What is a dog and pony show?

Question

I hear people use this term and want to know exactly what it means before I say it in polite company!

Answer 1

Hard to explain but here goes:

You know you have seen ad's on TV where they are in board meeting and every one is sucking up to the boss.

They are all trying to say and done what they think the boss whats to hear like a bunch of trained poodles or ponies performing for the boss. When actually they want to tell the boss what they really think of him and his ideas. Like he is a total inane moron for coming up with that idea. But instead they tell him how good the idea is.

And if you watch NASCAR any the interviews with the drivers is another good example of a dog and pony show. The driver talking about how good his good was and how good it was set up and how he should have won the race because of it. When in truth he was pissed because of his car not being set up right and his pit crew keeping him in the pits too long or him having to go back to the pits because they left a lug nut off or something like that.
But then you have someone like Tony Stewart that says what he thinks and is labeled a malicontent and cry baby and the Rosie O'Donnell of NASCAR because he did not go along wit the dog and pony show. i.e. he said what he thought and not what he was supposed to say.

Another good example is pro football players. I know you have seen them getting on camera talking about how good they are getting along with the other players and how much they like playing for the team after repeated reports of them having troubles at practice etc. One expecially comes to mind. That is T.O. of the Cowboys.

Those are all dog and pony shows.

Hope that helps some.

Answer 2

lol i crack up everytime i hear that, which doesnt fly well with most. I'm guess it is something that isnt very funny.
As for your question, i dont exactly know

Answer 3

Typically it refers to a presentation(show) of no real content.
Its purpose is soley to impress the audience

Answer 4

Check out this.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dog3.htm