-up and complicating action, only to be resolved with an anti-climax or ironic reversal, usually one that makes the entire story meaningless. The term comes from a type of joke (called "gildersome" in The Meaning of Liff) that worked the same way -- a basic premise, a long amount of buildup, and a deliberately underwhelming punchline. The classic example is a man who bankrupts himself trying to return a shaggy dog to a rich family in England for reward money -- when he finally makes it there, he's told that the dog "wasn't that shaggy" before the door's slammed in his face. The End. For television, these stories tend to be found in two varieties: serious and comedic. Serious shaggy dog stories generally put the protagonist on a quest or goal, only to undermine the purpose at the last minute. For instance, a cop spends all episode trying to convict a criminal, only to watch the perp be hit by a car and die before he's brought to trial; or a doctor searches all episode for the cure to a mysterious illness, which seems to miraculously cure itself. This plot highlights the futility of characters' jobs, or the cruel ironies of life. An even crueler variant is Shoot the Shaggy Dog. Comedic shaggy dog stories are often parodies, undercutting typical plot structures by offering a ridiculous coincidence or unforeseen twist, or even just making the entire episode irrelevant. The Simpsons enjoys these. Comedic shaggy dog stories can be frustrating in their randomness, but often succeed in execution. This could be cynically viewed as Truth in Television, since a lot of life's events don't seem to have much of a point to them either. See also Gainax Ending. Can compare to All Just a Dream and Overly Long Gag, and overlap with Happy Ending Override. A reveal that It Was with You All Along may feel like this to the protagonist. For short stories which build up to an unbelievably wretched pun, see Feghoot. Contrast with Shaggy Frog Story, where a familiar story is mangled for comedic purposes. Not to be confused with Scooby Doo, which is a cartoon featuring Shaggy's dog. Also not to be confused with the Disney's movie The Shaggy Dog. Examples of Shaggy Dog Story include:
Alternative Linked Data Views: ODE     Raw Data in: CXML | CSV | RDF ( N-Triples N3/Turtle JSON XML ) | OData ( Atom JSON ) | Microdata ( JSON HTML) | JSON-LD    About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data] Valid XHTML + RDFa
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3217, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu), Standard Edition
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2012 OpenLink Software